Far off in the cold mountain reaches of Dovre (that’s in Norway, folks) peculiar things are happening. In the Troll Mountains. Earthquakes. Landslides. Sinkholes. Lots of sub-bass growling. Big gnarly footprints. What’s going on? The Norwegian Prime Minister sends a team of Army specialists in, after a team of archeologists already there gets stepped on and squished by Something Very Big.
Could it be trolls?
Yes, it could be trolls. Turns out that the archaeologists, like their colleagues in other movies, have poked their educated noses into a sensitive area. It would be better if they had left alone. Because sleeping trolls are disturbed. And they are big and ugly. Full of a cranky disregard for human life. And ready to go on the rampage, snacking on cattle and farmers indiscriminately.
A Norwegian monster film
Produced by Roar Uthaug for Motion Blur and Netflix, the film stars Mads Pettersen and Hugo Skar. Shot on location around Stordahl and Trondheim, the film takes beautiful advantage of the forested mountains and glittering lakes and rivers in the area. Makes a person want to give up reviewing Netflix dreck to go fishing in a fjord. This is a standard-issue monster film. Nobody believes their own eyes at first, trying to believe instead that it must have been a meteor strike or tornado or Soviet incursion of some kind. Maybe even an errant T Rex somehow on the loose. But certainly not trolls! Nobody believes in such fairy tales! Things start to get fun when the Norwegian Army finally gets to tangle with a mountain troll. Like the Japanese with Godzilla, the military’s popguns are ineffectual against the rampaging trolls. After all, trolls ARE made of stone.
Thin but fun
The plot and characters are thin. Writers Roar and Espen keep the trolls grumbling in the background far too long. Twenty minutes into the film viewers are still waiting impatiently for the mossy monsters to dance the bunny hop on quaint Norwegian villages. It ain’t The Batman, but the film delivers some fun man vs. monster pyrotechnics along the way. Sorry. No spoiler alert. We aren’t going to tell you how the trolls are finally defeated. Or are they? Perhaps on your next jaunt to Oslo you’ll be welcomed by the ravening maw of an animated mountain. Your call . . .
