4/5 Old and New, Good and bad.
  by Chris Travers (Chelan, WA)
This movie was obviously an attempt to create a new "Viking Saga" based on Icelandic saga material. The student of the Sagas will find much that is familiar as some scenes are only slightly modified from Njal's Saga and some characters are clearly modelled on characters from a wide number of sagas. For example Magnus is modelled on Njal, while Gunnar seems to be modelled both on Gunnar in Njal's Saga and Kjartan in the Laxdaela Saga. Kjartan on the other hand seems partly modelled after both Bolli and Kjartan in the Laxdaela Saga. Influence can be seen from those sagas plus (possibly) Grettir's Saga and the Eyrbiggja Saga. The movie generally succeeds at mimicking some of the stylistic elements of the Sagas themselves.

However, the movie seems to fall apart in some other important ways. I found the narration to be at times monotonous, and the good vs evil themes in the movie seemed rather foreign to the genre. The Lawspeaker (a short-term role) was turned into a heredetary Lawgiver role reminiscent of a sacral king, and the fight at the Althing was put in for plot reasons, not because of any case of such a thing happening in the Sagas. These elements significantly detracted from the overall movie. It would be nice to see a much better movie based on the sorts of stories the Sagas excel at-- family histories, tales of the human condition, and the like.

I thought the acting was good and the cinematography well done as well. Worth seeing but not fantastic.

2/5 Viking Movie
  by Nicholas Donvito Sr. (Camillus, NY)
Not to bad but could have been much better. Historicaly it was pretty much on the button though.

4/5 An interesting take on early Icelandic Vikings
  by Douglas Herring (Redmond, WA)
Within the space of a couple of days I watched both "A Viking Saga: Son of Thor" and "The Viking Sagas". Two very different films despite their similar titles. I am a fan and supporter of low budget historical films and these two films have a lot in common and yet at the same time, are very different. "A Viking Saga: Son of Thor" was done more as a minor educational film, they use that term "educational" a lot in their advertisements and after watching it, it seems more like something funded by a museum than a sincere attempt to do justice to the subject as a full-on adventure film. The film is centered around a longhouse recreation, perhaps the museum I suspect this was done for, and a small group of Viking re-enactors. Amazon's brief description is the whole movie; it is a very simple plot, with constant flashbacks to the attack on the young boy's village as the only major action in the film. The longships on the cover are not in the film, there are only two much smaller ships used for trading. The story is basically a Swedish one, with an emphasis on trading and the river routes down into what was later to be known as Russia. It is a very interesting aspect of Viking history, but unfortunately, it is handled in the most simplistic of ways. Even a die hard Viking fan like me will be hard pressed to appreciate this movie. The concept is excellent from a historical point of view; the execution however seemed to be done very simply and cheaply. I honestly cannot recommend this movie.

"The Viking Sagas" is very different. Not a big budget Hollywood historical epic, it still has a lot going for it. Shot entirely in Iceland, where the story takes place, it is a classic tale of revenge and reversal. The plot is very atypical and has some interesting and complex turns, and much of those are based on an actual history and on the Icelandic judicial system that does indeed go back to the Viking colonial days. I quickly found myself curious how it would play out, though there was no doubt our hero would triumph. The scenery is beautiful and stark and knowing a bit about Viking horses, the Icelandic ponies were a nice refreshing historical touch. The star is Ralf Moeller and he is fairly wooden and too muscle-bound for the untrained warrior he is supposed to be, but I can let that slide. To me, the "name" in this movie is Sven-Ole Thorsen, the "Swedish Champion" from Sam Raimi's "The Quick and the Dead". He shows up as a minor character or stunt actor in enough movies that he almost seems like a new Alan Hale Senior to me. His character is the archetypical "martial arts master" but he too has an interesting twist to him plot wise. This film is not epic, has some B-movie qualities, but if you like adventure films like that, then I suspect you will like this one.


2/5 Disappointing
  by Judson Roberts (Houston, TX USA)
I should qualify this negative review by warning up front that when it comes to movies--and for that matter, books, too--about the Vikings I am a nitpicker, and in fairness I should explain why. I'm the author of the Strongbow Saga, a historical fiction series set during the Viking era. I've spent many years of research, and much effort, trying to gain an in-depth knowledge of the Vikings' culture, history, and the period in which they lived so that I can accurately portray them in my novels. The Vikings have long been misunderstood and misrepresented, in print and on film, and I hate to see this continuing to occur.

The writers of the screenplay for this movie clearly drew on several old Icelandic sagas about the Vikings. Portions of the plot bear a strong resemblance to portions of Njal's Saga, and some of the main characters are loosely drawn from the Laxardal Saga. However, rather than trying to create a historically accurate portrayal of the Vikings, the film makers instead opted to make a low budget fantasy film that ends up being sort of a cross between pseudo-history and Conan the Barbarian. And the acting of Ralph Moeller, who plays the role of the movie's hero Kjartan, is very evocative of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan: both actors have hugely muscled builds and deliver their lines with all the feeling of a talking tree trunk. Moreover, when a film director has to rely on a voice-over narration to explain the story because the filmed scenes are too incoherent to convey it without an explanation, you know you're dealing with a weak piece of storytelling.

The list of why this film should not be considered a historically accurate portrayal of the Vikings is too long to fit into a short review, but let me point out a few of the more glaring flaws. The costumes look more like early Scottish garb than Viking attire--so much so, that I wondered if the film makers were not reusing old costumes from Braveheart. There are some accurate Viking-era weapons on the screen, though mostly on the belts of extras, but the story's main characters use long handled, two-handed swords that are the purely the stuff of B grade fantasy, and Kjartan even wears his sword slung across his back--again channeling Conan. This kind of detail is not hard to get right--there's no excuse for not doing so.

Nevertheless, if you watch this movie for what it is--a low budget fantasy film set in the visually stunning scenery of Iceland--it will not disappoint your expectations. But as for me, I'm still looking for a film that accurately portrays the Vikings as they really were.


5/5 A different side of Ralph Moeller
  by Shiloh Kremer
The Viking Saga is more of a drama than the usual type of action movie that Ralph Moeller (Conan the Series) stars in. His role is not the typical "invincible" warrior. His character actually does not know how to fight in the beginning of the movie. In fact, Moeller must be trained to avenge his fathers death. The knife and sword training scenes are fun to watch.
This role is very different than his characters in such movies as Best of the Best or Gladiator. I feel it is good for an actor to explore different types of roles and images so his/her movies don't all appear too similiar.

The acting is decent. Due to the low budget, there are some minor flaws with this movie. However, I found it to be provacative and intriguing as many aspects of past Viking customs are shown.

This is a five star movie-