April 2007
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Pathfinder (15)
Published 18th April 2007

Pathfinder is one of those movies that portrays what you can kindly call “Hollywood history”. Based around the fact that Vikings visited the Americas waaaaay before old Chris Columbus discovered It, Pathfinder takes the (admittedly original) image of a Viking and a Native American together as its starting point and runs with it.

An unashamed action film that forgoes historically accurate information in favour of spectacle and set-pieces, Pathfinder tells the story of a young Viking boy left behind by an aborted earlier expedition who was adopted and raised by a Native American tribe. Years later the invasion begins anew, leaving him with the difficult decision of whether to fight for his original clan or adopted family.

Visually-driven and featuring a sparse use of dialogue, Pathfinder is dark, desaturated and gritty, and an incessant action-assault upon the senses. It truly never lets up from start-to-finish and with no plot as such to speak of if you can’t get on board for the ride at the beginning then you’ve no chance of catching up.

Featuring a few invigorating and impressive set-pieces – including a silly sled chase, some Predator-style booby traps and a mountain top scrap that matches Cliffhanger for heights – Pathfinder is directed competently by Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) without ever offering anything particularly noteworthy or innovative. The Eighties-action man references aren’t unintentional either, the overall feel of the movie harking back to the heyday of Arnie & Sly and the one-man army movies that made them famous.

Starring the charismatic Karl Urban (Doom) as Ghost, Pathfinder’s own one-man army (decked out in ancient chaps, his personals protected by the merest slip of loincloth in a real treat for the ladies), the cast also features the brilliant bad guy-for-hire Clancy Brown (in his sword-wielding Highlander mode) as main villain Gunnar the Viking and the fantastically named (and fantastically formed, in a real treat for the lads) Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) as Starfire the objection of Ghost’s affections. Its B-list but, for once, one brimming with talent that will surely go onto bigger and better things (well, in the case of Urban & Bloodgood anyway, Brown is a B-movie staple).

Described by Nispel as a graphic novel in film-form, Pathfinder is an enjoyable enough romp through the mythic history of Vikings versus Native Americans, if you can disengage your brain and go with the flow. But what was a compelling concept is unfortunately largely squandered in execution; maybe Nispel should take a few lessons from Zach Snyder (300) or Mel Gibson (Apocalypto) on how to successfully deliver a minimalist plot but BIG action and a compelling narrative to the big screen.

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