Bombastic action rescues monotonous 'Pathfinder'

"Pathfinder " is not a movie about the best - selling SUV. It does, however, serve up another helping of ancient carnage. The movie is part "Apocalypto " (warriors, threat of hostile takeover, violence!) and part "300 " (warriors, threat of hostile takeover, violence!), but with the commercial misfortune of being neither. Like "Apocalypto," it's a monotonously single-minded chase picture. Yet like "300," it's best when bombastic.

The story dabbles in fiction (the film calls it "legend"), settling us in North America "500 years before Columbus will reach its shores," and among the Wampanoag Indians, who called what is now New England home. They take in a blond Viking orphan, discovered lost in the ruins of a massive Norse longship . They name him Ghost , presumably since Tarzan , Annie , and Dances With Wolves were taken. Young Ghost grows into Karl Urban , the New Zealand action star with the kind eyes. When Vikings lay waste to his family, he flees into the vast wilderness, where another group takes him in and dresses his wounds.

But the Germanic-sounding Norsemen -- large, hairy, interchangeable boors, two of whom are allegedly played by Clancy Brown and German he-man Ralf Moeller -- are on Ghost's trail. And he doesn't want harm to visit his new caretakers, so he strikes out on his own, only to be followed by Starfire (Moon Bloodgood ), the strong but smitten daughter of the tribe's wise leader, Pathfinder (Russell Means ). Calling the movie "Ghost" would just have been too confusing. Plus, the old man is beside the point --all the Indians are, really.

"'Pathfinder" is only interesting to the filmmakers and, sadly, to us when the hairy dudes stalk Ghost, capture him and Starfire , then force him to lead them all back to the protectors he just left. What the movie lacks in developed Indian characters, anthropological rigor, and dialogue, it makes up for in grueling action sequences. One is set on a frozen lake, the other on a mountainside cliff. Only then does the German director Marcus Nispel , a veteran of music videos and the man behind 2003's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre " remake, really seem up for doing any filmmaking. He and his crew choreograph some excitement. But those are two set pieces in a 99-minute adventure that feels longer than that.

Urban and Bloodgood make the most of their parts, locking eyes and arms, and occasionally using American English as if the snowy 10th century were another way of saying, "Where the après ski?" Urban is especially well suited for movies like "Pathfinder": barely speaking, barely clothed. If there's any justice, someone will keep him in mind for "300 II."

Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com. For more on movies, go to boston.com/ae/movies/blog.