Troll Review

Troll review.

You’ve seen everything that Troll does before. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be entertaining. The new Netflix Norwegian monster movie is pretty to look at and enough fun to watch on a lazy weekend afternoon.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Troll

Directed by Roar Uthaug

Written by Espen Aukan

Starring Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck and Gard B. Eidsvold

Troll Review

If there is one thing that we never need to see in a monster movie again it is the head of government praying they’ve made the correct decision after ordering the mass destruction of their own people. Every time. They do it every single time. Every world leader in the movies ends up siding with the military option. It almost always comes after they are told the casualty rate will be absurd. Thankfully, there is always a scientist working against them to improbably prevent disaster.

If you’ve seen any monster movies since the original Godzilla, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The makers of Troll have seen every monster movie and have no problem repeating the same basic outline we are accustomed to. This is every Kaiju movie…but that doesn’t make it a bad one.

When a giant rock-like Troll awakens in the mountains of Norway a small group must outthink and outpace the military and find a more peaceful solution. They believe the answer to stopping the Troll is based in fairy tale folklore. The government believes that shooting it with increasingly large weapons will work for the first time ever. Time is running out as the Troll makes its way deeper into civilization.

Troll is a well-made movie. It looks and sounds like it had a bigger budget than it almost surely did. The monster looks good. He can emote and destroy in equal measure. The production value is a nice card up Troll’s sleeve since its script is largely derivative and a little silly.

Relying completely on the classic model of having officials and soldiers argue how best to deal with the threat in conference rooms and over tv screens, Troll falls into the usual trap. How many times has the human debate been interesting in these movies? I wrote recently about how good this was in Godzilla. It doesn’t feel like anyone has managed to top it since. There have been some decent efforts…some good ones even. Troll’s debate is the basic version.

Don’t fret…we have a rag tag group of heroes ready to stand up and speak on the side of science. Of course, scientists never win the debate. All scientists in recent monster movies immediately turn into action stars, throwing themselves into the middle of the fight to get someone to listen to long enough that they can be proven right. And scientists are always right in a monster movie.

Troll is comfort food. It’s empty calorie but it tastes pretty good. Good for a laugh and to kick back and enjoy an easy watch. You know the story beats…they’re all here. The Troll itself has moments where you feel emotionally connected to it…which is the mark of a good monster. It runs after people and swipes its giant hands in their direction. Giant feet step on things and buildings are knocked down. There’s the required ineffective bullets and other assorted weaponry.

But it all works. There’s a reason the same movie keeps getting made. Sometimes you just want to sit back and watch a giant, misunderstood monster wrecking a town or two. Sometimes you just want to see good people argue with impulsive, one-track minded people. Troll is banking that you’ll want to do that enough to push play on your Netflix account. You could do worse even though they could have done better.

Scare Value

If you come to Troll hoping to see something new…you’re likely to be disappointed. What’s here is entertaining enough to warrant a watch. Occasionally funny, above average effects and a nice forward momentum provide a pretty fun time. Like all the movies it borrows from…Troll bogs itself down in the same government and military vs science story we’ve seen a million times. This one adds in fairy tale logic to give it an extra layer of silliness. But it kind of works.

2.5/5