Let me start by saying that I was completely biased prior to watching Redbad: I was an extra on this movie and I had an epic time on set with cast & crew.
The selection process was quite interesting: on entry you received a piece of paper with an image of a sheep and an image of a power drill. The objective was to circle the sheep. If you did this correctly, you were dressed up as "Frank" (which I was). Those who had difficulty with the assignment were appointed as a Frisian extra.
Jokes aside: I really REALLY wanted this movie to be great.
But when the lights went on after 2 hours and 40 minutes the audience silently rushed for the exit.
It was not so good.
First of all it should have been at least an hour shorter. The pace was wrong: parts were tediously long, while other segments were rushed.
The principle "show don't tell" was seriously violated: characters were constantly stating the obvious: When Redbad tricks the enemy cavalry and the horses are swallowed by the rising water, he needs to point out that high tide is rolling in. DOH!
Having participated in the battle scenes I was hoping for something spectacular. Alas. The "biggest army in the world" looked to consist out of only a handful of soldiers. VFX clearly lacked the "MASSIVE" plugin (and were mediocre in general).
Some performances were below par, but I guess the dialogues did not help either.
I never quite figured out if Jack Wouterse as Willibrord was meant as a comic relief or as a raging psychopath.
The weakest part was clearly the story, which was inconsistent and fuzzy. Redbad washes up at a place where everybody speaks English, but only near the end of the movie it is explained that it actually was a Danish tribe.
Advice for William of Orange: start with a good script (content) and then dress it up nicely (instead of the other way around). Kill your darlings ( for example the tsunami of slo-mo/picturesque landscape/repetitive footage). And not every scene requires bombastic music! You cannot climax every other minute ;-).
This director can do better.
Review of Redbad
