PATHFINDER From beheading babies to gouging eyeballs, director Marcus Nispel
continues the gory/lame tradition he began with his
Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake in
Pathfinder. Based very loosely on a
1987 Norwegian Viking drama of the same name,
Pathfinder follows a Viking child—the sole survivor of the original
Norse journey to the new world—who has been adopted by Native Americans and
renamed Ghost. Fifteen years later a second Viking ship arrives in America,
and the hairy, fur-clad warriors are out for revenge. Killing indiscriminately
with faces smeared in war paint, the one-dimensional Vikings are pure evil,
while the Native Americans are pure benevolence. (Nispel loves his martyr
imagery, even hanging the dead natives on crosses.) It’s immediately clear
that Ghost will heroically save his adoptive brethren and the day, leaving the
repetitive and poorly lit battle scenes without tension. There is one
redeeming skirmish—the climatic fight involving a snowy cliff and an elaborate
pulley system—but from the guy who’s directed videos for Cher, Amy Grant,
Billy Joel, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony? We expected more. (Jessica Grose)
(Countywide)
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