Army of Valhalla

Introduction

In 9th Century pre-Christian Poland, a cruel prince regent called Popiel is holding the throne until his warriors return from battle. Amongst the warriors are the dead King's two twin sons, one of whom will be chosen as his father's successor. Popiel has other ideas though. He has a son to a woman slave and is desperate for his son to succeed him to the throne, egged on by the boy's mother.

Popiel greets the victorious warriors back from battle and throws a banquet in their honour, but sneakily poisons and kills one of the heirs whilst throwing suspicion on the other, who is blinded as punishment and banished. Popiel then organises a conference with the tribal leaders to see if he can gain support for his son, but this doesn't quite go as planned. None of the leaders will endorse Popiel's son, so he brings in his backup plan and poisons the wine they are drinking. With all the leaders dead, Popiel is left unchallenged - blaming the deaths on the wrath of the Gods.

The only opposer to these plans is Piastun, commander of the Army and Guardian of the two twin princes. His suspicions were already aroused with the death of the first prince, but he is certain of Popiels motivations and treachery when all the tribal leaders are killed. Piastun leaves the castle grounds in order to seek support and the truth, but Popiel has other ideas.

Ambushed in the forest, Piastun is saved by Ziemovit, a young warrior who is also an outcast but from the Viking hordes. He is in love with a young beautiful maiden, but their love is forbidden as she has been promised to the Gods. The two men join forces in order to achieve their own individual goals as well as taking on the might of the Viking hordes summoned by Popiel...

Picture

The production design is pretty good but is slightly marred by some quite simplistic CGI. One of these is shown several times and is a statue of the Gods, the other (and much worse) is a supposed lightning strike on a tower that looks really awful.

Overall

I do like the sheer variety and quality of the films that Metrodome aim to bring to the UK market, I've been a huge fan of the label since it first arrived. Of course, you can't always count on every film being top quality (not even Hollywood has that luxury) but it's always good to see what other countries can do - and generally they do it well. Only those with an aversion to subtitles should avoid really.

This is one of those films that kind of sits in the middle of the quality rankings, it's not brilliant, but it's no real dud either. As a medieval war film, it does what you'd expect, unless you were hoping for the cover art - which is the only area that Metrodome seems to let itself down. Once more, the cover art bears no relation to the subject matter. It's not to bad for me as I just get plain review discs but some may feel a little short changed at the promise of mass Viking hordes in battle when in reality it's a pretty small horde and they're not in it for more than quarter of an hour tops.

Still, the action sequences are good and the political and religious intrigue is enough to keep this interesting. This film is based on a novel by Polish author Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and won an Eagle at the Polish film awards in 2004 for best costume design, whilst it was nominated for best film score, best editing and best production design. If nothing else, this should tell you that this film has something to it.

Not bad actually....