Director: Roar Uthaug
Year: 2025
Country: Norway
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Giant Monsters
Plot:
Called out to a remote location, a professor is brought on board a secret government research team holding a gigantic troll captive in their facility to help prepare for a potential second troll uprising. Despite her protests, the troll is soon freed. It begins a quest through the countryside back to its former home in the old capital city in Norway, sending her and the other members of the security team on a quest to determine the troll’s sense of humanity so they can beat it. Once they realize what’s going on and how to stop them, they race to put it into effect to stop the massive creature from destroying the city.
Review:
Overall, this was a solid if somewhat lowered sequel. Among the better qualities featured here are the series of impressive, generally fun enhancements to the main storyline that keep everything here moving nicely compared to the original. Continuing the theme of the creatures born from nature and their use of natural elements, focusing on the aspects of their biology, keeping them from being thought of as human, compared to her constant reiterations that the creatures need to be thought of as a living unit, the same way as humanity behaves, is a fantastic concept. The different tactics from the military personnel trying to get a handle on the situation develops into some intriguing concepts involving the ability to look at the creatures as living, breathing beings the same as people, which goes against the centuries of belief that they were simply meant to be slaughtered, which not only plays into the strong character later on but speaks to the massive troll’s rampage.
This is due to a fun adventure-style setup where the film manages to employ the purpose of the creatures’ quest and mission statement as a series of bizarre quests that need answering. The scroll that contains the general mission of the king who banished the creatures in their heyday serves as a template to understand the troll’s quest and mission statement as it rampages across the countryside, leading to a series of races and obstacles, trying to make sense of what’s going on. The gradual realization of the tools needed to stop the creature from befriending the one left in hiding under the mountain, the discovery at the Church of the king’s burial chamber, and the military's various inventions to try to stop it, help move this along incredibly well. This overall creates a strong enough story that makes this one enjoyable, as the uncovering of the creatures’ purpose and history makes for quite a lot to like.
That said, the film is hit-or-miss with its creatures, which is a bit distressing. The main idea here is that there’s a reanimated troll rampaging through the countryside. The need to focus on other tactics to defeat it, and the quest to solve what’s going on, create some intriguing storyline parts where the means of confronting the troll itself are fun, fiery action setpieces showing the creature's scale against the humans. Knowing that conventional weaponry isn’t going to affect it, the battles are incredibly fun, with the close-quarters combat giving them a sense of tension as the characters are in the middle of everything. Whether it gets the creature out in the countryside or in a major city at the end, there are some really intriguing and enjoyable confrontations here that look really good with the effective use of CGI for the creatures smashing into things or being attacked by their military plans.
However, that is so scarce in the film that it feels like a long stretch of time passes without the creatures. The quest to figure out the truth about the king who banished the trolls and the need for uncovering the cause of the trolls’ rampage, leaving this with a few chances early on to stop it, and then we get very little until the finale, when they put the plan into action. The encounters, though fun, are fleetingly brief and constitute such a short portion of the running time that it’s sometimes hard to be invested here when wanting to go for the more outlandish sequences, which are kept to a minimum here in favor of the storyline connotations. Even the promised titular duel between the two creatures isn’t that impressive, since it doesn’t have much time to focus on those other factors in the story, taking up more time than the monster action, which tends to be the major issue in this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
A likable, if somewhat blindly flawed, sequel effort; enough is going on here to make it a likable and enjoyable sequel, though a few minor issues ultimately let it down. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach, who enjoyed the original, or who are fine with the flaws on display, will have a lot to like here, while most others should heed caution.
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