I’m (condescendingly) proud of Norway for making a giant monster movie that looks this good. One with a big enough budget to have some great visual effects that honors their folklore. These aren’t the trolls I’m familiar with from fantasy fiction, but must be what trolls are when Scandinavians think about trolls.

The film is about a giant stone troll straight out of legend coming to life to wreak havoc on Norway. Only a handful of scientists and folklore-ologists can tell the gung-ho military and the overwhelmed Prime Minister how to prevent the giant monster all-out attack.

You know you’ve seen this movie before, it just wasn’t Norwegian. Maybe Japanese, maybe American, maybe American by way of Japan. So the question is, does it hold up as a giant monster (kaiju) movie in that fun city-stomping kind of way? Well… they really could have used a bit more Oslo smashing but probably the budget wouldn’t allow it… nor would national pride in the folklore.

You see, this is one of those flicks that has compassion for the monster, so it can only be so monstrous. Still, I’d have liked to see Oslo gets stepped on more. Not that I have a vendetta against Oslo (put a gun to my head and I couldn’t pick the city out of a weird lineup). What they put on screen though looks great.

Like a lot of creature features and monster movies, we spend a little too much time watching our human heroes scratching their head in confusion. The movie’s called Troll… if we’re supposed to be wondering what threat Norway is facing, maybe don’t call your movie Troll.

Special extra points added for cutting to credits with a perfect chef’s kiss needle drop. Bomp-bom-bom-BOMP-bom-BOM BOMP bom BOM!

Troll is a fun film that probably could be a little more fun. But it still shows a fine eye for cinematography and solid special effects work. It’s not in the pantheon of giant monster movies, but it definitely gets a special mention.

Score: 78