A Viking Saga: Son of Thor

Now this is good independent cinema considering it was extremely low budget and shot in only 2 weeks!!! wow!.

I went to the First Take Film Fest and watched several films. But this one stood out from the crowd.

A VIKING movie done by an independent producer and from my research this fellow wrote directed and produced this by himself with his own money.

It was well put together, acting and direction were good, and music score simply AMAZING and on par with any major "hollywood" score.

And it was edited in an abstract but intriguing way so you had to pay attention or possibly get a little lost. very sneaky idea and it made it more mysterious.

And there was a superb viking battle very well done with some special effects only done by major studios. The audio ( which in Indy films tend to be mediocre at best,) was perfect.

Overall very good.

for an self produced Indy film: EXCELLENT.

watch out Hollywood the"low budget" vikings are coming.!!!

Okay, so it's low budget and yes, there's going to be limits to what you can do if you haven't got the cash but here's a good example of a film that needed to reign in it's scope and give over it's meager budget to a script writer who could perhaps deliver a character based story instead of this over extended film.

The story is a stock one of a hero who as a child witnesses their village being slaughtered, they grow up and you can guess the rest. It'll be familiar in fact to anyone who's seen Hrafninn flýgur (When The Raven Flies, 1984) but with more badly acted childhood scenes than your nearest school nativity play. In fact most casual viewers are going to be put off the film in the first twenty minutes because of the poor acting from the children in it - all except one child extra though, who during a camp fire story can be seen yawning and fidgeting as much as the audience probably is.

Then you have some really, really bad sound dubbing. Some dialogue sounds like it was re-done with a tape recorder in a church hall, complete with echo and background hiss, then dubbed back over.

So it's a low budget film and the maker's have rather cleverly used viking re-enactors in scenes such as the establishing shots of Kiev and the final climactic battle at the end. Unfortunately the costumes of the re-enactors, with all the proper kit they've got, actually shows up how basic the principal character's costumes are.

Then there's the cutting in of the film's principal actors into the previously recorded re-enactors battle scenes. They used to make post- World War II fighter ace films by cutting shots of the actors in a cockpit in with real footage of an actual dogfight. That's a trick they've tried to do here with a re-enactment battle but it's so obvious thanks to the different lighting, camera style, grade of film and background scenery that it's almost comical. You can see the main characters alone in a frame slashing at nothing because they were no where near the actual re-enactment battle in the first place!

So all in all it's not a great movie, even for an independent low budget one. Put it this way, if you've seen Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007) and managed to get to the end of it you'll probably make it to the end of this film. Just don't expect a great viking experience.

I saw this movie theatrically in Karup bio. it left a lasting impression.

I think some of the negative reviews must come from people who took this movie far too seriously.

it was filmed in 2 weeks only, from reading about this project. the producer performed nothing short of a miracle. a film takes months to do. So lets give them that credit.

What we have here is good, old-fashioned film-making style--the actors knew it--the director knew it--so lighten up, and enjoy this exciting adventure.

I'm sure that Gantzler and Vedsegaard realized that they were not going to win Oscars for this movie--but sometimes even the best actors like to do things that are fun !. Mr. Vedsegaard must have had a ball, wearing an outlandish wig, as they wore in the classic movie "the long ship".

Movie buffs will see many familiar faces in this one, although--in a number of cases--they may not be so apparent at first. Terrific character actor, Erik Holmey , and beautiful belly dancers --.

Anyway--for history scholars and lovers of authenticity--enjoy. this movie is for us who like pure entertainment, "an exciting voyage !

I enjoyed this little indie film.

from reading the boards opinions vary greatly, but thats the subjective thing about film/art.

I enjoyed the story, and the subplots. The actors contributed well to the storyline although I would have liked to see a bit more close ups but thats besides the point.

I enjoyed the editing techniques which toggle between present and past.

its amazing that viking villages still exists. I really enjoyed the authenticity of those longhouses , viking boats and splendid viking battle combined with a vikingish montage. very artistic.

its obviously a low budget ( less than 5 million dollars) but its still a nice little indie movie regardless of some of the less than commendable remarks made here.

I think Im taking a trip to visit scandinavia next summer to visit this place.

F.Citrush Jr.

My ancestors being of Scandinavian descent we selected to watch this movie at Bare Bones festival.

We were expecting some gore and barbaric scenes however my husband and I were wonderfully surprised to discover not only a unique and interesting story but a movie fit for the entire family.

Yes there were some fierce battles and fights but it was made in a somewhat non-gory, very "un- Hollywood" styled way so that even our grand children would feel comfortable watching.

The director who was even there in person took time before and after the movie to answer any questions.

L. Henson,