'Path' raids, pillages senses

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

The oft-delayed actioner "Pathfinder" is like the dumbed down offspring of "300" and "Apocalypto."

And neither of those films fell anywhere near the genius category.

We're told the film is based on legend, which is about three rungs lower than a movie "inspired by actual events."

The saga opens long before Christopher Columbus made his way west. A young Viking lad is discovered, shivering and alone, by a kindly American Indian woman.

The boy had refused to kill Indians alongside his papa Viking and was abandoned when those Vikings moved on to their next pillaging assignment.

So the boy is taken in by the woman's tribe, even though his skin is white and they fear he may one day plunder like his papa.

Fifteen years later, the boy is a hearty, hulking man known as Ghost (played by "Lord of the Rings' " Karl Urban). Ghost has grown to love his new family, even if some in the tribe still view him with suspicion.

When the Vikings return to finish the slaughter they started many years before, Ghost is forced to fight for his life. Many of his tribe members aren't so lucky. They get massacred during the initial wave.

And we get to see every decapitation and dismemberment.

Director Marcus Nispel cut his teeth on music videos but made a slick transition to features with the unfairly maligned "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake. His work here suggests he hasn't switched off from horror mode.