Viking (2022)
59KViking (2022). 1h 44m
“Itu0026#39;s not often that we see a sci-fi film that doesnu0026#39;t have a big budget and not produced by a major studio.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFilms within this genre naturally require a lot of money for the CGI and general production design.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, there is occasionally the odd independent release that has decided to go this route.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis particular new release has got a strange concept that Iu0026#39;m not sure where it was going to go in terms of tone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow that I have seen it, it was like I was watching an arthouse version of Red Dwarf with an almost Big Brother environment whilst giving nods to 2001: A Space Odyssey.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe purposeful low budget sets and costumes gave us an effective grounded look to the story. This gave us time to concentrate on the characters and itu0026#39;s themes of achieving your ultimate dream both for you personally and as a species.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSteve Laplante was a very capable lead and I liked the journey his character went. He had a very likable screen presence and I think it was helped by his supports.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLarissa Corriveau in particular produced a lot of the films energy and Hamza Haq gave us some good comedic moments as did Denis Houleu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI was surprised at how entertained I was. Thereu0026#39;s genuine laughs to be had amongst the surrealness of the situation.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYou can see that the people behind making it loved the material and are fans of sci-fi.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf I was being picky, I think some of themes could have been better utilised. This would resulted in a more satisfying ending as there were some loose ends not quite tied up.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut even with those issues from a personal perspective, this is still a very entertaining watch. The concept worked, the characters are easy to invest with, the deadpan humour is great, the minimal production design enhances the grounded story well and thereu0026#39;s a quirky charm to it that is very infectious.”
