Troll Hunter: Norwegian film

Over the weekend, I went to a film festival downtown expecting to see this, but the seating was full, and my sister and I were just narrowly not seated. Other people who had signed up on the waiting list just before us did get in. We were there about 10 minutes early. Oh, well.

I did get to see it, through unexpected means which I perfer not to discuss. But it involved the Internet. And no costs.

Anyway, I had seen the trailer previously (ironically pointed out by another Blogspot blog, located on my links). I feel informed and "in the know" and it's a cool feeling I don't often have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEo7H9tqSM


In my "labels" I included kaijuology, xenomorph, natural history, movies, and culture. An odd mix of topics, I admit. I could have also said "of cryptozoological interest" although I put that under the natural history label. Kaijuology refers to my "study" of monster movies, especially of the larger Godzilla variety. Xenomorph also refers to fictional "monsters" of the unexpected variety, preferably Godzilla-esque too. And the Trolls seen in this movie clearly qualified. The 'movies' label is easy and needs no explanation; the 'culture' label is included because this movie sheds light to world audiences on Norwegian folklore, modern culture, and says some things about their points of view regarding religion and the environment. And in the case of this particular American, I have become much better at spelling "Norweigen".

In a brief review on just a few points, 1) it was a fun movie, but not anything exceptional. With that said, I was rewarded by my expectations and am glad it was made. From the trailer, I had thought of the film (and desribed it to friends as) a cross between Jurassic Park and Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with trolls. I wasn't too far off. I think there was much less Buffy than I had hoped. Far less ass-kicking, which I expected, but also much less witty dialogue, which I hadn't and was disappointed with. Even accepting that clever wordplay might not survive translation effectively, there was so much less attitude of wry wit.

Oh, by the way, yes this movie is in the Norwegian language but with English subtitles. Luckily, the word "troll" survives the language barrier ;-)

2) I personally don't think trolls made very good kaiju. My own conception of trolls (American and Lord of the Rings-influenced) doesn't have them anywhere near as huge as seen in this movie. The "small" elephantine trolls who lived under bridges and ate sheep were much more to my liking. I freely admit it is a matter of taste, here.

3) The movie tried hard and confusingly and counter-productively to describe the trolls scientifically. The troll's metaphysical terror/hate of "Christian blood" was completely out of line with all the natural plausibility given, and never peoperly addressed.

4) I gotta go. TTYL