Catastrophefilm
Point in time:
Conductor: Roar Uthaug
Description:
With: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Channel:
Netflix. Before: December 1st
«A jam session on the most recognizable entertainment films of the last thirty years»
Instead of messing around with destroying landmarks from the first minute, tension was built and we got to know the main characters long before it hit. The public appreciates seeing the Oslo Plaza collapse on the Postgiro building more if we are “emotionally invested” in the casualties, was probably the philosophy.
But where the Scandisaster films have been adapted for domestic cinema audiences, “Trolls” gets a worldwide launch on Netflix. This is probably why the destruction begins seven minutes and 45 seconds into the game.
Totally king!
Batman and Kill Bill
We are in Dovre, where arrogant representatives of humanity have found it natural to rush into the mountains to build a railway. An ancient and rather musty creature is brought back to life, and suddenly the main character, a paleontologist with the nationally romantic name Nora Tidemann, finds herself in the government situations room, where the Prime Minister, the Chief of Defense, bureaucrats and experts they monitor the mischief on the screens. Nora, forcefully played by Ine Willmann, is of course the sole clairvoyant in the assembly, but to stop the disaster she must grapple with a painful part of her own upbringing.
Sound familiar? How about a devastation heralded by the shaking of coffee cups, a “crazy” that no one has believed so far, dialogues like
– You had stars in the island, what happened?
– I grew up.
And heroic-inspired speeches from both the Prime Minister and a tough, bubblegum-chewing captain?
Or a character who, seriously, is the Norwegian royal house’s answer to Alfred, Batman’s butler? Or a Chevrolet almost identical to the one Uma Thurman drives in Kill Bill?
Film jam session
“Troll” can be pleasantly classified as a cinematic jam session with verses from the most recognizable hits of the last 30 years, and where “Independence Day” and “King Kong” make up the verse and chorus. The use of references – which also includes nods to “Star Trek” and the higher-profile disaster film “Tourist” – is captivating in its shamelessness, thanks to director Roar Uthaug’s enthusiastic musicianship.
Were Asbjørnsen, Moe and Theodor Kittelsen in charge of a cover-up operation initiated by the Castle? Was the introduction of Christianity also a war of extermination? What kind is he, the bearded, booming title character?
– Real homemade porn
There are probably good answers, but they’re drowned in the merry noise of pastiche. Erkennor’s cityscape and mountain landscape, and the use of Hunderfossen, the Freia clock, and the barcode also seem subordinated to the well-established contract between disaster film and audience.
“Troll” misses the opportunity to create a contrast between medium and content and thus become something even more memorable than a goofy goofy entertainment film.
But that’s how the logic of global streaming works, and Netflix has served far worse things to the world than this intense magical entertainment. That, paradoxically, we would like to see what disaster films belong to: the cinema.
