Northmen: A Viking Saga…a saga so bad that it’s not bad at all…

…yep, you read that right. What? Yes…many of you might think that it is such a saga to watch the first few minutes of this movie. I think it isn’t that bad. Don’t you have one of those movies that is actually not brilliant but somehow it just hits a spot…that weak spot?

Coming in at 34% Audience Score and no Tomatometer or Critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, it at least gets a 5.4/10 on IMDB. In my personal rating system…I’ll bump it up to 6.5, maybe even a 7.

Basically, we have a group of Vikings who get stranded on the South African Scottish coast, behind enemy lines, and need to make their way to the closest Viking settlement. However, they pick up a valuable hostage and so the chase begins by German/Swiss some mercenaries.

I mean, let’s be honest…the story isn’t that great but somehow I got smitten by Inghean (Charlie Murphy) jumping out her captive wagon to attack some brutish (not really) Vikings…lead by Asbjorn (Tom Hopper) who can’t even hide his smile in the serious moment. In general, the acting is quite stiff and sometimes the story not quite as smooth as it could be. But you know what? Who cares? If you can fill in the gaps yourself…the story half-way works.

Conall (Ryan Kwanten) comes across uncomfortable in his role swinging some mean stick to take out a band of thugs. As for the enemies…boy does the Scottish King send one huge army and waste one massive amount of arrows on a few little Vikings. Somewhere along the line, Inghean and Asbjorn fall in love even though it is never properly shown (oh what a pity)…but, my romantic fix is fulfilled.

So…is it bad? Yes. Is it good? Yes. I skip through parts of it but regularly find myself watching it. If only for the “You came back for me?” line by Inghean to Asbjorn. And that bit where she patches up his wounded arm with a herb that just happens to be growing at the exact spot where he crumbles in pain. And the cheesy (or offensive) compliment he makes her while waiting out the enemy.

Bring on the stunning, yet obviously South African (Cape Town) scenery pretending to be Scotland…and well…what more do I need to say?

So…that’s my bad entry into the So Bad It’s Good Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room. For more of these entries…head on over here.

 

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