The Northman (2022)

Let’s be honest here: A hammy, star-studded $90 million Viking epic about an exiled prince named Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) avenging the murder of his late father at the hands of his uncle sounds flat-out awesome on paper. But to be fair, it also felt at the time like a shockingly unexpected career pivot from the indie darling formerly known for a pair of low-budget, slow-burn New England folktales.

The promise of a cross between the testosterone-fueled mayhem and brawny action of beefcake macho men staples like “Conan the Barbarian” and the spiritual, contemplative depth of, say, “Andrei Rublev” set many fans for disappointment, but the prospect of an arthouse auteur like Eggers being given the opportunity to work on such an epic canvas for the first (and most likely only) time in his career was too compelling to ignore altogether.

Sure enough, at least in terms of sheer scale, “The Northman” resulted in Eggers’ most expansive and ambitious project to date. And if watching psychedelic rituals, decapitations, a single-take berserker raid on a Slavic village; or two naked, sweaty warriors fighting to death atop an erupting volcano seems like the kind of thing that will float your boat, then this one will do the trick.

Based on the same 12th-century Nordic legend that inspired Hamlet, the movie allegedly underwent a series of late reshoots while Eggers was evidently kept on a short leash without final cut privileges, which explains why overall it feels like a minor retreat coming off two strikingly distinctive and formally audacious offerings as “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse”. Here’s hoping a bolder, and extended director’s cut sees the light of day at some point.