Written by Matthew Read (the man who wrote Pusher and Valhalla Rising) and directed by Farren Blackburn (his feature film debut after working steadily directing in television for some time now), 2013's Hammer Of The Gods tells the story of a Viking named Steinar (Charlie Bewley), the son of King Bagsecg (James Cosmo). When it turns out that Bagsecg is dying, Steiner is asked to head into Saxon territory in search of Hakan (Elliot Cowan), the brother he's never before met and the hopeful heir to Bagsecg's thrown.

And so, not wanting his people to fall into chaos should his older brother, Harald (Finlay Robertson), wind up the new king, he agrees to this quest despite the fact that the Vikings are currently involved in the midst of a bloody war against the Saxons. He gathers up some of his best men, including close friends Hagen (Clive Standen) and Grim (Michael Jibson), and sets out deep into enemy territory. Along the way he and his crew will battle plenty of Saxon foes, question Steiner's ability to lead and come to terms with conflicts not only brought about by combat but also the spiritual side of Viking life. Compounding this is the presence of a human war machine named Ivar (Ivan Kaye). And once they actually encounter Hakan? Things start to get strange…

So what we have here is a group of warriors going deep into enemy territory to find an almost mythical man, the kind who has been talked about but rarely seen, and which then results in violence and spiritual territory. If this sounds like a Viking styled take on Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, yeah, that's not far off from the truth. With that said, this doesn't exactly have the same sort of cinematic or thematic depth as Apocalypse Now and the movie comes off as little more than a ‘story about some Vikings looking for a weird guy in enemy territory.' Which is all well and good so long as you keep your expectations in check. This is a reasonably entertaining movie and occasionally it's quite exciting, but it isn't one that leaves much of a lasting impression.

The cast do a decent enough job here. All of the men cast in the more important roles are, with a few exceptions, remarkably buff. If you're into guys, there's plenty of eye candy here. They handle themselves well in the combat sequences and the fight scenes in the picture definitely deliver some impressive set pieces of stark violence and strong gore. All of this plays off against a sufficiently bleak looking (but at the same time fairly picturesque) landscape shrouded in dark skies and muddy earth. It reflects the atmosphere and mood of the story being told rather well, and we wind up with a movie where the visuals do a good job not just of portraying the events we see but also in complimenting them.

The score completed for the movie is a little odd but not entirely out of place once you get used to it. The production values are good for a movie that was made on a modest budget. We're not at Hollywood blockbuster levels of financial backing here, but the filmmakers did a good job of putting what they had all up on screen. The storyline never really effectively exploits the religious and theological ideas that it toys with and at times it does feel a little long for what it ultimately is. This movie might not always feel completely authentic, and at times its definitely puts action over plot and style over substance, but it's an entertaining enough action picture if you're in the right frame of mind for something fairly superficial.

Video:

Hammer Of The Gods is framed at 2.40.1 widescreen and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and it looks excellent. For a film that plays out in a dark and dreary landscape, the transfer does a nice job of bringing the colors to life. Though the movie is very heavy on Earth tones as far as its color palette is concerned, splashes of red, green and blue look nice and make for good contrast against the greys and the browns. Black levels are solid, detail is generally very strong and often times quite impressive. There are no noticeable compression artifacts or edge enhancement nor are there any noise reduction issues. The movie looks very good in high definition on this disc.