Rating: 
Summary: A Bit of Action, A Bit of Crap
Review: "The 13th Warrior" is a strange film. Many have commented that it is apparently lacking many deleted scenes, leaving some to cry for a Director's Cut. I am no such person. For me, "The 13th Warrior" lacked the interest and appeal of Crichton's novel. The rewarding aspects of this film are the battle scenes and the interesting interplay between the North Men and Banderas's character. Another interesting scene occurs near the beginning when Banderas's character is trying to pick up the language of the North Men. The audio in the film slowly melds from a foreign language into English-slowly fades into understanding. While the characters of the mist are intriguing and the battle scenes in this movie are up to par, the rest of the script lacks depth and sincerity. Perhaps this problem would be remedied with a longer version of the movie-though they should not have sacrificed quality in the two hours they did give us. Get this movie only if you're a fan of old battle scenes or Banderas.
Rating:
Summary: Could be better..
Review: I read the book "Eaters of the Dead" after watching the movie. Although not everything depicted in the movie is accurate according to the book, I still find myself enjoying and loving it. Mostly maybe due to amazing cinematography and believable casts. However, one thing really bugs me. The movie is too short and not enough character development as regard to the supporting casts. well, that's two things. You can hardly feel anything when any of the supporting casts got killed or injured. Since that the title itself says "13th warrior", so there must be 13 warriors. But only 2-3 warriors are higlighted beside the main character, Ahmed ibn Fadhlan. Who the others are, many of us don't know. At least they could have been introduced by their names. I didn't know Herger's name until I read the book and Herger is one of the main character in the movie. I am not saying that this movie is bad, but it could have been better, much better. Nonetheless, I had watched it for so many times and love it.
Rating: 
Summary: thrilling and beautifully directed
Review: this is a new version from the way old classic Beowulf, pitting 13 warriors, including Banderas against the Eaters Of The Dead and its based on Michael Crichtons best selling novel and its directed by John McTiernan(Die Hard 1 and 3, The Thomas Crown Affair). the actors battle real and the thrills and the scenery are superb
Rating:
Summary: Mistakes in Review!
Review: Mike O'Hogan makes a few mistakes in his film review here below. The Vikings were speaking Old Norse not Gaelic. I took Old Norse in graduate school a few years ago. They are clearly speaking a Germanic language ("andere mann" etc), not Gaelic. The movie takes place in Russia and Sweden -- not in any Celtic area. The chronicle of Ibn Rashid is real (read it years ago) and was adapted by Crichton for Eaters of the Dead (which was made into a movie as the 13th Warrior. Ibn Rashid traveled among the Rus Norsemen and witnessed their funerary rites.I wish the deleted scenes were at least on the DVD, but they aren't. There are two or three subplots that just never made it to the final cut.
Rating:
Summary: Why not just an epic adaption of Beuwulf?
Review: Great music, action and scenery (almost as great as Lord of the Ring). Antonio Banderas is a descent actor and I like him to be in the Zoro show, but he should not be the selling point of this movie. He's totally awkward there--the viking venture is not his business at all. The producer tried to attract audience using his stardom, but only make me loose my fandom. His face every second on the screen is simply too much, and only makes him a clown--all we can see is his startled looks--that's not what I expect from a viking saga. On the contrary, all the other warriors are elegant, confident, and exudes charisma, especially Vladimir Kulich (short for VK), who plays the chieftan of the 13 warriors--Buliwyf (Beuwulf, the hero of the oldest English epic poetry--the beginning of English lietrature). I can never say too much good things about this fine artist--yes, not just an actor, but a real artist! It's so hard to attract attention when the editor just cuts his scene blatantly to show another startled looks of Branderas, but still VK quietly steals the show.
The movie missed a great chance to be as big as Lord of the Ring because of an executive mistake--instead of focusing on good story and resounding characters (all those warriors have their own great characteristics, if developed appropriately), the movie just attempt to squeeze in an irrelevant role, making up reasons for an Arab to be there so they can sell poor Antonio Banderas. Have they ever realized what they have missed? Stars are important to make a big hit, but charismatic chracters are more important. Without good story, the star will be a victim instead of a hero. If this movie shows a little deeper studies of the original Beuwulf, and focus on Vladimir Kulich and other warrior players, it CAN be better! (and save the grace of Antonio).
Rating: 
Summary: Please restore all of the deleted scenes!
