Pathfinder

Review in a Hurry:  Karl Urban stars as a ninth century Viking orphan—adopted by Native Americans—who's forced to pull a Rambo when his former countrymen invade again. Ample material for fans of fog machines and decapitations, not so much for anyone else.

The Bigger Picture:  This Last of the Mohicans retread should find its way to DVD sooner than later. Already hampered by a story laced with dime-store wisdom and implausibilities, Pathfinder reaches for the saving grace of fast-paced action but comes up empty around the second chaotically shot, gut-churning slaughter scene.

There's no denying that director Marcus Nispel (the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, so much better realized) can frame a pretty picture, but here, he seems unable to string them together properly. Pathfinder's editing is slipshod, and the cinematography, however artfully streaked with light and fog, has no sense of continuity. Scenes that ought to rip, such as an absurd sled chase down a mountain, instead come across as dry and technical.

Substituting brutality for character hasn't done the movie any favors, either. With the violence ratcheted up to Grim Factor 11, there's little for the heroes to do but mope and display steely resolve, something Urban proved much better at in The Lord of the Rings movies.

The climax, a surprisingly intense fight in a snowy mountain pass, hints at the kind of thrills Nispel was searching for all along; he seems much more in command of the action in a narrowly defined space.

But it really only works if you happened to stumble into the theater during the last reel. Sit through the whole thing and all you're looking for by the end is a way out.