The Last King

As I am a huge fan of my country's history, this film was right up my alley. All the historical elements of the film are excellently portrayed. A few historical facts were changed a little, but not so much that it ruins the film. The changes work. The more fictional parts of the film are also very good.

The acting is also very nice. Main actors Kristofer Hivju and Jakob Oftebro have a lot of good chemistry and work well off each other. The other actors do a good job too.

The cinematography is wonderful. Beautiful shots of the Norwegian wilderness make this a spectacular viewing experience.

All in all, this film is excellent!

I watched it out of curiosity because I never heard the term 'Birkerbeiner' before (the beautiful tale of Håkon Håkonsson hasn't reached the bulk of ignorant Mediterranean men yet) and I am more than happy to have done it.

It wasn't really a memorable film, however: many scenes lacked realism and the plot was oversimplified, on my humble opinion. Which was something I didn't expect given the huge talent of Scandinavian screenwriters (e.g. Anders Thomas Jensen or Kim Fupz Aakeson, just to quote two of my favorites...).

In any case it was instructive and I'm sure that many people from all around the world will enjoy the story and recognize many actors such as Kristofer Hivju (from 'Game of Thrones'), Nikolaj Lie Kaas (from 'Child 44'), Thorbjørn Harr (from 'Vikings') or Pål Sverre Hagen, (from 'Kon Tiki') who I'm sure are by now familiar faces to international audiences.

Anyone who likes medieval action movie or historical re-enactment will enjoy this film. It's not a memorable film unfortunately. Sure there's dynamic double axe battles, Nordic landscapes to admire and history but it lacks that special touch masterpieces have.

Two men carry and protect the baby son of the dead king of Norwegia across the mountains from Lilhammer. They are Norwegian Ski Infantry (Birkebeiner).The Church wants this baby dead in order to take control of the other half of the country. Inspired by true events, these heroic stories changed Norwegian history forever.

Modern Birkebeiner racers also re-enact the famous ski tour, this time around going in the opposite direction. They are all required to bear a backpack weighing at least 3.5 kilos, meant to represent the pack containing the royal infant.

I always enjoy historical-type movies. This one is no exception. I did stream with English 5.1 instead of subtitles, but it really didn't take away from the movie. The film depicted this era of Norway as quite brutal. I'm sure it was. Kings & heirs, civil war, brutality. It was all here. I don't judge acting so I really didn't notice if it was not perfect. I liked the plot & the movie flowed smoothly enough to follow without questioning what was happening. The scenery, well, when it wasn't overcast or snowing, was great. Lots of ski action too. Some of the scenes caught me off guard but I won't say which ones. There may have been a few hiccups, but overall I found it to be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

As a Norwegian, I appreciate that we are starting to make movies that on a technical level are as good as this. The costumes, locations, music, special effects and acting were all on a professional level, just as something you would expect from any other European movie.

The setting was also good. Norway should take advantage of its history, and make the kind of movies that it would not make sense for other countries to make. Speaking as a Norwegian, there are too few good cross-country skiing action sequences out there.

The story that this is based on is interesting, but the movie's flaw is that it never quite managed to capture the drama inherit in the story it tells. I found myself not caring much about the scenes with the scheming and plotting, the villain and his people. All of that. In fact, that most interesting part of the movie was probably the "Two men and a baby"-aspect of it, which at times were very enjoyable.