Hammer of the Gods

This mediocre movie aired on Sci-Fi on Saturday night (April 11, 2009). It had Vikings doing battle with werewolves, which sounded kind of cool though the previews demonstrated that the CGI was going to be atrocious. Anyway, as I can't skip a Viking movie, I watched it.

The story starts with our intrepid heroes sailing a wolf-headed longship on a voyage of discovery. The brothers Ulfrich, Baldur, and Thor (played by Zachary Ty Bryan, who I last saw as the oldest son from `Home Improvement') are the central figures, with Baldur in command. In addition to the soon to be dead Vikings crew, there are two women: Freya the Seer and Sif, wife of Ulfrich. Though I did like that the Vikings didn't have horns on their helmets, and had swords and armor that accorded with the period, I found the Viking Warrior Women a bit curious. Plus, the axes were not Viking style axes. Much of the crew were named for Norse Gods, making you wonder if this was some sort of myth of the early days of the gods. No, just couldn't think of other names it seems. Besides, what American audience is going to know the Norse Pantheon?

The heroes spot an island and plan to claim it. Shortly after landing, Thor and another Viking go hunting for food but the other Viking is dragged away by werewolves. When Thor reports this, no one believes him. Not until four more Vikings are killed does anyone accept that maybe Thor was telling the truth. With the handful of Vikings that remain, the brothers make a stand against the werewolves and drive them off.

Throughout the story, Thor has visions of a helmed man with a great hammer with which he slays a huge sea serpent (brought to you by really bad CGI). His visions are guiding him to a mountain on the island, where the hammer can be found. Thor is not particularly bright and concludes that the man in the vision is his brother Baldur. Even when Baldur dies in a rearguard action, Thor is still certain that Baldur is the one to wield the great hammer. Freya finally convinces him that he is the one in the vision. It hardly needs saying that Thor manages to capture the hammer and slay Fenrir the wolf (whose blood turned men into werewolves and is rendered in cutting edge CGI from 1995) with it.

Cheap production though it was, it did a better job with Vikings than the disastrous Pathfinder. The underlying story was pretty good but the execution was disappointing. Fenrir could only be killed by the hammer so he guarded it with his life. He created werewolves to slay any who came to the island. When you consider what a bumpkin Thor was, Fenrir should have won.

 

Checking IMDb, this was Zachary Ty Bryan's last role.  Indeed, this is the sort of film that ends careers.