Troll Hunter

[Rigel]

Loved it... with a caveat.

Youtube trailer

It was a great indie action flick, with surprisingly good special effects. It follows the "found footage" formula rather closely; a group of college students studying journalism investigate a series of "bear attacks" and find a government agency hiding the existence of trolls. Their contact is something like a park ranger; a low level caretaker who's job it is to find trolls outside of their designated areas and dispatch them.

My only real problem with the movie is that there's no emotional core to it. It takes the idea of trolls being real, and runs with it... and that's really all there is. Last year's "Monsters" had a better emotional impact in the relationship it portrayed between the two main characters (a relationship which, refreshingly, wasn't forced or magically "fated" or anything like that, but which evolved naturally); and District 9 had the monsters on the receiving end of apartheid; but Troll Hunter is really just wildlife management.

Granted, it's wildlife management with TROLLS, so it's still pretty cool

[[Syl]]

Yeah, I liked the movie, but it did have some serious problems, not the least of which was the ending.

Spoiler

Like when the first cameraman died. It really didn't seem to matter that much, just as the whole 'Christian blood' thing was never really explained. Maybe if I was up on my Norwegian folk tales (like the eating contest)? Also, how does a troll that big avoid sunlight?

[wayfriend]

Finally watched this. I quite enjoyed it. I especially liked the titular character. He was so understated, so all-in-a-days-work, as to be dryly comical. I must get Zorm to comment on the mythology it presents.

[Morning]

I also liked it a lot. As a documentary, of course Made me crave for harsh winters even more, to be honest.

[Zarathustra]

Not bad. The special effects were much better than I expected. I liked the Hunter dude. I agree with Rigel's criticisms. It was better than Blair Witch, in my opinion, which relied too much on not showing anything. At first I was worried that this one was showing too much, once the first few reveals happened. I thought that would take the suspense out of future encounters (which is why Rigel's point about some emotional tension w/the characters would have helped), but it kept escalating the encounters and provided just a little bit of conspiracy theory/government cover-up to keep me interested.

Cloverfield was better.

[Sunbaneglasses]

My sons ages 9 and 11 loved Troll Hunter and thanks to the film they have now watched several subtitled foreign movies with me. Thanks to Troll Hunter I no longer have to watch Japanese or Hong Kong/Chinese movies by myself anymore because the boys have both decided that some movies are worth investing the effort to read the subtitles.