‘The Northman’ Review: Robert Eggers’ Viking Epic Starring Alexander Skarsgård

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterHollywood is often skewered for no longer making large-scale original epics like “The Northman,” director Robert Eggers’ bloody Viking tale about a warrior’s quest to avenge his father’s death.Yet Focus Features, Universal’s indie label, took a gamble, not only backing “The Northman” but releasing the film in theaters nationwide. Driven by positive reviews, the movie generated $12 million from 3,865 North American theaters over the weekend, enough to secure the No. 4 spot on domestic box office charts.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“The Northman,” a violent epic of Viking revenge, is not a good movie. It’s like “Gladiator” without the Colosseum and with a stubbornly uninteresting hulk avenger hero. (It also drags on 45 minutes longer than it should have.) A lot of critics have overpraised the movie because they feel invested in the career of Robert Eggers, the maverick indie director who made the spectral Puritan horror film “The Witch” (2015) and the even more impressive two-men-in-a-lighthouse gaga period fever dream “The Lighthouse” (2019).

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterUniversal’s kid-friendly caper “The Bad Guys” pulled off a heist for the ages, capturing the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office.The animated comedy has collected $24 million from 4,009 North American theaters in its debut, enough to take the crown from “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” In its second weekend of release, the latest chapter in the “Harry Potter” prequel series plummeted to third place with $14 million, a troubling sign for the Warner Bros.’ Wizarding film franchise.“The Bad Guys” may have towered over the competition, but it was not the only newcomer to movie theater marquees.

Alexander Skarsgard is opening up about his brand new movie, The Northman, during a panel conversation held at 92Y on Thursday (April 21) in New York City.

Zack Sharf Of all the images in Robert Eggers’ Viking epic “The Northman,” there’s no sight more jaw-dropping than that of Alexander Skarsgård’s bulging traps. The actor’s shoulders look like two protruding volcanoes ready to erupt. Skarsgård’s muscles are a testament to his work with Magnus Lygdback, the celebrity trainer who helped the actor pack on 20 pounds of muscle and transform into the hulking Viking warrior prince Amleth.Lygdback, who first worked with Skarsgård on the 2016 adventure film “The Legend of Tarzan,” is both an exercise trainer and a movement coach.

“The Northman,” Focus Features’ Viking revenge epic from acclaimed director Robert Eggers, made $1.35 million in its Thursday preview screenings at the box office across 2,700 theaters with previews that began at 7 p.m. “The Northman” opens on 3,214 screens this weekend.Universal’s animated family film “The Bad Guys,” which is expected to lead the box office, made $1.15 million Thursday from preview screenings beginning at 5:00 p.m.

A.D. Amorosi Without a doubt, Robert Eggers’ “The Northman” traffics in his now-usual brand of haunted atmospherics and wonky mysticism, a signature whose intensity is upped by the savage bloodlust of its characters and the vastitudes of his first big-budget epic with a price tag reportedly hovering between $70 million and $90 million.The only thing more intensely stressed than the dilemma of a Viking prince in the year 895 (avenging the death of his father, the king, at the hands of his jealous uncle who stole the prince’s mother as the spoils of war — or did she go willingly?) played to brutal, muscular perfection by Alexander Skarsgård, is the all-consuming dedication of its tactile production design, its brooding, cinematographic ambiance and the craftsmanship of its furry, hierarchical costuming.

After “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse,” director Robert Eggers brings his passion for meticulous historical recreation and his interest in the (often tortured) psyches of past generations to the violent and epic world of Vikings in “The Northman” (read our review). Unlike actor Alexander Skarsgård, who plays the film’s eponymous hero (read our interview with the actor here), Eggers was never particularly inspired by these ruthless people before the idea for the movie was suggested to him — which only makes his achievement on “The Northman” more impressive.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterNicolas Cage is back… not that he went anywhere.The actor’s latest movie “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” a meta comedy in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself, is one of several films opening nationwide over the weekend. It’ll compete against director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic “The Northman” and Universal and DreamWorks’ animated family film “The Bad Guys,” as well as last weekend’s champion “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.”Unless ticket sales crash in week two, “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” the third chapter in the “Harry Potter” spinoff series, should retain the domestic box office crown.

