A March Warrior
As the daughter of King Thorsson (Greg Melvill-Smith), Freya (Jane March) is expected to do the right thing which in the eyes of her father is to marry Sven (William Gregory Lee) who really only has one thing on his mind and that is to become the next King. When Thorsson decides to attack an island where reports of a beast that killed Agnar (David Dukas) come from he does so against Freya's pleas. And she is right as Sven returns to proclaim himself king and demanding that Freya marries him. When her friend Eric (Justin Whalin) tells her that Sven ran when they saw the monster she decides to head to the island where she pleads with the monster to spare her father, which he does in return for her agreeing to stay.
Let me tell you what the most striking thing about "Beauty and the Beast", which also goes by the name "Blood of the Vikings", is, it is that Jane March looks stunning especially when you remember it was over a decade earlier that she made a stir with movies such as "The Lover" and "Color of Night". But other than prompting you to see how old March was when she made this I can't say that there is much else to this combo of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairytale with a Viking adventure movie. And if truth be told I found it pretty tedious pretty quickly and was clock watching before the first 15 minutes were up.
Now the storyline is just an elaboration on the "Beauty and the Beast" as we have this monster on an island, Freya agreeing to stay with him in order for her father to be spared and Sven, who really is a coward, giving it large with plans to attack. Within the first 15 minutes of this not only does the story jump, leaving something out but at the same time makes it incredibly obvious as to what is going on. Unfortunately none of it is engaging and neither is it exciting with action scenes consisting of plenty of grunting but little else. I am genuinely looking for a positive and sadly the only positive is a shallow one as Jane March and Candice Hillebrand who plays her maid Ingrid are good looking.
What this all boils down to is that whether you call it "Beauty and the Beast" or "Blood of the Vikings" it is a bad movie with only the attractiveness of the female actresses being memorable. Maybe if you are a huge fan of these Viking style fantasy movies this one may have something to offer but otherwise it is extremely tedious.
