THE NORTHMAN | April 22, 2022 | Robert Eggers Joint | Alexander Skarsgard

[brothernero]

Saw it this afternoon with a surprisingly decent crowd, but there were a few walkouts about 3/4 of the way through and everyone that was commenting on the movie after seemed to despise it. Lots of laughter at the very last scene, too.   I've been split on Eggers previous work, really liking The Witch but couldn't stand The Lighthouse.

[TinaDuraes]

B Cinemascore. Could have been worse, I guess.

[vale9001]

Movie was good but the cast is too white.

[AJG]

Down to 72% VA RT. A drop into the 60's will be concerning.

[ZeeSoh]

2 hours ago, vale9001 said:

Movie was good but the cast is too white.

As an Indian and Asian I too was disappointed at the lack of brown people in a movie set in medieval Scandinavia. 

[vale9001]

57 minutes ago, ZeeSoh said:

As an Indian and Asian I too was disappointed at the lack of brown people in a movie set in medieval Scandinavia. 

I read on twitter if you make your research you gonna find there were a lot of POC people at the time but whites delete their traces in history as always. I read it on an verified account with 5K followers, must be true. You always learn something. 

[Eric is Anxious]

Moderation

 

@vale9001 No.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, vale9001 said:

I read on twitter if you make your research you gonna find there were a lot of POC people at the time but whites delete their traces in history as always. I read it on an verified account with 5K followers, must be true. You always learn something. 

It's true.

[Last Man Standing]

Is there some way to stop redditors from finding this forum?🤔

[Macleod]

5 hours ago, vale9001 said:

I read on twitter if you make your research you gonna find there were a lot of POC people at the time but whites delete their traces in history as always. I read it on an verified account with 5K followers, must be true. You always learn something. 

 

Guess what -- that's not "Research."  

[Viola]

I think this is a interesting  movie  but with  flop,uncharismatic and boring cast that the general public dont  care...

[Nikostar]

On 4/23/2022 at 9:42 AM, AJG said:

Down to 72% VA RT. A drop into the 60's will be concerning.

67 now. At this rate it will be rotten soon.

[dudalb]

19 hours ago, Macleod said:

 

Guess what -- that's not "Research."  

I saw it on Twitter...it has to be true.

[dudalb]

Saw it, loved it. Visually the best film I have seen in long time.

I saw in the final credits that the language spoken by the Slavic people was Old Ukranian.  Unintentional Irony.

[JustWatching]

I absolutely loved it. Beautiful, bloody, unrelenting and unafraid to lean into magic and mysticism. Special shout-out to Nicole Kidman for a fantastic performance. My showing was a pretty well attended matinee (40-50 people) and the crowd seemed to like it, based on the chatter I heard afterward. 10/10 from me.

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

I think there's definitely some worry to the fact that audiences aren't just embracing films like this but disliking it.

 

As others have mentioned here, I get why a general audience might reject other films that those like me may love like Hereditary, Green Knight, Spring Breakers, The Witch on the basis of slightly janky marketing that may have promised something to the general audience that they weren't delivering. But The Northman hasn't lied in its marketing at all. It promised a simple revenge viking tale with stunning visuals and it delivered exactly that.

 

I adored it, I expect it will have an excellent legacy, but yeah I thought this one might have a bit more imprint first up than it has, and avoid some of the GA-hate of some of the A24 crowd.

 

And yes, unfortunately I do think a learned incuriosity is now a factor. 

[JustWatching]

9 hours ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

I think there's definitely some worry to the fact that audiences aren't just embracing films like this but disliking it.

 

As others have mentioned here, I get why a general audience might reject other films that those like me may love like Hereditary, Green Knight, Spring Breakers, The Witch on the basis of slightly janky marketing that may have promised something to the general audience that they weren't delivering. But The Northman hasn't lied in its marketing at all. It promised a simple revenge viking tale with stunning visuals and it delivered exactly that.

 

I adored it, I expect it will have an excellent legacy, but yeah I thought this one might have a bit more imprint first up than it has, and avoid some of the GA-hate of some of the A24 crowd.

 

And yes, unfortunately I do think a learned incuriosity is now a factor. 

I have not seen Spring Breakers, but Hereditary, TGN, The Witch and Northman all have some commonalities that IMHO help explain why they get a lot of active dislike (aka hate) from the GA.

 

For one, none of these films have a happy ending. It’s a lot easier for an audience to like a film if it ends with the good guy beating the bad guy, getting the girl, etc., and everyone lives happily ever after. Most viewers want the hero to win, and when that doesn’t happen some people react poorly.

 

In similar vein, people want to like the characters they’re watching, and none of these films have much in the way of likeable characters. That doesn’t mean they’re bad or uninteresting characters, but without a rooting interest a lot of peoples’ attention seems to wander, so they’re bored, couldn’t follow it, etc.

 

Finally, and this is more general, movies like the Northman can require a certain amount of effort on the part of the viewer. I guarantee you when The Northman comes to streaming I’ll be watching it with subtitles on because I’m only catching every other word due to the accents unless I’m really trying. A lot of people, myself included at times, just want to sit down, turn their brain off, eat popcorn and watch a movie.

 

Just my $0.02.

[dudalb]

23 hours ago, JustWatching said:

I absolutely loved it. Beautiful, bloody, unrelenting and unafraid to lean into magic and mysticism. Special shout-out to Nicole Kidman for a fantastic performance. My showing was a pretty well attended matinee (40-50 people) and the crowd seemed to like it, based on the chatter I heard afterward. 10/10 from me.

After seeing this I would like to see Kidman...

Spoiler

Tackle Queen Gertrude in "Hamlet" since the queen in this was the original for Shakespeare's creation in Hamlet.

 

[John2015]

Northman holds well (in UK)

 

Universal’s Viking drama The Northman gave a decent performance on its second weekend, falling 29% with £696,693 taking it to £2.4m. This is already a record gross for director Robert Eggers, surpassing 2016’s The Witch  (£1.2m) and 2020’s The Lighthouse  (£1.4m).

 

https://www.screendaily.com/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-2-retakes-uk-ireland-box-office-lead-from-fantastic-beasts-3/5169811.article?referrer=RSS

[John2015]

Australia Box office

 

Of the new releases, Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman premiered in fifth at $1.1 million from 244 screens for a healthy screen average of $4,695, while Studiocanal’s Nicolas Cage starrer The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was in sixth, only managing $622,000 from 322 screens, resulting in an average of $2,032.

 

Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell told IF it was holdovers that had managed to continue the momentum.

“We had a good weekend to finish off the NSW school holidays, but it was the older movies in Sonic, Bad Guys, Lost City, and Fantastic Beasts that continued to deliver for most sites,” he said.

“Unfortunately, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Elizabeth were very soft as new releases, and The Northman proved to be of more interest to older, arthouse audiences, and so did reasonably well in sites that veer that way, but less so in more mainstream sites.”

 

https://if.com.au/bo-report-sonic-2-speeds-back-to-the-top-unbearable-weight-elizabeth-open-soft/

Edited April 26, 2022 by John2015