Troll, a Norwegian movie about kaiju made by Netflix, has Scandinavian roots and a similar mythology to 2010’s Trollhunter. However, the plot of Troll is more similar to MonsterVerse by Legendary Pictures. Troll’s magic is revealed when Cold Prey director Roar Uthaug embraces its monster, despite its lack of narrative.
In the prologue, a father tells his young daughter Nora about legendary trolls whose bodies formed the majestic mountain peaks they admire. Ine Marie Wilmann’s Nora, a palaeontologist now, abandoned her faith in magic twenty years later. Even though this means that she has been estranged from her folklorist father for many years, it also means that she is well-suited to assist the government when an unknown destructive force of nature arises.
Troll, written by Espen Aukan and based on a story by Uthaug, follows the standard Kaiju format. The inciting event that sends officials running for cover, the small group of people who have to figure out what’s going on, and even the discussions between the government and the military about the best way to put an end to the threat to modern society all put the most recent Kaiju entry in familiar territory.
Troll comes from more than the MonsterVerse; It also heavily references the Jurassic Park series. The point where Nora is celebrating her discovery of a new dinosaur fossil is when the government helicopter flies over to retrieve her. With one-note characters, borrowed plot beats and dialogue standing out even more to comprehend the giant Troll’s presence, our heroine teams up with archetypes. Tobias (Gard B. Eidsvold), her father, is the steadfast believer most people dismiss as insane. The unlikely team of heroes is completed by the kind soldier Captain Kristoffer Holm (Mads Sjgrd Pettersen), the meek assistant to Prime Minister Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck), and the geeky tech genius Sigrid (Karoline Viktoria Sletteng Garvang).
The spectacle and the monstrous Troll are where Uthaug makes up for the story’s lack of depth. When the Troll appears on the screen, the feature comes to life. While the Troll’s visual effects are practical and Uthaug has an eye for destruction set pieces that are visually interesting, the film’s greatest strength is the way the director inspires empathy for his beast. The Troll’s story becomes more tragic the more we learn about it. There is a melancholy subtext here about how old folklore and traditions disappear over time, destroying culture.
The final act’s sincerity makes it so moving, sending viewers on a solid emotional surge and easing the sting of predictability. Troll’s new mythology makes up for its lack of originality. Even though there isn’t much to these characters, the leads are pleasant enough to get the job done. It is well-written and moves quickly, only briefly addressing essential environmental concepts. It’s entertaining enough and full of spectacle, but the most important thing is that you root for its magnificent creature.
