Monday 25 February 2019

Movie review of Lords of Chaos

Lords of Chaos -  6/10

Lords of Chaos is basically the story of Norwegian black metal band called Mayhem. If you are a metalhead, I'm pretty sure you know the story and you have probably read the book. When the book first came out, it was controversial as well and a lot of people including members of Mayhem and others involved were against it and said not everything in the book was true and all. It is after all a tragic yet interesting story and it was a matter of time when someone turns it into a movie. That someone was none other than Jonas Akerlund. A well known music video director who has done countless music videos for big names like Madonna,U2, Lady Gaga and many more. His recent movie before Lords of Chaos was the Netflix movie, Polar. He also happens to be ex drummer for Bathory. So he knows his metal history well and is probably the right person to direct this movie.

Watching it as a film fan, it was not too bad. The acting was alright especially Jack Kilmer who just happens to be the son of a certain Val Kilmer. Kilmer's portrayal of Pelle Olmin aka Dead was pretty good. His last scene was gruesome and the way he acted it out was brilliant. Rory Culkin as Euronymous was not too bad either. There are some shots where he does look like him. 
Casting was good as they got actors who resembled their characters pretty close. Hell hammer was dead on. However I don't remember Varg as a chubby kid. Emory Cohen's portrayal of Varg wasn't that great. his expressions did not convince me and the movie made him look like an idiot. But then again the real Varg is a weird fucker who says dumb shit at times so yea.. Idiot. I laughed out loud when the journalist and the photographer called him a fucking idiot for letting them take photos of him.
I didn't like the way it was edited as some parts of the movie felt like a music video. But I guess that's the style Jonas Akerlund wanted. Most of his movies have very similar edits. Thankfully, the edits didn't hamper the acting.
The kill scenes are brutal and I have to give credit to the sound department for that. Every stab sound, you can feel it and it did make me a little uneasy. 

Lords of Chaos is definitely a thought provoking movie especially if you are not a metal head and you do not know the history behind Norwegian black metal.
My biggest peeve from the movie is the accents. The movie is in Norway, its about Norwegian black metal, Norwegian band, Norwegian teenagers. So shouldn't the actors have a Norwegian accent at the very least? Making them sound American is just lazy to me. I've always had problems with movies that don't get the accents right. From Valkyrie to Enemy at the gate.

All in all , Lords of Chaos is a decent watch but I highly doubt that it will be playing here in Singapore, so stream it if you can.