Berserker: Hell's Warrior (2004)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Simply A Masterpiece

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Recap: According to legend, the Valkyrie Brunhilda defied Odin and was chained to a rock surrounded by an eternal fire. Only a warrior pure in heart can pass through the flames, free Brunhilda and release her from Odin's claim, and have her for himself. Now, war is brewing in the Norse lands, and the King needs an alliance with the Berserkers. The Berserkers are warriors claimed by Odin's valkyries, lusting for war, blood and flesh, and therefore outcasts, but superior in battle. The leader of the Berserkers is a scorned son of the King, Boar, and his price for the alliance is his brother, the future king, Barek. But after the King is victorious in battle, he refuses to give up his only remaining son, breaking his oath to Boar and betray him and kill him. Boar is saved only by Barek's call upon Odin. But this is only the start of the battle between the brothers, and their final battle is about to start now, a millennia later...Comments: I had hopes that this would be a movie based upon some Viking ground, far too little quality movie about Viking has been done. It started out very good too, with detailed longships and armors, nice and fitting sceneries and an OK battle.The foundation in the Aesir myths is thin and seems very corrupted to me. Odin is much more vengeful, spiteful and absent than I remind him from school, and the valkyries has been turned into some vampire-demons. I'm no expert, but that seems outright wrong.But the fatal mistake made by this movie is to move the time-setting from the original time-period to today. If the two brothers had fought it out in the correct time, with some decent battles, this movie would have been much better. Now the setting, suddenly is changed to present day Stockholm. Still, Odin is present and is sending Boar and his berserkers for Brunhilda and Barek which gives silly scenes when armor-clad and painted berserkers swordfights with Barek among the industries. Beautiful mountains and woods have been exchanged for cement. And when allowed to focus upon single fights, instead of massive battles as in the beginning, I quickly saw that the fights and skills of the actors are slow and clumsy.The end result is thin story, sometimes hard to follow and other times just silly, and the only that could save it, the action, is drawn from slow, dull and clumsy swordfights. It draws very little from Aesir myth or Viking tradition. Thus both story and action fails, and the movie is just plain bad.Finally, as a Swede, this movie is a little confusing. Supposedly filmed entirely in South Africa, it still contains some familiar Swedish signs, plates and what seems to be an authentic police car. However, the effort is poor and only goes so far, as to really set it in Sweden. No names are Swedish (perhaps with Anya as the exception), no familiar sceneries are Swedish, they (supposedly) speak a little (ancient?) Norwegian, not Swedish. And uniforms, both police and medical, are clearly not Swedish. If they were not going to even try to do it correctly - and really give the illusion that it is set in Sweden, why bother at all? 4/10

I was an extra in the opening scene where the combined forces storm Eric the Red's encampment. Never knew where to see the final product. Then stumbled upon it on Cinemax one night. Needless to say that I can't be seen, anywhere (I was just filler in a war scene, anyway).Didn't expect too much going into the film, but things look better when they are on the screen than they look in real-life. The story wasn't as basic as it had sounded and their were some nice twists in the ending. I'm glad to see it wasn't a "straight forward Hollywood finish". Rest assured that Paul Johanssen is a total tool (cheesy sense of humor).Impressed with the final thing, but only cause it exceeded my low expectation.

Let's begin by stating that this movie is absolutely god-awful.That said, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. There is something to be said for the comedy of an insanely horrible movie. The plot? Nonsensical. The acting? Melodramatic/pornographic. The list goes on. But this doesn't change the fact that bad movies are funny.I almost want to compare it to "Young Van Helsing", but this movie is even sadder because it's clear that some amount of money was spent on it, and someone thought it was a serious film effort, whereas with YVH, the budget's about $50, and I can't be sure it's meant to be serious.Anyway, don't watch this movie alone, but with friends it's a great time to make fun of.

This movie sucks from beginning till (especially) the end. You probably don't get 'm any worse, acting, storyline ,photography, camera work, etcetera it's all bad, very, very bad.But that's what makes it a 'great' watch, it will give you more than enough good laughs. The worse, the better! I really have no clue what so ever of what these people were thinking making this movie. A serious viking movie? The story is goddamn ridiculous, it's more like a comedy in disguise, kinda like Mafia, also pointless but damn funny.And look out for the very very end of the movie... uhum.