Hammer of the Gods

Film tells a nonexistent story, characters lack likability as they here & gone type. Was the end cave sequence a Viking version rip directly out of Apocalypse Now.

This is another forgettable NZ Netflix movie.

Unfortunately the most exciting views of the landscape is ruined by the participation of the actors and the history falsifying equipment.

Starting with a low-D whistle tune while the movie shows a penny whistle, actors, some with modern hair cuts running around in an incomprehensible story with bare armed biker leather outfits and round ringed unriveted or knitted and silver painted "chainmail", wielding fantasy weapons, screaming while performing most epic moves and spins in a very obvious fighting choreography.

Hahah, they even used that round ringed unriveted chain as a mosquito net.

Had they omitted all humans, this movie would have been worth watching.

I'm being generous with a 5 here. This is pretty much a movie for a fan of the genre, the actors aren't too bad and actually pop up in the superior Vikings TV show which is superior in not only looks, but acting, storyline and authenticity. If you liked that series then this is a mildly entertaining diversion. The actual movie kind of belies it's silly intro with characters names splashing across the screen like some kind of video game. It actually becomes a lot darker and issues such as religion and power crop up. This is why I ended up giving it a 5 because by the end of the movie I was quite surprised. the movie kind of grew in itself rather than falling flat.

The main sense that I drew from the film from that start was how forced it all felt. Nothing seemed to really flow together correctly.

This all stems from the fact that, with this time period being underused in films, it never gives an accurate representation of what it was actually like.

The combat was obviously all Hollywood with no correct fighting styles. the clothing that they were are completely impractical with all the sleeveless tops in freezing weather.

The one relieving factor in the whole movie would have to be James Cosmos who I feel is a great actor.

I don't understand the rating this movie has on here right now! This movie is as good as sooo many movies in this genre with much better scores. (i.e. Kingdom of Heaven, King Arthur, Robin Hood, etc...)

Yes, okay, the casting choices weren't great (the main actors were great, although unknown, but the female roles were all poorly cast)and the story was, a little, thin, but this movie gains points from me for it's atheist message.

It was also shot very cool and the soundtrack was AWESOME. I hope the success of this film encourages more independent style period pieces in a market dominated by the big companies.