I Guess I Really Do Not Understand This Film

Rating: 4/10 (2 July 2006)

From the director of "Medicine Man", "Last Action Hero" and "Predator"... and the writer of "Twister" and "Congo"... comes "The 13th Warrior", starring a Spaniard as as Arab.
When I watched this film, I had been drinking and talked through much of the movie. Also, it was on a dubbed VHS tape so the picture quality was not optimal and made the darker scenes a little less easier to follow. However, I still think the film was rather weak.
If you want action, with swords flying, fire burning, arrows and horses doing back-flips, you will probably be a fan of this film. There certainly is a large amount of swordplay and epic battle. But in almost every other category, there is much to be desired.
I did not find there to be any comedy or romance, very little suspense and the plot seemed absurd. Vikings are in Baghdad looking for an Arab to fulfill a prophesy to fight an ancient evil. This is already odd, but then as the film continued, the ancient evil seemed to be something that could have been defeated with any common army - no Arab necessary - and the movie never explains who they are (although I understand the book makes this very clear). Never mind the fact an Arab can learn fluent Norwegian in a matter of days.
The only scene I really enjoyed was with two Norsemen having a duel. While it seemed unrelated to the plot as a whole, I think it added more to the characters than anything else in this film.
As I said, if you like a lot of swordplay, this might be a good film to see. But otherwise, I think you would be better off renting something else... this is certainly not the best film from McTiernan, Crichton or Banderas...