After the success of “The VVitch” and “The Lighthouse” Eggers got a bunch of money and shot something really obscure. Like he wasn’t brave enough to work with a big budget and make a film he wanted to. Or Eggers himself didn’t know what to shoot.
“The Northman” is too Hollywood-styled for a mind-f*cking arthouse and too mind-f*cking for a blockbuster. There is no good mix, the 2-hour mess of genres and styles just falls apart. Watching this is hard, boring and sometimes even difficult.
The sad thing about this film is not the idea “men bad” or women representation (both are weak, though), but Garland’s method. It seems like he takes an interesting concept and then turns it into a boring film. “Men” only becomes amusing in the third act.
Most of the film is far-fetched dialogues, pretentious flashbacks and anxious countryside walking. Moreover, Garland fails to create the dark atmosphere of a god-forsaken village. The colours are too saturated, the shooting is too modern, so it feels like you’re watching a BBC documentary, not a horror.
