It's an expertly manipulated film featuring some terrific underwater sequences and another intense performance from Aksel Hennie.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 12, 2019

It's an edge-of-your-seat film, with some stunning footage deep underwaterIt's an edge-of-your-seat film, with some stunning footage deep underwater, but the basic suspense plot frequently strains

| Aug 15, 2017

With his ratty moustache and balding head, Hennie makes an unlikely leading man (if this were Hollywood, the chiselled Bentley would surely fit the bill), but he suits the film's dour, downbeat mood, reminiscent of 1970s paranoid conspiracy thrillers.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2016

Certainly, the diving scenes look authentic and this is a world that needs exploring. But, the thriller angle is less than effective. Some niftier writing and staging could have made this a much scarier affair.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 17, 2015

... manages to generate consistent tension even as it gradually loses narrative credibility.

| Jan 9, 2015

Director Erik Skjoldbjrg (Insomnia) makes excellent use of the high-tech, low-glamour world he depicts, and manages an ending that is happy without being farcically so.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 26, 2014

An intense, moody conspiracy thriller set just before Norway's oil boom in the early 1980s.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 26, 2014

Skjoldbjaerg is unable to make us care as much as we should, and gives the film a kind of muddy look that translates directly into the viewer's mood.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 18, 2014

It attempts to capture the feel of a 1970s-era paranoid conspiracy movie, and it succeeds in tone, even if the plot isn't quite so air-tight.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2014

It's to Pioneer's credit that it is able to take something as clinical-sounding as "decompression sickness" and successfully turn it into a tension-ratcheting plot point.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 11, 2014

Pioneer is a conspiracy thriller that mostly illustrates how comparatively tedious real-world corporate conspiracies are.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2014

Director Erik Skjoldbjrg's film offers an amazing opportunity to experience the dark depths of the ocean, while paying homage to 1980s filmmaking.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Dec 5, 2014

"Pioneer" has the necessary parts for a finger-pointing thriller that could boil the blood if handled well. Alas, this story of workers wounded by corrupt oil industrialists and politicians sinks from drawn-out scenes and too few surprises.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2014

Remember this name: Aksel Hennie. If "Pioneer," a mixed bag of a conspiracy thriller, works at all, it largely does so because of him.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 5, 2014

A brooding psychological drama where everything that happens is open to multiple interpretations and figuring out who if anyone is on your side gets harder and harder to do.

| Dec 4, 2014

Mr. Skjoldbjaerg, who also tapped Norwegian history with his bank robbery re-enactment "Nokas," doesn't convey a creeping atmosphere of moral rot so much as an irksome glumness.

| Dec 4, 2014

Director Erik Skjolbjrg knows how to create a claustrophobic setting and he gets first class performances from his cast. The physical discomfort shown by the crew is palpable. Despite some plotholes it holds interest until just before the ending.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2014

The underwater sequences stun and terrify - nothing says claustrophobia quite like two weeks in a pressurized diving bell with someone you can't necessarily trust - and there's almost as much moisture and terror on land to drive Petter round the bend.

| Dec 4, 2014

In a cast that includes Wes Bentley, Stephen Lang and Jonathan LaPaglia, it's Mr. Hennie who makes "Pioneer" worth watching ...

| Dec 4, 2014

Very low-intensity and derivative.

| Dec 4, 2014