Having captivated audiences with the spine-tingling The VVitch (film that introduced Anya Taylor-Joy to the world) and the insanely mesmerising The Lighthouse (where Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe excel on a deranged acting challenge to our enjoyment), Robert Eggers returns with The Northman, in which we follow Prince Amleth (played by Oscar Novak in his youth and by Alexander Skarsgård in his adult years), who after his father is killed by his uncle, flees and swears to dedicate his life to save his mother and get revenge.

Anybody with even the slightest whiff of general culture can see the similarities between this film and a story that has shaped generations – The Lion King, a classic tragedy centered on a cub named Simba Hakuna Matataing his way to avenge the death of his father and become a lion that is also a king -hence the title-. Also, it is possible to make some connections to Hamlet, a little-known play written by an up-and-coming (a few centuries ago) author under the name of William Shakespeare -for those unfamiliar with him, his life was perfectly captured in the film Shakespeare in Love-.

All jokes aside, The Northman -co-written by Eggers and Icelandic writer Sjón- has plenty of connections with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, after all, both works come from the same source. Nevertheless, despite sharing thematic parallelisms, The Northman takes a different approach to tell the legend of its central character. Eggers, on his attempt to make the definitive Viking film, leaves all subtlety aside, leaning on brutality and blood instead. Despite being his more “blockbuster-like” film in terms of scale, traits of his unique style still appear in the screen and, thanks to the work of cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (and with a fantastically immersive and captivating soundtrack by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough), we traverse the vast landscapes where the real and the surreal blend together, shifting between life, death and the realm of dreams. Special mention should be given to the moment when Amleth and a band of Vikings attack a small village, scenes shot in such a raw and direct manner that you will be forgiven to think that you are going to get a stain given all the blood that is being shed everywhere.    

Skarsgård is superb in the role of Amleth, a Viking with a magnificent mane and an unbelievable abdomen (result of years rowing, pillaging and killing, at least that is what I tell myself to make me feel better, given my flabbyish physique) who has spent his life hellbent on getting revenge for the killing of his father. He captures both the animal-like, ferocious side of his character as well as the essence of someone who does not know life outside of violence and death. Skarsgård is accompanied by Anya Taylor-Joy (reuniting with Eggers after The VVitch), Claes Bang -great as the nefarious yet desperate Amleth’s uncle-, Nicole Kidman as his mother -reuniting with Skarsgård after playing his wife in Big Little Lies– and in smaller roles Ethan Hawke as Amleth’s father, Willem Dafoe (also working again with Eggers) as a jester, and Bjork as herself (though she is credited as a Seeress).

The fact that we are familiar with the plot and thus we know where the story is going is not that important, given that this is a film to be seen and experienced. However, in his biggest, and perhaps more commercial work so far, Eggers has made the weakest of his films -keep in mind, that The Northman is only his third directorial effort, though-. Sadly, the blend of drama, a revenge plot and the more mystical elements of the story does not work as well as it should have, and there are plenty of moments in which The Northman meanders as an Amish in an Apple store -the one where they sell overpriced gadgets, not one where they can get the ingredients to prepare a delicious Amish Apple Goody-.

Though a rip-roaring adventure in its own right, The Northman fails and falls between Valhalla and The Realm of Hel [sic]. Perhaps victim of trying to please to a wider audience, the film ends up being neither a full-on Viking epic shaped by the dream-like, tense madness-inducing style we have become used to by Eggers, nor a more nuts-and-bolts adventure picture in the vein of Beowulf, Conan the Barbarian or Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising.