Pathfinder (2007)
Directed by Marcus Nispel
A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savior in a fight against the Norsemen.
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What critics compared Pathfinder to
Still, “The Northman” feels unusually thin, with less meat on its bones than 2007’s schlocky “Pathfinder” or your basic “Conan” movie.
As dim and dank as a power failure in a peepshow, Pathfinder is Apocalypto without the laughs or 300 without the muscular visuals and elevating dialogue.
Compared to the dynamic "Apocalypto," there is simply nothing in this film to hold anyone's interest.
"Pathfinder" probably has more similarities to Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" than to "300" in that it's shot outdoors in natural settings, which certainly adds a lot more realism to what's just as much a comic book concept.
I'm thinking that instead of Karl Urban, why didn't the Rudy Youngblood of "Apocalypto" star?
Unfortunately for the film, this delay means it is coming out after the release of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and Zack Snyder's 300, two films that it resembles rather strongly—and while Pathfinder would have been a bad film no matter when it was released, the inevitable comparison makes it look all the poorer.
I have heard comparisons made to both Conan the Barbarian and Apocalypto, but Pathfinder is so far below those movies in entertainment value that it feels almost criminal to include the titles in this review.
Along with DiCaprio and Koteas, we have Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, and Jackie Earle Haley, each of whom is given a moment to remind how great they are, which in turn is too much time for us to consider how inadequate is Laeta Kalogridis's (Nightwatch, Alexander , Pathfinder) script and Lehane's boilerplate source material in honouring the depths of which this cast is capable.
Adapted by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (“Pathfinder”) from the novel by Dennis Lehane, the film is a dense, multi-character stroll into the screaming corners of the brain, leisurely wading into a mystery of minimal importance to support the wrathful confusion boiling inside of Daniels.
DiCaprio's main problem in "Shutter Island" is that he's saddled with a misbegotten screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis, whose previous credits are "Pathfinder" and "Alexander," two bombs.
Nothing quite jibes — not the look (though accomplished and slick, it's an uneasy combo or realism and surrealism), nor the sound (the score is bombastic, but at times gripping), or the story (while slavishly close to the excellent novel, the screenplay — written by Laeta Kalogridis, who we can, er, "thank" for the abysmal Alexander and the dire Pathfinder — manages to be both astute and obtuse).