Better than most people think

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Okay, so it's low budget and yes, there's going to be limits to what you can do if you haven't got the cash but here's a good example of a film that needed to reign in it's scope and give over it's meager budget to a script writer who could perhaps deliver a character based story instead of this over extended film.The story is a stock one of a hero who as a child witnesses their village being slaughtered, they grow up and you can guess the rest. It'll be familiar in fact to anyone who's seen Hrafninn flýgur (When The Raven Flies, 1984) but with more badly acted childhood scenes than your nearest school nativity play. In fact most casual viewers are going to be put off the film in the first twenty minutes because of the poor acting from the children in it - all except one child extra though, who during a camp fire story can be seen yawning and fidgeting as much as the audience probably is.Then you have some really, really bad sound dubbing. Some dialogue sounds like it was re-done with a tape recorder in a church hall, complete with echo and background hiss, then dubbed back over. So it's a low budget film and the maker's have rather cleverly used viking re-enactors in scenes such as the establishing shots of Kiev and the final climactic battle at the end. Unfortunately the costumes of the re-enactors, with all the proper kit they've got, actually shows up how basic the principal character's costumes are. Then there's the cutting in of the film's principal actors into the previously recorded re-enactors battle scenes. They used to make post- World War II fighter ace films by cutting shots of the actors in a cockpit in with real footage of an actual dogfight. That's a trick they've tried to do here with a re-enactment battle but it's so obvious thanks to the different lighting, camera style, grade of film and background scenery that it's almost comical. You can see the main characters alone in a frame slashing at nothing because they were no where near the actual re-enactment battle in the first place!So all in all it's not a great movie, even for an independent low budget one. Put it this way, if you've seen Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007) and managed to get to the end of it you'll probably make it to the end of this film. Just don't expect a great viking experience.

This movie isn't the way it's poster shows, and I assure you that if you don't consider my comment as a friendly warning then you'll feel very sorry after or even before finishing this movie.Those who have written good comments about this movie doesn't know about the real sense of what is called a movie at all.Despite of it's cheapness, actors are so pathetic specially the children - They have successfully put this movie in entire mess from the very beginning. It has a very bad choreography, bad make-up, the brave uncle got a funny mustache that doesn't appear to be true. If you can't make it look real then why bother to have one? It was plainly better without it.This an ultimate insult to the audience.

The music is bad, the acting is below par, I can't tell the dubbed voice of the main character from his internal dialogue and the storyboarding is horrible. Not to mention the special effects and props and costumes. The very LEAST the director could do was to remove the bar-code sticker from the supply-store bought axe Helgi throws at the tree.You'd think that the director has never seen a film in his life let alone studied any cinematic or storytelling techniques in order to prepare for creating this one.I give this film one star, because it is simply the worst film I haver ever seen. I judge my films from what I have seen so far and I don't really let budgets interfere with my opinion. Because you have less money to make a film, you should focus on what is actually possible to do WITHIN the budget.

My ancestors being of Scandinavian descent we selected to watch this movie at Bare Bones festival.We were expecting some gore and barbaric scenes however my husband and I were wonderfully surprised to discover not only a unique and interesting story but a movie fit for the entire family. Yes there were some fierce battles and fights but it was made in a somewhat non-gory, very "un- Hollywood" styled way so that even our grand children would feel comfortable watching. The director who was even there in person took time before and after the movie to answer any questions. L. Henson,