Why strap an anamorphic lens to a camera if you’re not going to use it? For his first film shot in widescreen, visionary director Robert Eggers’s (The Witch, The Lighthouse) repeatedly imagines his Viking Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) glowering back at the audience from center frame and with enough sideroom to park both previous features. Rather than tell a story, Eggers sings a song of savagery. Even more repetitive than the imagery is the video game plotting that leads to nowhere. (It clocks in at 136 minutes, a good half of which repeats itself.) Ethan Hawke leaves us too soon and Nicole Kidman’s soliloquy almost makes up for last year's Lucy impression. The rest of the supporting ensemble — particularly a dirt-repellant Anya Taylor-Joy — is woefully miscast and wanting in the same lack of psychological motivation afforded their counterparts in the MCU. I suggest John McTiernan’s The 13th Warrior as an antidote to this dud. (2022) — Scott Marks
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