Alexander Skarsgård does not simply play the eponymous man of the North in Robert Eggers’ Viking epic “The Northman” — the Swedish actor essentially knocked the first domino down in the process of turning the project into a reality, convincing Eggers to delve into a history the director previously had no interest in. The result, in ways not completely dissimilar to Eggers’ 2019, somehow pre-lockdown cabin fever freakout “The Lighthouse” is a rousing and maniacal portrait of raging masculinity and hot-blooded violence: in his most physically demanding and biggest film role since 2016’s “The Legend of Tarzan,” Skarsgård tears through villages as a berserker and pursues vengeful retribution on the uncle who tore his family apart.

prince at the dawn of the 10th century. It opens in theaters nationwide Friday.The Viking dream laid dormant for some time, though.

The first sign that not everyone in Robert Eggers' 10th-century Viking revenge tale “The Northman” has their priorities entirely straight comes early in the film, when the Viking king Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) returns home to the North Atlantic kingdom of Hrafnsey after a year of fighting overseas.After trudging up on horseback to the snowy cliffside village, Aurvandil's queen, Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), greets him warmly and, after a hug for their son, Amleth (Oscar Novak), urges him to bed with her. Aurvandil, though, says he has something more pressing to attend to.

Writer/director Robert Eggers returns with his third feature film, “The Northman,” after giving us arresting genre thrillers like “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse.” His new movie takes us 1,000 years into the past with a young Viking prince who witnesses his father’s murder and his kingdom stolen, only to return years later to intact a path of violence and revenge which is based on the original Scandinavian tale that directly influenced “Hamlet.” Focus Features has released a short red band trailer (See below) ahead of “The Northman” swinging into theaters this week, focusing on heroic character Amleth’s brutal journey towards his goal of revenge within this visually stunning setting.

“The Northman” that offers a no-holds-barred look at the R-rated revenge shenanigans that await moviegoers.The film hails from “The Lighthouse” and “The Witch” writer/director Robert Eggers, and is a $90 million R-rated Viking movie. As if that wasn’t a selling point enough, this short red-band trailer offers a closer look at some of the film’s gorier scenes, with a blood-soaked Alexander Skarsgaard using all manner of ways to slice and dice his way through a small village.The story is a simple one: Skarsgard is a young Viking prince seeking to avenge the murder of his father (played by Ethan Hawke).This is the biggest film Eggers has ever made, and he maintained recently that while the larger budget came with more notes from the studio, the finished version of the film is very much his director’s cut.

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled its line-up for 2022. Scroll down to see the full list.

The stars of The Northman are looking incredible in these new red carpet photos!

Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgård are back together again in . ET's Cassie DiLaura spoke to Kidman, at the film's Los Angeles premiere Monday, where she opened up about reuniting with her  co-star for the action-packed Viking thriller. While, this time, they are playing mother and son, the role is just as tumultuous as the abusive husband and wife duo they portrayed in the hit HBO TV series.Kidman plays Queen Gudrún in the film, Prince Amleth's [Skarsgård] mother, who is kidnapped after his uncle brutally murders her husband and Amleth's father.

Björk has shared that she would like to see more female directors taking on the Viking Age in film and TV.The musician and actor stars in Robert Eggers’ new viking epic The Northman as a whispering Seeress predicting the future of Alexander Skarsgård’s Amleth.The film follows Amleth as he seeks revenge for the murder of his father, played by Ethan Hawke, and aims to save his mother Queen Gudrún, played by Nicole Kidman. Other stars include Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang and Willem Dafoe.Posting to Facebook after attended the Icelandic premier of the film, Björk shared a statement about her role and to thank those involved.“so proud to be part of this,” she wrote.

Björk in The Northman.The actor plays lead character Amleth in the third feature film from director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The Witch), starring alongside Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe.The most unique cast addition is Björk, who plays a seeress, whose last feature film acting credit was in 2005’s Drawing Restraint 9 from director Matthew Barney.Speaking to NME about acting alongside the musician, Skarsgård said: “I felt very lucky. It was crazy.“I don’t think you see it on camera in that scene, but we shot it in that burnt out barn after the big raid. And Björk when it was her shot, behind her I could see it was just this gigantic full moon right behind her head and it felt so perfect for that scene and her character and the way she looked.