Troll

A Norwegian woman tries to stop a troll that was awakened by railway workers digging a new tunnel. This take on Emmerich's Godzilla-style American disaster romp knows how to poke fun at itself, but it also goes a little more serious at times, which creates a strange contradiction that some viewers may not be able to stomach. Uthaug is a skilled director, not entirely distinctive, but he knows his craft. The effects are decent, the action is good, almost unexpected for the Norwegians, and the jokes are often lethal. (2022-12-10)

While Øvredal's Troll Hunter dealt with similar mythology in an inventive, imaginative and humorous way, here the filmmakers just followed the beaten path of typical clichés of films about giant monsters à la King Kong, half-heartedly and without the necessary "wow effect" that would at least somehow cover all the predictability and unoriginality. (2022-12-30)

I loved the Emmerich-like grasp of kaiju-inspired disaster concepts, but Troll was a big disappointment except for the promising first half. While in the beginning I was quite entertained by the clichés connected to Norwegian fairytale mythology, the story gradually diluted into blatantly ripped off and unfortunately boring lines and sequences that my brain almost froze. The production design is decent and Troll has charisma, but Uthaug lost his creative charisma somewhere between a trivial blockbuster homage and a harmless allegory about bad people and two good people. Next time, I’d rather watch something from Roland. 50 % (2022-12-08)

Classic fantasy nonsense. The story is formulaic: a troll appears, experts are called in, attack, attack again, attack again, and somehow we reach the finale. From a screenwriting point of view it’s certainly not impressive, the acting is uninteresting and the troll's visuals are also rather ordinary. The army behaves like a classic bunch of morons with double-digit IQs, and the mythology surrounding the monster doesn't add anything significant to the film, but, not be a hater, there are certainly a few entertaining elements. We don't see the Nordic setting often, but unfortunately this element didn't earn extra points either, and in sum, it's boring and uninteresting generic crap that I lost interest in from the halfway point on, and I'm surprised I bravely made it to the end. So the admiration should go not to the makers but to myself for being mentally strong enough not to have fallen asleep by the closing credits. (2022-12-04)

A long time ago, I saw Trollhunter, and I was impressed by the visuals and the idea, so I was looking forward to another Norwegian troll adventure. There is a pervasive inspiration of kaiju films in Troll, but at the same time the film, at least in the first half, retains that mythological, folkloric feel. It's a pity that (as other have mentioned) they didn't leave Troll in a mountain setting, and that they had to drag it to Oslo, thus making the film closer to Hollywood blockbusters and neglecting the natural beauty of Norway. The portrayal of the characters was unsurprisingly flat and clichéd within the genre, and by the end it was a bit of a pain in the ass. A weaker three stars! (2022-12-04)