Hammer of the Gods (2013)

Last night I watched two movies. I missed my introvert self after spending three days with a family and their relatives. I was lucky to get invited to a wedding party, a lavish one with too much food. Happy to have eaten prawns again, plus the assorted hors d'oeuvres where I got to taste awesome fried seafood balls, the taste of which shall haunt me forever. I did enjoy the party except I also missed my bedroom. I guess getting older each year makes you want to stay in.

So last night, I watched Hammer of the Gods and I, Frankenstein. HoG is not the usual good-vs-bad movie. I find it a very pointless movie full of blood and gore and machismo. Young Viking Prince Steinar swore an oath to his dying father to find his exiled brother. The brother was supposed to be the next king. Steinar, heroic and true to his word despite his desire to lead his people, went on an adventure where he was joined by his cowardly half brother Vali, and his loyal friends. One of these friends will die at his hands, a good warrior at that, because Steinar refuses to get his useless brother killed! And this is even after knowing that Vali accepted Saxon coins to betray his people! How stupid is that???

And then even more stupid is discovering that his own mother and brother have an incestuous affair! So Steinar has to fight his brother, supposedly using only bare hands, but he was able to kill with a knife because the brother had one hidden for his own use. The brother was the cult leader of a group of savages and losing is no option lest his divinity be questioned. But Steinar was still able to come out alive and go back to his dying father's camp where he assumed the role of king.

So I was thinking maybe the whole thing was an initiation of sorts, a test made by the king to ensure that the right son will inherit the throne. The other son, who stayed in the camp, turned out to be a traitor who secretly connived with the Saxons. Vali, on the other hand, will do anything even convert just to save his own skin. Hakan, the exiled brother, is of no use since he bears grudges against the whole kingdom. So only Steinar is really left as the suitable heir. In the end, he and his  wife are seen to lead their men to war.

Also, the film hints subtly on the three religions in barbaric England when the Vikings's old Norse religion crosses paths with Christianity and with paganism. The Saxons are seen to be quite as violent as the Vikings as threw stones at a woman tied to a small Stonehenge.