It wasn’t quite as good as The Lighthouse but still a very enjoyable historical action film. The cinematography was amazing, every frame looked like a metal album cover. They also didn’t sugar coat the Vikings, showing rather vividly the fucked up shit they’d do, cw: there’s a scene I’m fairly sure is inspired by “Come and See” and it’s not fun to watch.
Weirdly I feel like I would have enjoyed the film better if instead of setting it in a historical setting they had just gone pure fantasy. The movie plays pretty lose with realism and honestly at times felt more like an art house adaptation of Conan the Barbarian, which I feel like I would have enjoyed even more.
I thought it was dreadfully dull, I did like the realism they put behind the Viking culture of brutal destruction and death worship.
I immediately caught on that it was a Hamlet expy, with the anagram of Amleth to his father, the king, being killed by his uncle and married to the mother.
The whole movie reminded me of this reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/r8upda/the_poverty_of_revenge_cultural_and_personal/
It was on Vinland Saga, highlighting the futility and emptiness of vengeance.
Amleth eventually met his own oblivion through his need to destroy, and fulfilled his own death wish with a changed motive of self-sacrifice to preserve his love Olga and their children, rather than revenge. Revenge came secondary after Olga melted Amleth's frozone heart.