Someone - or a group of 'someones' - has been looking for a decent action flick for Karl Urban for quite some time now. After his supporting or small roles in hits such as The Lord of The Rings trilogy, Vin Diesel's Chronicles Of Riddick and The Bourne Supremacy, someone tried to set up the Mars-based, video game-derived movie Doom for him (although it never did seem clear if he or The Rock was supposed to receive top billing). That movie bombed quite badly.

Now we have Marcus Nispel's Pathfinder, and there is no doubt about on whose shoulders the flick rests. Perhaps it is also time for that someone or 'someones' to stop looking.

Here's the basic premise: It is 600 years before Columbus 'discovers' North America. A Viking warship is shipwrecked somewhere way up north on the continent. A brutal raid or two on the villages of some natives follows. There is one survivor, a Viking boy who is adopted by the said natives his people came to kill. They call him Ghost.

It is 15 years later, and Ghost (Urban) is still not a qualified brave, chiefly because he cannot prove which race he belongs to. During some rite or another, which Ghost cannot enter due to this lack of qualification, but which involves every other brave leaving camp, the 'Dragon' - the Vikings return for second helpings and destroy Ghost's village and slaughter his people, including the man he called father.

Of course, he swears vengeance and embarks on the same. As a side plot, he has a crush on Starfinder (Moon Bloodgood), who is from a neighbouring village and the daughter of the titular Pathfinder, played by Russell Means. He and most of his tribe dropped by for a rather brief visit, but left before the return of the 'Dragon'. Ghost's father is killed in front of him and he is wounded while exacting his vengeance, eventually finding his way to the neighbouring village. Of course, he is tracked there and the villagers must cross the mountains, something they seem to do on a regular basis anyway, despite their fear of avalanches and such dangers which result from the spring thaw where they live. They leave, all with the exception of Ghost and Starfire, who slips away one night.

So traps are laid. One brave, who is somewhat mentally retarded, tags along with Ghost - against the latter's wishes - much in the way Samwise Gamgee faithfully followed Frodo Baggins in Lord Of The Rings.

Now, the Indians - if one can call them that, since they dwell in an area which would make Eskimos a much more accurate moniker - all speak English, at least for movie purposes. The Vikings all speak Norse for the entire movie, which is beautiful for vérité purposes - but there is never even the hint of a sub-title, forcing the audience to guess at a translation for what is said in Norse - and these are NOT the strong silent types.

If Indians/Eskimos are going to be speaking perfect English, why not the Vikings? This is not Apocalypto after all, and even Mel Gibson had sub-titles.
Ghost is a fair hand with a sword, despite the fact that no one there knows how to use one except Ghost - and how much could he have known at age eight max? When the time comes however, using a sword - and a shield for that matter, is not a problem.

It would not be fair to call Urban stiff, since his character is one-dimensional, even the scenes in which the audience is given hints as to his 'forbidden' love for Starfire being laughable. Clancy Brown as Gunnar, the Viking heavyweight, is slightly more entertaining despite not being understandable - or perhaps because of it. Besides, watching him in this reminds of seeing him versus Sean Connery in Highlander and perhaps that helps.

The climatic scene is given away around half an hour into the film and it is never quite understood why there should be only one Pathfinder between two villages - actually, it is never made quite clear what a pathfinder does.
Perhaps Urban is fated to be ever the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to action movies. If you want to see a decent pre-historic blood and gore film, wait for 300.

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