The Northman: The First Critics Reviews Speak Of A Very Violent And Stunning Film
Robert Eggers’ s crazy new project The Northman has been officially promoted by critics. In these hours, the first reviews of The Northman have been published, the epic Viking saga starring Alexander Skarsgård in the role of a young prince forced to flee his home to escape death who dedicates his existence to becoming a warrior and avenging him father.
At the moment the Metascore – the weighted average of international critics’ reviews produced by the Metacritic website – gives the film a score of 83 out of 100, with largely very positive reviews. A good result for a film that – from the very first trailers – was extreme in its approach and didactic in its narrative. Many wondered if it would not expire in involuntary trashy drifts. Instead, it seems that Eggers has managed to come up with a violent and no-holds-barred epic, capable of astounding the viewer.
What International Critics Say About The Northman
The first images of The Northman have greatly surprised critics and audiences: Eggers was in fact known as the director of authorial projects of small dimensions but great artistic content, such as The Vvitch and The Lighthouse.
On Collider Ross Bonaime gives the film top marks and highlights how Eggers hasn’t lost his touch in moving to a large production and star-studded cast:
There are few filmmakers who can make the leap from small, well-defined stories to large-scale epic, but with The Northman Eggers he has proven that his style and content remain of unaltered quality, regardless of the magnitude of the story.
In the Telegraph Tim Robey gives the film a vote of 80 and underlines how the extreme violence of the film has a story behind it, a precise construction:
While it’s insane, there is a method to The Northman’s insanity. Alexander Skarsgård’s Principes Hamlet moves through a mythological epic of wild beauty.
The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw points out how the film transforms his extreme and excessive approach into an irresistible spectacle:
It’s totally over the top, topped off with some epic visions of a world on fire. Couldn’t stop watching.
A great satisfaction therefore for Eggers, who embarked on a risky project, which risked alienating him from the favor of critics and fans of his more niche works. We will then see how the film will behave at the box office: the Italian release is set for 21 April 2022, simultaneously with the United States. Who knows if the praise of the critics may not also heartened the protagonist Alexander Skarsgård, who recently revealed that he has difficulty in finding serious roles due to his stereotypical image of a sexy man.
