1. "shit looks WILD" In response to Reply # 0 Wed Dec-22-21 10:41 PM by 40thStreetBlack
drugged out berserkers wilding out, Odinic bonfire chants, screaming Valkyries riding across auroras in the sky, shaman priestess Bjork whispering creepy shit, vocanos smoldering in the background - I'm IN.
and if that's Huginn and Muninn flying overhead in that first shot? man this shit gonna be epic.
3. "It sucks that this is such a flop" In response to Reply # 0
I think it has a lot to offer general audiences and they did a really good job not advertising the weirder pagan/animalistic stuff. A decade ago this might be the smash of the summer but if even Ambulance can’t do numbers, I guess what hope does Hamlet filtered through Norse mythology have? With how popular Norse stuff has been lately thanks to Vikings, God of War, Assassins Creed and so on it seemed like everything was lining up for this movie but…I guess it needed Thor and Loki to cameo, eh?
In my personal Eggers rankings this doesn’t hang with his first two but that’s pretty relative. It’s an awesome movie with a lot of good crowd pleaser type moments as well as all the meticulous realism you come to Eggers for mixed with just enough fantastic delirium to keep you on your toes.
6. "Re: detecting Wes Anderson" In response to Reply # 4
My impulsive answer, months removed from seeing it, is fuck no
But I'd be curious if you could remember what made you see that comparison because at the very least I'd agree Eggers isn't running away from comparisons to other directors and films, especially compared to Lighthouse or Witch
Cool as hell. Like a lot of vengeance movies, it raises questions about the emptiness of hate/vengeance, only to ultimately skirt around those questions (understandable, since the audience would probably revolt if it didn't).
But I've been enjoying cool viking shit lately (Vinland Saga, Vikings Valhala) and this has all of that plus the beauty and weirdness of Robert Eggers.
---- I check for: Serengeti, Zeroh, Open Mike Eagle, Jeremiah Jae, Moka Only.
Eggers most accessible movie, for whatever that's worth
stunning aesthetic, great set pieces and I loved how effortless the mythology was integrated -- never felt separated from the characters or story, which is a line Eggers walks well but many struggle with
and how many steroids did Skarsgard take? didn't even recognize him on the first raid he was on
12. "I'll bet something went on there but Skarsgard has the frame for it" In response to Reply # 10
And since all of his training happened during the height of COVID in his garage, knowing that he's a dude that's spent his whole life wanting to see something so deeply Nordic on the big screen, I could believe he just went full LeBron in a way you always feel skeptical about a Chris Evans or Kumail Nanjiani body transformation
I'd honestly lean more towards some clever CGI photoshopping though because, having not seen this movie since its theatrical debut, I do remember thinking that he didn't look significantly different in frame from his usual self in all of the village/fully clothed scenes. He IS one of the rare actors that's actually a huge dude by default.
Then again, Eggers is so sparing in his CG usage he's usually really open about it (like the nudity in that final scene being added in post) but it's also undeniable that so much of the advertising budget was rooted in "look at Alex's traps!" that they'll probably never talk about how he wound up looking like this.
You'll never convince me that that ONE scene where he's the entire frame and his shoulders look like mountains is 100% what the camera photographed though.