Path not worth finding

Take "Dances with Wolves," remove any discernible plot and the brilliant acting and you have "Pathfinder." \n"Pathfinder" opens with an American Indian woman finding a young boy on a wrecked Viking ship. The Vikings had destroyed most of the woman's village but they decided to take the boy in and raise him as their own. Fifteen years later, the Vikings return to cleanse the American shore of the "savages" before they settle it.\nDirector Marcus Nispel directed 2003's sinisterly gory "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" but apparently did not get all the gratuitous slasher violence out of his system. There are multiple decapitations and raw violence on the screen throughout but even a fan of violent movies will be turned off by the often incomprehensible editing of the battle scenes. There are times when the audience sees a flash of action, lots of bodies hitting each other, then a couple hit the ground. It is as if Nispel thinks that we should just take his word that the corpse on the ground at the end of the scene was the warrior who lost the fight from the beginning of the scene. This kind of camera work and editing has worked before ("Braveheart"), but here it's just a jumbled mess and the acting doesn't help.\nThe acting in "Pathfinder" is terrible and seemingly historically inaccurate. There is very little engaging dialogue but when there is, it's in English! For some reason the director decided to have the American Indians speak English throughout while the Vikings speak a crude, probably Norse language. Where is the authenticity? Even if you think reading subtitles is a pain, you can never argue that "The Passion of the Christ" or "Apocalypto" didn't feel authentic. "Pathfinder" does regain (a smidgen) of authenticity with the filming location, Vancouver. \nWhile the camera work is suspect, the cinematography is beautiful, but it would be hard to make the snowy mountains of Vancouver look bad. Also, the costumes and makeup were top-notch. The Vikings wore so much armor they looked otherworldly, something like you might see in "Lord of the Rings."\nAlthough there are some decent technical aspects of the film, it doesn't make up for a razor-thin, recycled plot and uninspired filmmaking. When was the last time you left a theater raving great choice of filming location, anyway? Skip this one, and go see "Grindhouse" or "300" to satisfy your violent movie craving.