Highly Overrated But Still Good

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

"Trollhunter" finds a unique niche within the "found footage" subgenre that allows it to mostly overcome its central gimmick of pretending it's made from real footage - it's Norwegian and it focuses on trolls.The cultural bent to this story can't be underestimated. A hunt for trolls in North America just wouldn't work. Norway's remoteness, and that troll lore originates from that part of the world, adds distinctive character and the subtle notion of "if it were true, wouldn't it look something like this?"The film follows college trio Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Mørck) and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) tracking down an infamous bear-hunter named Hans (Otto Jespersen) for a school project interview. When they pursue him too closely, however, they discover that he's actually hunting trolls, which not only exist, but seem to be breaking out of their territory and into human domain more than usual of late.Filmmaker André Øvredal plays coy at the beginning until the troll discovery is made, and he really launches into world-building, explaining all the peculiarities of trolls (e.g. the three main kinds, how they can be killed, their ability to smell Christian blood, etc.) Øvredal really embraces this, playing off the attributes of vampire hunter movies and generally trying to appeal to viewers who like to buy into the fantasy of it all. The story then unfolds partly like a documentary and partly like a horror thriller (and even a video game).The thrills and the entertainment value therefore come in the hunting scenes. The formula gets a tad repetitive, but all the world-building and myth-focused information that comes out of the documentary-style footage creates anticipation for the subsequent troll bout. With visual effects that clear the necessary hurdles for fantasy filmmaking, "Trollhunter" avoids more damning criticism of being cheap or falling flat in these pivotal moments.We hardly get to know the students, who are supposed to be the main characters in movies like this, and that keeps us feeling safely distant from what's happening as opposed to right up in the action. We play the observer, not really putting ourselves into the shoes of these students discovering trolls are real (and very dangerous). On the other hand, Hans is a fascinating subject and emerges as the film's true main character. (He does get the most screen time, technically). The choice to paint Hans as a veteran who has been doing this a long time and has grown disenchanted with the work and the government processes in place to deal with trolls turns out to be the best creative choice from a writing perspective. Jespersen gets to not just play a bad***, but one with inner torment. Part of this character choice proves necessary from a functional standpoint because his attitude allows him to be okay with bringing the students along with him, but it also gives dimension to Hans in the way the best documentaries do with their subjects.Successful genre films often blend old or familiar stories and techniques with new ideas and that gives "Trollhunter" its freshness. So many films have been built on the found footage premise, or the monster-hunting premise, or the premise of imagining certain literary or mythological creatures are indeed real and "Trollhunter" neither denies borrowing from those sub-genres nor does it become too hampered by them. ~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

Hoping to film a documentary on a series of vicious bear attacks in their area, a group of young Norwegians are surprised to learn that giant trolls are actually behind the attacks as they befriend a troll hunter in this unusual horror film. While the found footage style that the filmmakers adopt here is often a distraction, 'Trolljegeren' benefits greatly from its intriguing premise with the suggestion of a government conspiracy afoot to keep the existence of trolls under wraps. The movie sadly does not explore the conspiracy in too much depth (i.e. why the government want to keep it a secret) but there are a lot of fun moments towards the middle section of the film as the documentary crew interview 'experts' and discover medical reasons behind the trolls' allergy to sunlight and so on. Interesting as this might all be conceptually, it nevertheless paves very limited way for a story to unfold with the mounting troll appearances and running back and forth of the characters soon turning a tad repetitive. The characters do not exactly come to understand the creatures in any more depth or anything and it often feels like much more could have been spun from the complex mythology that the filmmakers manage to generate. On the plus side though, the found footage style becomes much easier to digest as the movie progresses and, as mentioned, the middle section here is certainly great.

I'm not typically a fan of "found footage" movies but I'm going to make a happy exception for Troll Hunter. I found the film to be surprisingly entertaining and enjoyed the take on Nordic myths. The characters never felt stale although a few tropes were trotted out. I especially liked the character of Hans, the eponymous Troll Hunter. World weary and tired of his job, he comes across as somebody who's done a dangerous and thankless job for way too long. The special effects where surprisingly good and the trolls were believable threats. A large part of that, especially early in the film, is due to the shots being at night and therefore any problems with the animation aren't as readily noticed. It lost a few stars due to a couple of plot points that didn't feel resolved to me. Overall though the movie is fun and a welcome addition to my movie collection.

Whilst Norway has produced some grand films, Trollhunter falls short of a good film. Whilst it starts off interesting enough, it fails like most found footage films; being too shaky and clichéd. However, before you see the first troll, this film is quite fun to watch, but all the mystery and joy is taken way after the first half hour.Trollhunter could have been great, but just fails to be anything better then mediocre. The movie becomes tedious after the first thirty minutes and you begin to just wait for the end. You don't know what direction the film will go in and that just makes it all the more difficult to watch and enjoy.