Review: This is a unique and rare film experience. I can't even think of a genre to fit it into nicely to describe it. Since I want more films to follow this to fill out an new genre of international, myth, ancient cultures, action, adventure, near fantasy moview. I am sad to hear that it was on a shelf for a couple of years before being released. I am sad to hear it had to be trimmed down drastically for release. There are allegedly mountains of deleted scenes. This film needs a release of a director's cut. My meaning is the author's effort to be true to himself and to the storytelling. Since this is Michael Crighton and this ranks as a whopper of story telling, this is an urgent need for consideration. I have never seen a movie portray Viking culture so well. In case you have missed the full flavor or this, this is Viking culture that includes Celtic cultures of Scotland and Ireland (they are indeed speaking Gaelic at the start of the movie, where they had colonized). This is excellent story telling from one of the best story tellers of our time, Michael Crighton. The 13th Warrior deserves some of the same treatment as his other books and movies.
Rating:
Summary: Banderas aside, this is a good movie!
Review: I'd have to say that I was never a fan of Antonio Banderas, but this turned out to be a great flick. I've seen several of his movies, and never did 'get into him'. Based on the novel "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton (my personal favorite), this film follows a muslim who gets 'volunteered' to go with a group of Norsemen to serve as the, you guessed it, 13th warrior. Being that he's not a warrior it comes as a bit of a shock. He reluctantly agrees, and ends up traveling back to the Norsemen's home, in the meantime learning their language. When they arrive home, they find that their town has been attacked by a creature so evil, that they dare not even speak it's name. They begin to investigate a homestead that had been attacked, and bring the wrath of the enemy down on their town. They begin to build their defenses, and the attack comes.... The cinematography was excellent, and the battle sequences were tremendous. They remind me of sequences from Braveheart, so they are a bit much for children. Banderas did a good job in this film, as did the rest of the actors, most of which I had never seen before. I think by using few well-known actors, it made the film feel that much more foreign (we're supposed to be following Banderas, the enlightened one into the home of the barbarians). Ultimately, I would recommend this film to any fan of action movies, as well as those who like Antonio Banderas.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting but not thrilling retelling of Beowulf
Review: 13th warrior is based loosley on the classic poem Beowulf, and it does a very sloppy job at bringing it to the screen. Now I am not a purist, I've actually never finished the poem but i still felt 13th warrior could have been so much better. The supernatural is always much better in films than the physical but the filmmakers threw away a perfectly good oppurtunity to cash in on demons and magic. Instead the badguys in this film, the Wendol (obviously Grendel's representation), are basically Neanderthals who take the heads of their victims for no apparent reason. The film Althogether fails as a story but the filmmakers obviously didn't realise this and shot only a perhaps 15 minutes of hard to see and action sequences. the result is a film lacking any good drama or enough action. the main problem is the anti-climatic feel of the entire film and an all around anti-climatic ending. The one thing that impressed me (well actually the TWO things that impressed me) was the fantastic acting and superb costume design, the screenplay is also pretty good but not award worthy. Although still worth a watch 13th warrior is at times slow and boring, better editing could have fixed that easily. The DVD is of very poor quality with artifacts all over the place and mediocre sound. ... Acting 10/10
Direction 5/10
screenplay 7/10
Action 7/10
Story 4/10
Characters 8/10
Rating:
Summary: And now banderas is Muslin!!
Review: You know the video it is great!! but not because Banderas, the "vikings" really convinced me about their mission in the movie, their strength, their wild costums, even about their extreme masculinity, and their brotherhood among themselves. Banderas is just there, needless to say, the movie is to make the Muslins look good, but Banderas I believe acted really bad, and did not fullfill his muslin character. I don't know what this guy is going to do in the future, but he really needs money, or Melanie forced him to take any movie available, I followed Banderas since "Mujeres al borde de la locura" and this guy takes any character, in any movie. from insecure young guy, in "mujeres"... ... in other unspeakable movie, to a Muslin in this one. Don't get me wrong the movie was great, but Banderas made me upset.
Rating:
Summary: I like it . . .
Review: Despite its many flaws, I still get a load of pleasure out of this film. The British Columbia backdrop is lush, glorious, but underutilized. Viking adventures are always interesting, and the story is fantastic, but the dialogue is creaky and embarassing at times. Crichton didn't write his book to appeal to idiots, but movie executives have lower expectations. There are some GREAT lines, however, and I actually enjoy the way in which the actors ham it up at every opportunity. The longhouse architecture is awe-inspiring. The battle scenes are intense. This could have been a mythic masterpiece, but Hollywood smeared their greasy hands on this. Nevertheless, I pop this DVD in my player all the time. Extras? Forget about it.
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