Wonderful character development!

Truly Dreadful Film

Sadly Over-hyped

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I was pretty sceptical at the beginning - having no idea what the movie was about, but I understood the humour within 10 minutes. The music also seemed queer at the start, but it finally sets the perfect tone for this movie. I have always been curious about live action role-playing game, I wondered how people can enter their role and leave the outer world behind, separating fantasy from real life. In this movie, you immerse in this universe perfectly. It was really interesting to see characters getting more and more confused between real life and fantasy, especially when fantasy gets real... Now I just hope every LARP week-end doesn't end like this. Congratulations to the wardrobe team on this, you could never imagine they produced this on a low budget. Lightyears from cheap Braveheart rags. DOP is A1, and the locations are perfect. All actors did a great job. What more to say? Watch it now!

The Wild Hunt has some great things going for it: an interesting and straightforward premise (guy goes into LARPing event to "rescus" his estranged girlfriend carrying emotional and family baggage along the way) some gorgeous looking locations, great production values for this level of budget…but ultimately it's let down by irritating characters and a weak third act. The film doesn't setup the relationship between the Erik and Lyn. I appreciated the melancholy tone it sets, but without any background there's no real investment in Erik's quest. Erik himself doesn't go through any arc, he begrudgingly enters the LARP world complaining the whole time. When at last it looks like he's coming around, he goes right back to being a sullen jerk to everyone. The character of Lyn seems to shift into whatever mode the scene calls for: at once she's emotionally confused, then she's ready to give things a go with Erik but goes right in to chastising him. If the film were trying to say something about the value in letting things go, or that Erik's desperate attempt to save his relationship is more of a fantasy than the LARP, I'd get it. Not every film needs a happy ending, but this one falls short.Erik succeeds in rescuing Lyn about halfway through the film, and the climax of the film simply has her getting kidnapped again (albeit, in a more sinister fashion) with Erik in pursuit again. I wish they had thought of something different instead of just repeating an earlier plot point. To me, this would be like having Star Wars: A New Hope climax with Luke and Han having to rescue Leia, AGAIN. While I can dig a tragic ending, the film wraps up abruptly with a lot of characters meeting graphic and tragic ends, but none of it seems to relate to their journey along the way. The first 2/3rds of the film are enjoyable, but if you expect the characters to grow or the story to take you in different places, you'll find the last 1/3rd disappointing.

The problem with current cinema in a nutshell: it is considered cool and edgy for movie characters to be constantly irritated, annoyed, offensive and swearing. The problem with this movie in particular: people who engage in live role-playing do so because it's fun. They don't go around constantly using f-words and c-words and taking things too seriously and not seriously enough at the same time, as shown in this movie (I am not a live role-player, but I have friends who are). "Artistic license" it may be, but that doesn't stop it from also being a betrayal of what live role-playing is really like. Yes, a betrayal: some audiences, not knowing how distant this portrayal of it is from the real thing, will be scared away from live role-playing by this movie. It's all but saying that role-playing will lead to uncontrollable violence - a repetition of ignorant, conservative, long out-of-date fears about young people's love for comics, video games and role-playing.I realize the story is trying to take things to a different level; speculating about minor conflicts getting out of hand and turning into deadly serious major ones, and that's fine. There are many good ideas here and very nice directing, but in my view it should have been handled very differently. It just never feels like something that could happen, or like a good representation of live role-playing. Many plot developments seem contrived (like Lyn suddenly getting sick, and the car that won't start), and the way most of the characters hate each other is completely contrary to real live role-playing situations, even though the latter certainly has its share of intrigues and internal politics. But in this movie the characters (esp. Shaman Murtagh) are just not believable. They range from too angry and obnoxious to nastily self-ridiculing. The story itself goes into such extremes that we are asked to suspend our disbelief beyond any bounds of credibility. I wonder which audience this is made for. Is it an attempt to thematize the danger of fantasy being confused with reality? Or is it just an excuse to escalate the pretend-violence into real violence? I, for one, don't think it works.Of course, I'm judging this from how similar it is to real live role-playing. Maybe the writer and director didn't care about that, but wanted to do something different. All right. But people involved in live role-playing are the ones who will mainly and mostly want to see this movie, and therefore one might argue that it ought to be truer to their experience. If the writer and director achieved what they set out to do, good for them. For me, however, this was a disappointment and in bad taste. It should either have been more tasteful (some may not be aware of it, but great drama *is* possible without copious profanity, as any student of literature will know) or much more like a comedy. After all, live role-playing is about fun. This movie undermines and takes away that fun. Maybe it would be an interesting and innovative movie if there already existed twenty movies done in the proper spirit, but since there doesn't, this is not what people who understand live role-playing is looking for.For those like me who may have been disappointed with this movie, I recommend watching All's Faire In Love instead. A similar idea, but done as a comedy, and a very effectively entertaining one.5 out of 10.

As most Canadian film is recognized as either unduly reflective and sombre or irreverently goofy, it comes as a breath of fresh air to find an offering of local cinema which achieves a tone dabbling in both without overdosing on either. In fact, director Alexandre Franchi's film delights in misleading its audience, opening with a terse, exhilarating Nordic battle only to have it interrupted by a participant whining "Okay, are we done now?", thus exposing the film to be set in the world of LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) - fantasy nerds dressing up in Medieval attire and enacting staged combat. But Franchi's trickery does not stop there, leading with comedic sequences detailing hapless but charming Erik (Ricky Mabe)'s bemused quest to reclaim his fled girlfriend (Kaniehtio Horn, both wryly funny and tragically sombre) from the ranks of the costumed performers, led by Erik's gregarious brother Bjorn (hilarious, show stealing Mark Antony Krupa), only to undercut the seeming frivolity with continual flashes to mystical divine rites and an eerie continuous Norse musical drone, suggesting all is far from fine and dandy. Naturally, things take a turn for the worse in a plot twist reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, but the real surprise is how deeply chilling the film becomes and how quickly, exploring the feral violence allegedly at the core of each person and the worrisome disconnect between fantasy and reality in an isolated microcosm of chaos. Nonetheless, Franchi's film remains ultimately just as fun a watch as an intense, thought- provoking one, neatly intertwining the two excesses of his national cinema into one highly compelling blend. -8/10