That was an excellent one.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Pathfinder is a Scandinavian fable set sometime in the 10th or 11th century involving a young indigenous Sami boy, whose family are massacred by the warring Tchudes, and flees to a nearby village to help defend them from the approaching pillagers. There is confrontation between some of the villagers and the boy, as some believe that they are no match for the superior in numbers Tchude barbarians, while a few others are willing to stay behind to help the boy fight them off.Once the Tchudes do arrive, the boy is taken prisoner and agrees to help them find a way through a pass in the mountains to get to the coastal village that the other Sami have fled to. But the boy has a final trick up his sleeve that will hopefully save them....It's a timeless coming of age tale, and of good versus evil. But what makes it unique is the frigid Arctic setting, as well as the insight into the native culture of the Sami people. Most interesting is the undercutting theme of interconnected destinies, as the pathfinder Raste informs the boy how important it is to find strength in others, even when it seems you are on your own in the darkest of times. No man is truly free, and the pathfinder serves as a beacon for guiding the boy to his destiny to save the village, as well as lead the Tchudes on their path to self destruction. Raste understands how the heart of nature is intertwined with that of his people, as shown by his sighting of the reindeer bull.

The villains were looking for nothing other than some prime sami villages to plunder. However, they didn't take into account the Steven Segal of the North. He managed to out run them on one ski, and this made the maniac leader of the tsjude bad men really annoyed. I think his face would scare anyone half to death.So in between this and the end, we see that the samis are a spiritual folk, with great respect for nature. They are starved, and have to kill a bear to get through winter. The man who killed him, gets a magical aura around himself, and his tribe mates can look at him only through a metal ring.By now, the villains, are interested in getting to the large sami sijdda (village) by the coast. However, they have no GPS system, so the steven segal-sami-man offers to show them the way. His girlfriend waits for him at the coast, but she does not believe that he is a traitor. But can she know for sure? The climax scene involves no violence, in stead we get a huge avalanche killing all the raiders, leaving them buried under tons of ice, snow and rock. And Steven Segal was the man who led them into it. He sacrificed his life so that the other samis could live.In the dying moments of the film, as the samis ponder the great sacrifice a creature moves outside the lavvo, and the young, handsome ofelas (pathfinder) enters. The girl smiles.

An excellent film based on a thousand year old legend,"Pathfinder" was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. Directed by Miles Gaup, his first film, Pathfinder is from a tale he heard from his grandfather. The film is in the Lapp language and reflects the customs and costumes of ancient northern Norway in the deep of winter.The legend is of a Lapp boy, Aigin, played by Mikkel Gaup. Aigin's family is murdered by a barbarian group, the Tchudes, who are invading and killing along the way. Aigin is wounded but escapes and finds his way across waist deep snow to collapse once he reaches the nearest village. The villagers are terrified of the Tchudes, and mad at Aigin for leaving a blood trail for the murderous band to follow. Rasti-the Noidi (a sort of shaman), played by Nils Utsi, tells a frightened Aigin about visions of the great reindeer. Rasti also tells the boy about how the brotherhood of mankind is connected to everything: to be out of touch was to be a Tchude.Most of the townspeople flee to the safety of the village on the seashore, having strength in numbers, and in the fact that it (the village) lies at the base of an extremely treacherous mountain.A few of the original villagers stay with Aigin to fight the Tchudes: even reducing the barbarians' numbers before being captured. Rasti-the-Noidi is killed and Aigin is used as a pathfinder to locate the people who live by the sea. Aigin tricks the Tchudes on the side of the mountain and they are killed in an avalanche.The sea-villagers see the snow engulfing the Tchudes. They go back inside their thick animal-hide tents and build their fires high, composing a story of the great boy Aigin who saves his people. Aigin shows up at their door, bloodied once again. This time, the villagers are not mad - they hand him Rasti's little skin drum. He is now Aigin-the-Noidi.The use of subtitles is something which American viewers have a hard time accepting. American audiences have a sort of arrogance about a film that is not spoken in English. The subtitles in Pathfinder; however, are not a hindrance. Action and vocal inflection carry the storyline well enough that a viewer could probably understand what's going on without the subtitles even being there.Besides the universal good versus evil theme, the viewers are treated to a view of a boy growing up: the way Aigin looks at the girl from the village when he's hurt versus the way he looks at her once he is the Noidi. Keeping in touch with human kind and with nature are also themes stated in this movie.Director Nils Gaup gives the audience a bit of foreshadowing with a flying crow: to symbolize impending death. The way he films the journey shots in letterbox style is nice because the viewer can always tell when the Tchudes are traveling. The sound is interesting in that every time the Tchudes come into a scene, there is a sound like a cross between a car door slamming and a slab of foot-thick ice cracking underfoot; which is a little disconcerting, just like the Tchudes themselves.Pathfinder has a great deal of violence in it. The body count is high enough to compare it to a Rambo, or Dirty Harry movie in the sheer amount of killing. However, in Pathfinder, the camera does not relish the gore, only uses it to convey the atrocities carried out on those peaceful Lapplanders.Overall, Pathfinder is a wonderful movie that really has not received the attention that it rightfully deserves. It has good style, interesting culture, and a storyline that has been worked for a thousand years.

This is a beautiful movie about men and spiritually and what it means to be a spiritual man. The idea of a higher good; universal truths and the role of man on Earth. Man has always been the protector and warrior and this movie portrays that duty in its purest form. This is masculinity distilled and captured sublimely on film. Every male should watch this movie, particularly young American men who are told how horrible they are and how wrong it is to act as their nature dictates by the media and academia. I plead every father in this country to watch this with their sons. This is one of those movies that is great because it transcends simple entertainment and increases the amount of good in the world every time it is watched.