I love the Norwegian synergies. As Joachim Trier is finding deeper and deeper stories into the human condition, Roar Uthaug is finding more and more trolls in the Norwegian mountains. Troll 2 continues his Roland Emmerich disaster movie and kaiju love, smashing the two together like boys smashing Action Force figurines into one another when they’re 6.
With the troll king defeated, Norwegian folklore expert Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) has receded into the mountains, living in a cabin in the middle of the mountains. Old acquaintance Andreas Isaksen (Kim S. Falck-Jørgensen) convinces her to leave the recluse life for a new adventure, including the return of now Major Kris Holm (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen). What new adventure is this you say? Well, you’re all gonna be shocked, SHOCKED!, to learn that the troll king from the previous film maybe wasn’t the only troll wandering around Norway’s forests.
Troll 2 is following the 22 Jump Street sequel formula to a T. Sometimes that’s good: Uthaug’s knack for large scale only gets bigger here, as we fly over mountains, ski resorts, and Trondheim’s beautiful city center. And sometimes that’s bad, when the mythology becomes so dense that the movie becomes exposition dump heavy for about half an hour, before realizing a troll hasn’t destroyed something in a while. At least what we learn leads to wonderfully silly weapons against our troll nemesis. We get double the pleasure: there’s now two super pretty female scientists, with Ine Marie Wilmann joined by Sara Khorami to insert a little cat fight energy into the proceedings. This movie’s idea of character development is making someone pregnant, like any American disaster sequel would do as well to get to what the people want. But that guttural joy of watching giant monsters ready to beat the hell out of each other with Trondheim’s beautiful water/bridges in the background, you can’t help but rise to life from your couch and cheer them on. Even without the novelty, Troll 2 succeeds when the action gets going, so take your mini nap in the annoyingly dense middle, listening for the roar of a troll to wake you back up and lock back in.
Let’s keep up this Joachim Trier/Roar Uthaug double feature game Norway! Next time, we get Joachim and Renate Reinsve their Oscars, and Roar wins all the special effects awards for making the Troll version of Avengers: Infinity War, replete with new monsters and the World War 3 battle to end all battles! Netflix can foot the bill for both!