Viking Quest

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source: Viking Quest

Through the vikings probably deserves some of the disgraceful film made about them, we as an audience do not. Well, to be honest, the film only has "viking" in it's name since there are no actual vikings in the film. Somewhere in (I assume) 8th century Scandinavia, two warring clans plan to unite through the marriage of the princess Tasya and the king Wolven. Tasya childhood friend Erick "the blessed" has the hots for Tasya, a feeling that is sort of answered, but not enough for Tasya to abandon her promised to be. Unfortunately, the dastardly Völsungs (no relation the mythological clan, but nice touch) frequently carries out sacrifices of princesses to the Midgard Serpent, Loki's dragon-seed. Since king Sigvat of the Völsungs has no children his soldiers nabs the princess in the process. Now it's up to Erick and Wolven to set their differences aside and rescue the princess. It's the standard story. Nothing special, but can be a fun adventure for a Friday evening. To bad the film is so badly made. The fight scenes are under all standards for a film even of this budget. The editing does not even try to hide the baffling feeble choreography. Seeing that this is a low budget romp, some special effect failures are to be expected, but this film does not even try to work around that. We have a storm that is obviously shot in a studio. Guys, could you not even had intern splashing water with buckets? It's the driest storm ever! A little extra effort could have pushed it to an at least acceptable level. Is a little more effort to much to ask. Now, the acting is really uneven. But in the case of the leads I do blame it on the director and not the actors. Harry Lister Smith and Jenny Boyd are pretty convincing as childhood friends with a scent of romance. You can see that they do have some acting chops, they are just in a bad movie. Same goes for Oliver Walker as Wolven. Anya Taylor-Joy was in the sensation that was The Witch, but I have not seen that yet. But she is not very good in this film. As stated above, the script is pretty standard, through there is a minor twist which is neat in it's own little way. Then the scenery is really nice. Mostly, the costumes seem to be roughly accurate. Most of the clothes, armors and helmets are pretty authentic to what I've seen in museums and books. That's not to say that this film is historically accurate. A high medieval castle is dropped in the middle of Scandinavia in the freaking 7th century and is painfully out of sync with the rest of the iconography of the film. Then, they have a male character called Hild. Talk about not doing the research... If you are looking for a so bad that it's good viking film, Viking Quest is what you look for. Through not good at all, it's never boring. Like Troll 2 or Death Academy or any Ed Wood film, it's a charming bad movie. So grab your cowhorns, pass the mead and have a laugh.

VIKING QUEST is a TV movie that attempts to tell a mythical fantasy story on a tiny budget. You get a gamut of awful performances that would be more fitting in a high school slacker comedy than a supposed period piece like this one, and none of it is in touch with reality at all. Ben Cross shows up, looking rather pained for a brief cameo, and most notably Anya Taylor-Joy plays a significant supporting role (she was on the cusp of stardom and would go on to break out with her role in the following year's MORGAN). Otherwise it's slow and boring, silly and cheesy, all in the same breath.

The accents may not sound terrible Viking but it's a good romance story - an inspiration for all those spurned by their childhood sweetheart :)

"Viking Quest" succeeds surprisingly well as an ambitious, exciting take on Norse mythology. Although its ambition exceeds its budget, it has a good, brisk pace and lots of excitement and action. With a few minor flaws, the script is well written and acted, most notably by Oliver Walker (Atlantis) and the two supporting female players. The hero is a bit disappointing but Mr. Walker, thankfully, puts him in the shade throughout most of the story. The film is far better than a host of the other attempts at this type of theme being done these days. It's not "The Vikings" or "The Long Ships" or even "Prince Valiant" but it comes reasonably close for those who enjoy remote historical period adventure films or mythic themes.. Recommended.

It's good to see when movies are trying. Even when you feel they are failing at least there was effort. And there's a lot of effort here. If that makes it into your review or vote is a completely different matter of course. As you can see, I tried to stay objective about it, even though I commend the filmmakers for trying and going places with the story they're trying to tell. Having said that, it still won't be a satisfying view for most people. It's not so much the actors or the costumes, but the overall feeling that the scope might have gotten out of hand in perspective to the realities of what actually was available. Not a party movie, but something for indie fans all over the world

Another cheapo film from the SyFy channel and another clunker. A peasant boy named Erick is captured by the Vikings and raised by them. As an adult he fights with them as a warrior. The Vikings find an ancient egg in a monastery and are attacked by a dragon. It seems Erick is part of an ancient prophecy destined to battle the dragons. Ben Cross is the only notable actor that gives the film some respectability. There is nice location shooting in Bulgaria and some passable special effects of the dragon at the latter part of the film when there is some action. The lead actor does look like Paul Gascoigne's thinner and more sober younger sibling but it is a dreadfully dreary film.

Atrocious. The dialogue and acting are laughable. The special effects and fight scenes amateurish and some of the worst haircuts since the 80s. The lead actor's resemblance to a young Paul Gascoigne didn't help and his attempts at moodiness came off like a sulky teenager. The accents were also quite bizarre. Some of the cast seemed to be either Scandinavian or East European whilst some of the henchmen sounded like cockneys. I would say avoid this at all costs but it does have a certain car crash attraction in that you almost can't believe it can get any worse. It does. The whole film is a couple of degrees off being a Pythonesque parody. No-one escapes from this film with any credit.