Getty Images/Ethan Miller for HISTORY

At the end of season two of Vikings, Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) took the title King of the Danes by force when he and those loyal to him defeated King Horik. Now Ragnar is set on conquering England and even France as the HISTORY series continues to serve up epic battle scenes for viewers.

In one of the most shocking announcements at San Diego Comic-Con 2014, the cast revealed a major character would die this season. They were quiet as to who would get the axe (literally, most likely) but teased a major battle in Paris. Season 3 is bringing Alexander Ludwig’s Bjorn Ironside into the battle even more as he joins his father and uncle, Rollo (Clive Standen), in claiming new lands. Ragnar and his brother are finally moving forward together after nursing a strained  relationship for much of the last season.

Click through for more, including a sneak peak at season 3. After the break.

Lone Survivor is a movie that does itself a few large disservices: Its title reveals too much; its trailer is much too long and plays like quick spot on an On Demand showcase; and it tugs and shoves and pulls in so many directions, that it ends up seeming unsure of both its strengths and its point.

There’s a decent and well-crafted movie in there, but the marketing, and a good deal of the film itself, tend to be dissuasive.

Survivor, if you haven’t seen the trailer, chronicles the story of SEAL Team 10’s somewhat disastrous Operation Red Wings, a 2005 mission with the objective of assassinating Taliban leader Ahmad Shah during the Afghanistan war.

Mark Wahlberg plays SO1 Marcus Luttrell, the titular Lone Survivor and author of the book on which the film is based, and his story is indeed an interesting, even uplifting one, and director Peter Berg shoots it with an apparent grittiness and shakiness that you would expect. Wahlberg plays haggard and weary well. Impassioned well. Sorrowful well.

Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana, as his team, convey the sense of golden brotherhood that makes films like these sustainable. The story, while short, is compelling, and the second act of Wahlberg’s survival is an interesting twist. It’s a decent film, and if you’re in the mood for a good war drama, this is safe bet.

But…

What’s the point? This doesn’t need to be a political film; it doesn’t need to justify its war or its mission or, on the opposite end, attack it. And it doesn’t. Nor does it need to go far beyond what it does well, which is action. It’s not spectacular or very original, it even seems too polished in its sterile dirt. However, the biggest flaw, which nearly becomes an insult, at least to me, is what I want to describe as the film’s lack of faith in itself, but which I should really, if I’m being honest, is its pandering.

Big book franchises are all the rage these days, obviously. Harry Potter is now out of theaters, Twilight only has another year left in it, and now it’s time for a brand new franchise to take over Hollywood, in the shape of kids fighting to eat in a post-apocalyptic world.

For those who aren’t aware, here’s the film’s synopsis, based on the first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The first teaser trailer doesn’t give us much (just a “tease”, if you will), but it’s certainly enough to get us excited for the film’s release on March 23rd, 2012.