What an action-adventure story “Pathfinder” could have been. Native Americans fighting Vikings for control of the New World - it sounds like a promising premise. However, you need more than action sequences to create an epic adventure film.
While the director executed the battle scenes well enough, the storytelling and editing were too sloppy to create a coherent and inspiring tale. Instead of aspiring to become another “Last of the Mohicans,” it falls into being an entirely forgettable, slapdash bloodbath.
A Viking ship crashes onto the American shore with all survivors perishing except a young boy. A Native American woman finds the boy, and after the tribe reluctantly agrees to allow the “boy of the dragon men” to stay, she decides to raise him as her own.
Many years later, the now grownup boy, as portrayed by Karl Urban (“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”) is still seen as an outsider within his tribal community. Another Viking ship lands, and with it comes an army of men bent on the destruction of the indigenous people. Only the former Viking knows this enemy well enough to defeat them.
The main character didn’t have much of a personality - I wasn’t even aware he had a name. Instead, we see him more for what he’s not - a Native American nor a Viking. Dialogue in the film is kept to a minimum, which makes it very difficult to create relationships between the characters. The tribal warriors are given little chance against the Viking hordes, making battle sequences seem more like a massacre than entertaining. It’s unlikely the natives wouldn’t use the environment more to their advantage to give the Norseman a worthy opponent. Instead, the Viking warriors are shown to be invulnerable, innumerable and only killable by Urban - which pushes believability.
There are some decent action sequences and stunts, especially at the end, but not enough care went into building these up. The fight scenes were gruesome and bloody, and with CGI-blood added in during the post-production process, it makes the sequences look more surreal instead of genuine.
“Pathfinder” is an inferior shadow of what superior historical adventure films are supposed to be, like “13th Warrior,” “King Arthur” or “Black Robe.” Rated R for strong brutal violence, epic war scenes throughout.
