The 13th Warrior is the best action adventure movie ever, bar none

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2016)

The story is based on Eaters of the Dead, by Michael Crichton, who intended it as a revisualization of Beowulf. Indeed, I can easily imagine it as an intermediate legend from which Beowulf sprang. (Crichton actually took a hand in directing some of the film.) This is one of the few movies that is much better than the book.
The adventure aspect of the film is a lushly photographed north land, an unspecified region of Scandinavia, actually shot in British Columbia. Not the travelogue of many adventure movies, here the weather varies rapidly from brilliant sunshine on verdant forests to gloomy, drenching rain to haunting mist, which becomes a major plot element.
For action, imagine an Arabian poet, exiled as Ambassador, having to join a band of warriors led by Buliwyf, i.e., Beowulf, in defending King Hrothgar against a large army of "Wendol", the "eaters of the dead", which the Northmen fear are demons. (The suggestion from the book that the Wendol might be Neanderthal is never mentioned in the movie except through the casting of the extras that portray them.)
What makes this movie riveting is the acting of the ensemble. Antonio Banderas gives one of his best performances as the Arabian poet. Vladimir Kulich makes Buliwyf, i.e., Beowulf, a brooding but powerful leader. And Dennis Storhøi delivers an Oscar-worthy supporting performance as the Northman who befriends the Arab. Throughout the movie, the viewer sees not mere characters, but people, men who depend on one another, who live and fight together with all their bravado and superstitions, fears and faiths. Together the actors enable us to witness the birth of myth.