Could have been so much better

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2005)

The 13th Warrior is equal parts involving, exciting, but then also weak. The story is formulaic, following a similar pattern to Seven Samurai with an exact number of warriors doing battle against all odds. Throw in some hokum, and pseudo magic/horror and you get the general idea. Where it works, it provides a largely unknown cast to shine, and Banderas does a good job in the lead role. But if the story is formulaic, the script is patchy as though the writer intended to almost ignore characterisation and deal just with the action (which is filmed conventionally and without much drama - and at times it is so dark you have no idea what is happening anyway). It could have been so much better... but then how many times can you say the same thing about recent Hollywood fare?