empatmk Actually it's a good movie, simple story and full of actions. Based on historic background after Battle of Hastings and a flashback family feud from the past, the result is a bloody vengeance film. A minus for this film only the color grading, that almost like a black and white movie. The rest is good.

FlixChatter I rented this when it arrived on Netflix and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's stylishly-shot and the decidedly stark, bleak color scheme actually looks quite artistic in contrast to all the red of the spurting blood from those who get in our hero's way. The simple, no-frills plot suits the piece. I mean the title says it all. Obviously the protagonist is seeking vengeance and once it's revealed what's taken from him, you get why he does what he does. Yes, a bit more character development is always nice, but at a brisk 87 minutes, it was entertaining enough without overstaying its welcome.The mysterious Shadow Walker quipped 'vengeance is my only belief.' You know what, he lived by that rule in the movie. He didn't seek out to be a hero or has aspiration to lead a nation or anything like that, he just wants vengeance. It's as minimalistic as it gets, so if you go in expecting a whole lot more, then you set yourself up for disappointment.French actor Stanley Weber is freaking bad ass in the lead role, sporting a historically out-of-place corn rows but who cares, it looks so damn cool! Apart from that hairstyle, he looks suitably grim and gritty, and his rugged costumes look believably soiled and grubby. His character is the strong silent type who's as efficient with words as he is with his sword fighting. He's like an 11th century John Wick! I also like his fellow French actor Edward Akrout. There's a great mano a mano sword fight between the two that's fun to watch, but my favorite scene is the one in the woods where the Shadow Walker get to show his action hero prowess. The movie has the look and smell of the dark ages, the set pieces look appropriately harsh and gritty, the fact that it was shot on location in Serbia in the middle of Winter. Even from the opening sequence when we first met Shadow Walker slaying off people in the rain, I love Jim Weedon's style and his use of music. Weedon started out as an award-winning commercials director who also worked on some SFX work for films like 'Gladiator' (the Elysian Field sequences).So yeah, I have no qualms about liking this flick. It's not for everyone but if you're into this genre, I'd say give it a shot.

rushknight It starts off slow and moves on at the same pace throughout. After 10 minutes, I realized that it wasn't going to speed up.But that's OK, because this movie is about the hero. He is, quite literally, all that matters. The hero is right out of feudal Japan, with his honor-bound "only vengeance matters" ethics, and his short clipped way of speaking with an accent that doesn't belong in Scotland. His fighting style is completely out of place and would be laughably ineffective in real life. Good thing he learned to hold his sword backwards, otherwise he'd have killed all the baddies twice as fast and the movie might have been tempted to run at a normal pace..No other characters matter. There is a "love interest" that doesn't really make any deep connection and only exists to give the hero exactly ONE dynamic character lesson, a trio of bad guys that have exactly ONE motive each, and a plethora of other characters that might as well be nameless as they don't do much else except perform all the basic necessary menial tasks involved in making a hero look heroic without trying too hard.There is no accuracy in terms of dress, speech, military action, governmental oversight, etc. These things don't matter, only the hero matters. He looks cool and is a total awesome dude. The movie has to rock because the hero does. Right? In addition, it was filmed in the "bleak style" that is so prevalent among stylized films. This means they removed most of the color. I have never understood this particular method of filming. Can the world not be bleak in its own right? And lastly, the soundtrack spends most of its time being out of place. Sometimes it sounds like something out of a sci-fi film (mostly when the hero is spinning his sword around, complete with whirly sound effects), sometimes it sounds like moody atmospheric mush (mostly when the hero is looking stoic and heroic), and usually moves itself into the typical drum-heavy orchestral epic sounding stuff (mostly when the hero is killing lots of people while holding his sword backwards). There is no reference, or even an implied reference, to any sort of traditional gaelic or celtic musical form, melody or instrument.This is getting long, so I'll cut it off here with a final comment:This movie is so empty of substance that it's like a skeleton of ideas that are designed to be easily fit into any genre. Take this hero and stick him into a sci-fi feature battling the evil space barons that killed his family. You don't even have to change the soundtrack. Next throw it all into a pirate feature. It will work just fine, just need to tweak the costumes a little bit.This movie is bland and devoid of any real character. Very forgettable.

Tony Heck "The God's can no longer wait." When an evil ruler begins to oppress the land the is only one man that can fight back and restore peace. The fighter they find only wants one thing...blood. This is a hard movie to review. First of all, this is not really my type of movie. I have never been a big fan of the mid-evil genre and wasn't a huge fan of Hammer of the Gods so I wasn't really expecting much from this. All that said there was one thing that was really distracting and hard to get past. In the movie 300, during the fight scenes the camera slows down and speeds up so much that it takes you out of the movie. In this movie, they slow down the fighting...but never speed it back up. This may seem like a little thing but when it's overused it becomes far too distracting for you to focus on what is happening in the movie. I do have to say that although the movie seemed pretty low budget, the use of the sepia-like filter made it seem like the movie has made for more than it was. Overall, if you liked Hammer of the Gods you will most likely like this one as well. As for me, the technical issues were too much for me to get past. I give this a C.