Crew
Director – Roar Uthaug, Screenplay – Espen Aukan, Story – Espen Aukan & Roar Uthaug, Producers – Espen Horn & Kristen Strand Sinkerud, Photography – Oskar Dahlsbakken, Music – Johannes Ringen, Visual Effects Supervisor – Esben Syberg, Visual Effects – Ghost (Supervisor – Claus Kogsbøll), Gimpville (Supervisor – Lars Erik Hansen), MPC (Supervisor – Cyrille Bonjean), One of Us (Supervisor – Ludovic Frege) & OPCM (Supervisor – Sindre Grimsrud), Special Effects Supervisor – Hummar Højmark, Production Design – Ulrika Axen & Koja/Tobias Eiving. Production Company – Motion Blur.
Cast
Ine Marie Wilmann (Professor Nora Tidemann), Kim Falck (Andreas Isaken), Mads Sjøgåsrd Pettersen (Major Kristoffer Holm), Sara Khorami (Marion Auryn Rhadani), Karoline Viktoria Sletteng Garvang (Sigrid Hodne), Anne Krigsvoll (Esther J. Tiller), Ola G. Furuseth (Prime Minister Martin Brinchmann), Jon Ketil Johnsen (Professor Møller), Duc Mai-The (Professor Wangel), Yusuf Toosh Ibra (Amir Aw-Geedi), Gard B. Eidsvold (Tobias Tidemann), Thea Borring Lande (Mathilde Tidermann), India Johanna Midske (Young Nora)
Plot
Three years later, Nora Tidemann is brought back in by Andreas Isaken to a secret government research bunker where they have an imprisoned troll. They have failed to discover anything meaningful about it and Andreas wants Nora’s help in thinking out of the box. Nora goes and sings to the troll only for this to awaken it. It smashes its way out and begins a rampage across the countryside. Nothing they bring against it militarily or in terms of the uv lights they used last time, even raising another troll to combat it, succeeds in stopping it.
Troll (2022) was a lightweight Norwegian attempt to compete with the modern CGI monster movie and mass destruction spectacular. Director Roar Urthaug and most of the principal cast return with a sequel in Troll 2. The title Troll 2 cannot help but make one think of the notorious bad movie Troll 2 (1990) – this is something the filmmakers seem fully aware of and even play into. Kim Falck refers to his pregnant girlfriend’s baby as “their little nilbog” – Nilbog, goblin spelt backwards, was the name of the town in the other Troll 2.
I enjoyed Troll 2 more than Troll. The effects are operating at the top of their game. The introduction of the giant troll imprisoned in the research facility looks stunning as does its bursting out and rampaging across the landscape, attacking a mountainside club and reaching down through the roof to pluck up partygoers. The scene where the two trolls end up confronting one another across a vast icy plain is well achieved, as is the sacrificial climax.
The new story builds quite well on the back of the previous film to which is added a reasonable quest plot – even a dash of tomb raiding. Maybe some of the character mythopoeia is a little precious. The characters and their reunion are given weight as though they were part of a long-running franchise rather than just a likeable but forgettable first film. Andreas and Sigrid are now a couple with an expectant child and just about every line they quote is some kind of SF nerd in-reference or joke.
Norwegian director Roar Uthaug first appeared with the popular horror film Cold Prey (2006). Uthaug subsequently went on to make the fantasy film Magic Silver (2009), the Mediaeval survival film Escape (2012), and the acclaimed disaster film The Wave (2015). The film that Uthaug was previously most known for was his English-language reboot of the Lara Croft franchise with Tomb Raider (2018).
Trailer here