Bullet Points: Troll (2022)

Troll 2 is often thought of as one of the worst movies ever made, but I’m hoping this Netflix production is going to be much better. I remember seeing 2010’s Troll Hunter from director André Øvredal and thinking that trolls had so much more to offer cinema than I had originally thought. Fast forward over a decade and Netflix is finally releasing a flick featuring the big stone bastards. Norwegians have a long history with trolls (I can’t confirm this) and now I’m just hopeful that we’ll see the knockoff movies coming soon from other regions of the world with their own monsters.

Synopsis: Deep in the Dovre mountain, something gigantic wakes up after a thousand years in captivity. The creature destroys everything in its path and quickly approaches Oslo.

• Bonding: It’s definitely not as dangerous as the opening to Sly Stallone’s Cliffhanger, but the opening scene for Troll shows us a young Nora and her father Tobias climbing a mountain and talking about fairy tale trolls and the importance of believing in heart. He tells her it isn’t seeing that is believing but that if she believes it enough, she just may see it.
• The Dig: We fast-forward twenty years and now Nora is out digging for dinosaur bones. It’s not the most exciting of jobs but at the same time a mining company is digging into the mountain for a rail system. The explosives end up waking something up and it goes wild and the place is left in absolute chaos.

• The Crew: The situation at Dovre Mountain has caused the government to get involved in a major way. No one really knows what they hell happened so they have different scientists from all walks to lend their two cents. Nora risks being called a crazy person by everyone else by simply stating what she sees. The Dovre incident video and the evidence all suggest some sort of monster. Speaking of crazy, we really get to see the Randy Quaide look-a-like when her dad is brought in to help out.
• The Troops: When situations call for maximum firepower, it always seems like it takes a second or third try for the military to ever get it right. The Norwegian military is brought in and they lay something of an ambush for the creature. It totally falls apart and the gov’t is no better off than they were before. Nora, however, is much worse off in terms of her well-being but she is slowly starting to understand that the fairy tales might be more true than make believe.

• HA HA HA: Movies like this always leave plenty of room for comic relief and this one is no different. Even in the worst of times, there are plenty of scenes that will leave you with a smile on you face due to the Prime Minister’s aid played by Kim Falck. Funny without being annoying (which is sometimes hard in these types of films) and never the type to get too involved in the action for it to seem silly.
• A World Gone Mad: Trolls aren’t the type of thing I think of when I’m not reading Tolkien but this fella sure knows how to cause a stir. The Norwegian military pulls out all of the stops to the point that I was asking myself how their ancestors ever dealt with multiple trolls instead of just one. By the finale, plans are made and fail and we’re finally left with one last-ditch effort to control the troll without blowing up half of the country.

The Verdict: I had a pretty good idea I was going to enjoy this movie from the trailer and I was right. It’s fun without being too ridiculous and it also touches on the troll subject which I have a limited knowledge of. I appreciate the fact that it feels very Norwegian much like Godzilla movies feel very Japanese and it got me thinking about watching Bigfoot movies and getting the American vibe from them. Being a fan of these types of monster flicks, Troll is right up my alley and I’d venture to guess that if you enjoy that type of flick then you’ll have fun with this one as well.