Netflix: Yea, baby, yea!
Picker: Distant future...the year 2000
Mark: I thought I’d start by saying that this was much better with the whole handheld camera concept than End of Watch. While End of Watch was able to do more -- since apparently everyone had a camera, and they placed cameras everywhere somehow -- this one sticks to the single, believable, camera throughout. And it sits on the line between believable amateur and professional. And for that, I was glad. It never really became too impossible to figure out what was going on. Well, most of the time.
Dylan: Yea, so this is an example of the now-overused ‘found footage’ cliche. And in the beginning we get the text that’s like “yea, this footage was sent to a news agency, but the people you see have never been found. We’re not sure if it’s real, yada yada.” Usually that means we’re dealing with a horror movie. But I wouldn’t really classify this as a horror, even though it does get pretty dark and maybe even a little scary at times. And the first time we get a night scene, you figure it’s going to be like the Blair Witch Project or something, where three inept college students are stumbling around in the woods, and the camera is all over the place, and you never see anything at all. But this movie is the complete opposite. There is the shaky cam effect inherent to this style of filming, but it really isn’t that distracting. And in fact you get to see the trolls pretty early on, often in full view and lighting. So the movie really doesn’t hold back or tease you too much with revealing the monsters. In fact, the real anticipation comes from learning that there are several different types of trolls, and as the movie progresses you get a glimpse at each species and what makes it unique. But we can talk about that more when we get to the story.
Mark: Ok, looks like we’re doing a little role reversal here, cause I found this movie to be a tad bit on the boring side. I opened myself up to it, and found some of it to be really interesting, but on the whole, I never really got drawn in and wanted to see where we were going with Hans and the film crew. I agree, that I was interested in seeing the trolls, but for me, it was never as interesting as listening to Hans explain a lot of the mythos of what we (as well as the film crew) believe about trolls versus what he knows. As well as the government agency working to keep it all hidden from the public. I found that much more engaging than the scenes with the trolls. Albeit, the last part of the movie got my attention.
Dylan: I agree that the slower points were often more interesting. They really created a sort of believable world of trolls. For example, the scene where the veterinarian is explaining why they either turn to stone or explode when touched by sunlight. It was, in my opinion, a pretty well-crafted story. And very original. I mean we have hundreds of movies about werewolves and vampires. And garlic and crosses and silver and stakes...we all know how to fight vampires. But here you have a completely new story that is just as grounded in ancient fantasy and mythology, but hasn't been looked at through a real-world lens.
What really impresses me about it is how the countryside is used perfectly to create this world. Maybe this is just because I love Norway and really really want to visit someday. But the landscape and the geographic features are all used so well. The natural boulders that (we're told) the different trolls throw at each other, the abandoned mine, the power lines running through miles of bare snowy hills (which are part of an electric fence), the acres of downed trees (which were caused by stampeding trolls). I’m not Norwegian, but I feel like the setting in the movie really says a lot about the real place, and is maybe an indication of how the mythology of trolls got started to begin with.
Mark: I completely agree, it does a great job making a real place feel much more like it comes from a fairy tale. Blending the real with the fiction. This is what I meant by saying the camerawork felt professional even though it’s by, for the movie, an amatuer. The shots of them on the ferry and across the water are the mountains with low moving clouds, or the village nestled among the mountains, it does a great job giving a sense of place. And the snowy tundra at the end was really good, and while the CGI didn’t always work for me -- granted this budget wasn’t exactly huge -- there were moments when it blended together amazingly.
And one of the things I did like was when the mythos that Hans was saying overlapped with what we think we know. The trolls obviously look much more grotesque than what the college kids think, but they still do things they’ve -- and we’ve -- been told in stories. My favorite was when Hans was tying sheep to a bridge, and for a second I didn’t really get all that interested, but then it clicked, that trolls live under bridges. Or at least I knew that from stories. And suddenly it got interesting because of that blending of their rewriting of trolls and what is already known. They did a good job recreating trolls and the mythology without dumbing it down or making it contrived.
Dylan: It’s both humorous and interesting to see how the fantasy is melded with the ‘reality’ in this film’s universe. On the one hand, there is the legend that trolls can smell Christian blood. So Hans asks the film crew right away “none of you believe in God or Jesus, right?” And then there is a scene in the beginning where they spy Hans tossing a tire under a bridge, and at first it doesn’t make sense, but later on we realize that it’s because trolls go under bridges and like to gnaw on rubber, and this is Hans’ way of keeping track of their movement. So it’s a balance of the sort-of ridiculous and the kind of scientific.
My favorite scene is when the head of the TSS is bickering with the Polish paint crew in English about the species of bear that they brought as a decoy for the newspapers. Apparently they brought a bear from Russia, and the poor TSS guy was going to have to explain to the public how a Russian bear made it to Norway and killed a couple of tourists.
Mark: That was a good scene. And I liked when the Russian guy spoke with the film crew, and he was trying to explain why he does what he does for the TSS, but his broken English, which he was speaking for some reason, kept him from making any sense. But he was damn happy to be talking. But this scene highlighted to me how much darker the rest of the movie is. It has to be in some parts, but it could have used much more levity from time to time to balance it out. At least I thought so. But then again, as things get darker and darker, you get a better sense of how this operation is run, and why it has to be run the way it is. If the ending title cards are to be believed.
