Troll is what happens when you take the reboot of Godzilla, shrink it down, set it in Norway and include a chunk of scandinavian folklore. However, despite being a pretty blatant reskin of Godzilla it is surprisingly good.
I am a big fan of monster and giant mech movies. Yes they are cheesy, CGI heavy nonsense but when you are feeling a bit blue there is nothing better. Pacific Rim remains one of my favourite films and I have always enjoyed Godzilla so this one was always going to be a must watch for me when I saw it on a cold and grey Sunday afternoon in December.
So the plot. Well there is nothing particularly groundbreaking here. We are introduced to a young girl called Nora who is climbing with her favour and we get some rather artistic mountain shots where the point of their being some truth in all fairy tales is made. Then we have a time skip again and we see Nora is now an adult involved in a palaeontology dig. Meanwhile a mining construction crew are blasting under a mountain and wake something up. Said thing (spoiler a troll) goes on a bit of rampage and Nora is brought in to explain what is going on. We are introduced to the macho Captain Kris, a writer turned government adviser called Andreas and along the way we get various bits of Scandinavian folklore and how it interacted with the christianisation of the country. Various methods are used to kill the troll including church bells, the army, an implied nuclear weapon before it is finally destroyed on the way back to its castle (under the royal palace) by a mix of UV light and sunlight.
Ok so the plot is as on rails as it is possible to get and there are more plot holes and tropes than you can shake a stick at. Slightly crackpot father who’s proven to be right? Parental reconciliation? Implied anti-nuclear views? Discussion of good and evil? They are all here and none are subtle. Likewise the plot holes are large enough to hide a troll. Why is Nora picked? In the whole period why is there no sunlight at all and the less said about the plot gaps around the castle the better but it just doesn’t matter. You don’t watch films like this for tight plot, great character growth or deep lore and meaning. You watch them because they are fun escapes from reality and damn anything else and it is here that Troll delivers. The CGI and design is excellent as well; not overdone or super heavy handed and the Troll design is superb with the influence of classic myth and fairy tales evident in it. The movement looks convincing and the scale and size avoid the whole chunky Godzilla thing and there is a convincing degree of emotion in the face without the whole thing becoming over the top and excessive. This is not a film where the CGI has been overdone which is refreshing for a monster film.
Troll is proof that a film does not have to be good to be enjoyable. By any technical measure this is a poor film but on the most important factor; sheer enjoyability and escapism then it delivers in spades. It is well worth watching on netflix if you want to turn off your mind for a couple of hours (and also enjoy some classic music in the credits) but just don’t go in with your expectations too high.
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