Movies
Ranking John McTiernan Films: #10 – “The 13th Warrior” (1999)
Yikes. What happened here? I mean this in the nicest way, but The 13th Warrior is the dumbest movie that John McTiernan has directed.
“A man, having fallen in love with the wrong woman, is sent by the sultan himself on a diplomatic mission to a distant land as an ambassador. Stopping at a Viking village port to restock on supplies, he finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a quest to banish a mysterious threat in a distant Viking land.”
Director: John McTiernan, Michael Crichton
Writers: Michael Crichton, William Wisher, Warren Lewis
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Dennis Storhøi, Vladimir Kulich
Release Date: August 27, 1999
IMDB
Yikes. What happened here? I mean this in the nicest way, but The 13th Warrior is the dumbest movie that John McTiernan has directed. By that, the audience doesn’t need to turn a single brain cell on for the entire cinematic journey. Exposition is dumped quickly and haphazardly, resulting in a movie that revolves around bad-looking action set pieces.
It is rather shocking how bad The 13th Warrior looks. The few shots of the Viking men traveling on the ship are completed with some putrid CGI. Then there are the action sequences, which don’t have nearly the fluidity of amusement that one would expect from a McTiernan adventure.
It should be noted that McTiernan is credited with co-directing The 13th Warrior with author and screenwriter Michael Crichton. This is the lone time in his career he shares credit. According to reports, Crichton took over the directing after the initial test screenings, which were extremely poor. The original cut was supposed to be released in the summer of 1998, so it took over a year of reshoots and re-editing. The late changes are noticeable.
I think McTiernan let go of the reins of The 13th Warrior and quickly shifted focus. In August 1999, two McTiernan releases were released, the first being The Thomas Crowne Affair, which is a far superior movie. It’s as if McTiernan wanted to race to get a better movie into theaters to salvage his name before the swollen The 13th Warrior project made its debut.
STANKO RATING: D-
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