Dylan: Even without those, things go downhill pretty steadily in the second half. More than you would expect. Especially since, as I said earlier, it’s not really a horror movie. But I wouldn’t really hold it against the film. In fact, as in the case with Thomas’ (the leader of the film crew) health, and that tire thing I mentioned before, I enjoyed how things from the beginning that we may not have put much thought into, came back into the story later on in the film.
Mark: Yeah, you forget about that injury, as after it happens, it never really is brought up again. But when it is, suddenly things become just a tad bit more dire. And what I liked about the injury, is that it wasn’t some made-up troll-based illness. It’s something normal, or rather, real. So suddenly the fantasy gets a little bit more realistic when the trolls can be affected by real illnesses.
But on the characters, I guess since this was playing out as more of a “blair witch” kind of story, in so much that there isn’t a story except that they’re following Hans around, none of them had much development. And while that’s not always a bad thing, I just didn’t get attached to them much. So I didn’t care what happened to them. Well, maybe for Hans, but that’s cause you really get the sense, even as he tells us, that he’s been doing this for a long time and he’s kinda disgruntled. And you feel for the guy.
Dylan: While I agree that the film crew is kind of boring, I would argue that, as the title suggests, the movie is about Hans, the Troll Hunter. And if you think about it, his character is pretty interesting. He’s a seasoned Troll Hunter. At first he tells the film crew to leave him alone, but his disappointment with the handling of trolls leads him to take these people along, to show the world what’s really going on. The scene where he puts on the Iron Man suit just to get close enough to a troll to get a blood sample really speaks to his character. He gets tossed bodily across the bridge and probably knocked unconscious, but then he gets up, follows the troll down to the stream and finishes the job. He doesn’t seem to have any family or obligations. His only job is secret and kind of shitty, but he does it anyway, sort of to protect the entire country and the world from the truth.
And I’m not saying all that to contradict you. In fact, in was on this, my third viewing, that I really took in the setting and the characters more than ever before.
Mark: You’re right, it is very much the story of Hans. It’s just that since the college kids are with him the whole time, I feel like very little is ever brought up or established about them. Maybe a few things when the plot calls for it, but nothing in conversation. Which is how we learned more about Hans. And this was a small film, so it had limited time to tell it’s story and focused on only what it wanted to without losing itself in too much, and I applaud it for that. But a little something for the kids would have given more to the tension.
Also, while I did like the scene with the Iron Man suit, and how it showed his character, it was difficult for me to fully appreciate it cause I was laughing too hard from when he got hit. Not only did I not understand why he whistled at it when he successfully snuck behind it, but the CGI of him getting hit was funny. I’m a terrible person.
But a scene for me when the CGI was just something next to brilliant was with the massive troll at the end. Specifically when they were driving underneath it, getting closer. the snow being kicked up by the troll, creating this whiteout around them, as the tail swishes by, and the camera keeps trying to stay focused. It all came together great right then.
Dylan: You can tell that the effects team had a great eye for detail, just not the budget of an American special effects company. It was a similar situation with The Host. At certain times you could tell what they were going for, but it just came off as laughable. But for me, 90% of the CGI was effective. It could have been much, much worse; surely you're familiar with the Megashark titles on Syfy.
Overall, I think this movie might be kind of hit or miss for most people. I really like it because I’m into weird, unique foreign films that aren’t dramas. And I think for a film from a country that isn’t exactly renowned for their filmmaking, this is a very solid picture. The acting is decent, the story is pretty great, and the CGI and camerawork is beyond acceptable. Best of all, you get an hour and a half of beautiful rainy Norwegian landscapes.
Mark: Whoa, whoa, the Megashark titles are in a league of their own. Nothing can be compared to them. But speaking on this, I think what got me was that it took more time than I had ever thought setting up the mythology of both Hans as the Troll Hunter and the Trolls themselves. So much of the first half of the film was showing us the truth behind it all, and then as we understand more, we get to see more and things begin to escalate. And if you go in knowing that, you’ll apprecaite more of the film. You’ll appreciate the original story that the filmmakers are trying to create, as well as some really stunning shots of Norway. I agree that this movie does such a good job showing you the almost fairy tale-like scenery that I want to go there. You can tell that the filmmakers put their hearts into this, showing and telling us so much. So I say give it a shot, just knowing that you need to be ready for a lot of slow build up.
And it hurts me knowing that there is already an American remake in the works.
Dylan: Damn. Really? Is it going to take place in America? That is so awful.
Mark: Yeah, as far as I know it is. The rights were snagged by Chris Columbus.
Dylan: Ah, the guy who discovered America...and then made the first two (and shittiest, debatably) Harry Potter movies.
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Fun fact of the day: the Norwegian word for 'troll' is...'troll'! What the hell did you think it would be? The creatures first appeared in Norse mythology as early as the 9th century. The word we use in English is therefore derived from the Norwegian, and not the other way around. Fools.
And that's a rap. Our next film is sort of a secret for now. Which should really be that exciting, since we have been neglecting to tease films for the past few reviews now. But we think you'll enjoy it. It's a pretty big deal. All I can say is that some people would go so far as to say that it defines a generation. And no, I'm not talking about anything by John Hughes.
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