Pathfinder – Unrated Edition on DVD July 31

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I live by a simple rule: there’s no such thing as bad publicity. With that in mind, let’s see what the metacritics.com critics had to say about Pathfinder, which debuts on DVD at the end of the month.

The 0/100 reviews:
“No more than a minute into this, and it becomes obvious that the next 98 are going to be trouble.” – San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle

“Here’s my nomination for future grindhouse double-bill from hell: Pathfinder and Apocalypto.” – Baltimore Sun, Michael Sragow

The 20/100 reviews:
“Makes Conan the Barbarian seem like Dostoyevsky in its complexity.” – Washington Post, Stephen Hunter

“The director, Marcus Nispel, takes his butchery very seriously. (He was the lead vivisectionist for the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.) He may not be able to make this movie move, but, man, can he make an eyeball fly.” – The New York Times Manohla Dargis

There are better reviews, but for a movie like Pathfinder, an epic Viking actioneer starring Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings), the bad reviews tend to be more entertaining and enlightening then damning. Take that line from the New York Times review about the eyeball flying. For me and many other critics, that line would be a bad thing, but for the fans of full-throttle action movies, it may be exactly what they want to see.

Also as the Times’s Dargis points out that Pathfinder is directed by Marcus Nispel, an early trendsetter in the current torture film movement. The plot of a renegade Viking fighting against his Norse brethren mixed with the bloody sensibilities of Nispel is a perfect storm of exploitation, and Pathfinder has the R-Rating for “strong brutal violence throughout” to prove it.

So what can DVD connoisseurs expect from the Pathfinder: Unrated Edition disc? How about:

o Five-part behind-the-scenes featurette
o The Beginning (the original film, the factual history, and how the movie got the green light)
o The Design (the look of the film, and the collaboration with the creator of the graphic novel)
o The Build (constructing the costumes, props, and sets)
o The Shoot (the challenging shooting conditions and schedule)
o The Stunts (an in-depth look at some of the stunts in the film)
o We Shoot Now! Marcus Nispel on the set of Pathfinder featurette
o Clancy Brown: Cult Hero featurette
o Theatrical trailers

That’s in addition to the features the appear on both the rated and unrated DVD:
o Audio commentary by director Marcus Nispel
o Eight deleted scenes (with optional director commentary)
o Ghost hunts in the forest
o Ghost crosses the lake for the first time and realizes the danger
o Starfire tends to Ghost’s wounds
o Starfire tends to Ghost’s wounds and gets more than she bargained for
o Jester follows Ghost and is chased away
o Jester mimics Ghost
o Vikings hold Ghost, Pathfinder and Starfire hostage
o Pathfinder counsels Ghost before the Quartering

Damning as the reviews may have been, I’d venture to guess Pathfinder, with its meager $10 million box office tally, wasn’t harmed by reviews. It may have just been a bad movie. Lucky for Nispel and the other people involved in making this film, they weren’t shooting for Oscar; they wanted a bloody action epic.

If this clip proves anything, they deliver:

[youtube voDOy_IyZss]

Pathfinder comes to DVD on July 31.