Better Than I Remember

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2020)

When I originally saw The 13th Warrior in theaters, I remember being let down a bit. It was a mixture of the misleading flavor of the trailer and the drab and darkness of the film itself. I think I originally believed it was going to be a bit more of a corny action flick than it is. I'll just say it wasn't what I expected and that viewing stuck with me the last 20 years.
Upon a more recent viewing, I really appreciate the short, period (relatively) accurate story this turned out to be. I also just realized, that I did not recall it was mostly a retelling of Beowulf-and that's despite having read Beowulf in high school. It's not even subtle now. The names in the movie phonetically sound like the characters from the original epic story.
Banderas is charming as the narrator of the story. As the lead, he recounts the tale of a more historical interpretation of Beowulf. The rest of the cast of Viking warriors rounds off the storyline enough to give it a good quest feel. The villains could have been fleshed out just a little bit more in my opinion and the final battle was a tad brief. Overall though, for a short, tight plot this movie is pretty loaded with good violent action-if you're into that sort of thing and the story is an interesting retelling.