I think expectations on The Northman was a bit weird. People kept using The Lighthouse as their reference point, and mentally I used The VVitch instead.
A slight detour to explain that.
To my understanding, when Pasolini, a gay, atheist, Marxist, did his Trilogy of Life, it was motivated by the idea that modern storytelling had gotten screwed up because of commercial interests (I suspect the Marxist part was relevant here), and he wanted an attempt to get back to what storytelling was like before they were affected by the need to gather greats amount of wealth by telling them. (personally, I wouldn't have thought The Canterbury Tales would have succeeded in this). Though, it's worth noting he still inserted an original story in The Canterbury Tales (and I don't know how I should take the fact that I felt this was the best entry in the movie - in terms of a verdict of this experiment). But I look at Oedipus Rex (sans the very end) and The Gospel According to St. Matthew and while not having heard anyone express similar things about those two, can't help but wonder how much Pasolini was still in a mode of wanting to tell these stories as they were (after, I don't know how long, I've finally ordered a copy of Salo that will be arriving in a month, so I guess I'll be finally watching that one as well). With that in mind, it's not surprising that his Gospel According to St. Matthew is, I believe (though far from certain), is supposed to be considered fairly faithful to the text (let's be honest, despite being dragged off to Church as a child, I never read the Bible, or don't really remember much of what I read). But with that light, it's not surprising that he'd create a movie that I've seen listed on some list of great movies from the Vatican (or maybe it was the Vatican's newspaper, which might be called, The Vatican? Look, I'm not Catholic, I don't feel the need to pay attention to these details. I stumbled across an official list somewhere and was amused at the slight irony of who made the film).
Anyhow, back to Eggers. Nothing in The VVitch was that out there compared to the source material, it's just, all those fables and legends about witches, was just pretty far out there to begin with (if put to screen. like in Haxan). So, it left me with the impression that Eggers seems interested in telling stories, legends, myths from past eras, to give them the space to be as alien and foreign as they were ("the past is a different country, they do things differently there," and all that). I can't say how that maps onto The Lighthouse, not being nearly as familiar with old wickie lore (or what have you). But that rosetta stone makes sense for The Northman, and while not reading the source material specifically for that epic, having had to read Beowulf at some point in my life for school like everyone else, it was pretty close to what I was expecting it to be before everyone else started getting really excited (also because it was listed as Action/Adventure, and horror wasn't on the list). Which is to say, I am not surprised he would eventually make a Viking epic story, and I am not surprised I would find it relatively less interesting than his other movies (but still interesting).
Bah. I thought I had a point but now it feels like I didn't. But I did want to take that detour talking about Pasolini while everyone was talking Eggers. I am curious how Eggers will talk about this one, like 10 years from now, with enough personal distance and not having to worry about torpedoing his career by expressing any shortcomings about it.
WARNING: "The Northman" spoilers below
wrt actual plot points -
The Kidman reveal - I feel like her turn was more, "this society sucks. I'm just meat to it, and I have to do what I have to survive." I still don't know if she actually liked the uncle. Though, he was probably the best of her bad options.
I think my biggest issue was the two leads actually expressing emotional love for each other close to the end. I wasn't expecting that in a Viking story. It seemed more like something out of, well, the last five centuries. So when I rewatch this, which, I know I will at some point, that will probably be the thing I'll be wondering about a lot.
wrt actual plot points -
The Kidman reveal - I feel like her turn was more, "this society sucks. I'm just meat to it, and I have to do what I have to survive." I still don't know if she actually liked the uncle. Though, he was probably the best of her bad options.
I think my biggest issue was the two leads actually expressing emotional love for each other close to the end. I wasn't expecting that in a Viking story. It seemed more like something out of, well, the last five centuries. So when I rewatch this, which, I know I will at some point, that will probably be the thing I'll be wondering about a lot.