A Viking Saga: The Darkest Day (2013)

VIKINGS: THE DARKEST DAY is another cheap-as-chips Viking movie hoping to cash in on the modern trend for all things gritty and historical. The budget quickly becomes apparent in the limited outdoor locations and small cast, while the script is nothing to write home about. A monk called Hereward (couldn't they think of a more original name?) saves a priceless holy book from a Viking attack and is thereafter pursued by bloodthirsty pagans, until he finds a skilled protector to look after him. There's a fair bit of action and movement in the story, but the cast members are limited and the small-scale story is simply nothing to get excited about.

This title should be better that's it's under 5 rating. I think it's well done. Very well done. It deals with a narrow subject, in a narrow time, a savage time really. A small cast, and little no set production and only minimal costume design, this things are made up for with excellent photography, camera work, sound, acting and script, the hallmarks of talent and skill combined to make a low budget epic that will build it's own reputation and appreciated in time. It is worth seeing and is not terribly long. It's length is correct and could have been expanding upon with longer beginning and longer ending frankly. I think it was shortened for cinema.

I think I know why this movie is getting such a bad rating.1) WAY too much talking and walking: It's like, they took the walking and talking parts of the LOTR and forgot to do anything interesting with either of them. This isn't a exciting adventure. They are just going from Point-A to Point-B while in between them they meet like 1 viking and all other are just neutral NPC's.2) The talking: I am all for character development and this movie does it well with the young monk.. sort of. But other than that, the rest of the dialog is between monk and random people talking about his book and word of POWER (or something like that). Seriously, they talk way too much about same thing over and over in the whole damn movie.3) The action: It's terrible. Just awful. They try to jazz it up by throwing in slow-mo and of course, overused sound effects in post production. But the fact is, like 2 of the actors had threatening, warrior-like look and both were playing vikings. Rest are just comically bad, especially when they start fighting.4) The Rambo Monk: Everyone saw it coming, and they finally turn him into one in the end. The kiddy monk goes crazy and takes on two vikings (and actually manages to kick ass of a trained viking soldier.. yeah) and then when close to death, is magically saved by 'his god'.. who apparently sends a pagan (yes, the same people 'his god' told to butcher) to save his arse in the end. Ironic and just.. lame.5) The invincible knight: The Aragon, I mean, the knight with the monk.. I didn't care to remember his name.. thinks he is invincible. First he tells a pagan that her people should be butchered for worshiping OLD GODS, then he proceeds to ignore the fact she just saved his monks life and refuses her aid in healing his wounds. He heals magically by just sleeping, survives getting stabbed left and right. The power of Christ keeps him running like Duracell batteries, unlike Vikings, who get stabbed and die when sword goes inside their bodies.In the end, the only reason I am giving it a 4 and not a 2, is because of cinematography.. which is good enough, not the best but OK. Also, some violence is pretty authentic (esp. the monk rape.. didn't see that coming) looking.Should you watch it? If you have nothing else to watch (like I didn't), yeah. Else don't bother. Nothing new or interesting going on here.. except the monk rape. Which is funny and WTF moment, at the same time.

I also have to express dismay at the low rating this film has on IMDb. It seemed a well done, decently acted movie with a story that is neither ridiculous nor simplistic. I honestly believe it is deserving of an above average rating. Probably what annoyed a lot of people is the poster, which has nothing to do with the movie at all. It is not a film about glorious deaths in violent battles.The Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery is a real event that is considered by historians to be the beginning of the so called Viking Age. As with the TV show Vikings, the event is used to inspire the storyline in The Darkest Day, without much concern for historical accuracy, but this film has it a bit closer to reality.The plot is seen through the eyes of a young monk, one of two escaping from the Lindisfarne's raid and carrying the Lindisfarne's Gospels, a beautifully crafted book that holds "the word of God" and without which the monks believe the Angles country is lost. The book is a real artifact that you can read about. The monks run away from a bunch of Vikings that want the book, believing it holds "the power of the white Christ" and can be used to rule the land. Their escape shows you glimpses of the wild and poor way of living in those times (around 800 AD) in the British Isles. Helped by an old warrior, they meet Christian sectarians and a Pict woman they rescue from bondage and try to fend off the raiders.I've watched a few Viking related movies lately, something spurned by the TV show Vikings, and this is by far one of the best. It is a low budget English and Welsh film with almost completely unknown actors in a small cast, but they each play their roles well and the bleak and violent trek through ancient England feels realistic and raw. The name of the young monk, Hereward, is an ironic hint of the end of the movie. Again: a clearly above average film, especially if you are in a Viking mood.