Ragnarok Review – Mock Squid Soup No.13 #cinephiles #film #review

Let’s recap my clues from last week:

Clue #1– It’s a Norwegian film, so yeah I’ll be watching subtitles.
Clue #2– The story is based on a mythological doomsday tale and it takes place in modern times.
Clue #3– The ancient language spoken in the film is apparently quite similar to modern day Icelandic.

So what do you think, was I too vague or was my movie just too obscure?

I did this once before and am thinking of making it a regular thing. I shared my line by line notes of the experience I had watching a film and posted it for my review because that movie wasn’t good enough to warrant a review from me. I figured since I still do that for all my reviews, I’d start sharing those notes. So if anyone is interested in my experience of watching Ragnarok, click here to see my notes. You can also go back and see other movie’s notes.

This review will consist of me asking myself 10 questions and answering them to the best of my ability.

1. What is this film about?

What IMDB posted: “Norwegian archeologist Sigurd Svendsen forms a small team and sets off to find the true meaning of the secret runes found carved in rock and accidentally awakens a giant monster.”

What I read in my mind, “An action adventure in the likeness of Tomb Raider, where ancient creatures and modern historians clash.”

As you can surmise, things didn’t go as planned.

2. What did I think of the title, poster, and or trailer?

I thought the poster for Ragnarok rocked (pun intended). I mean look at it. Doesn’t it seem like this movie is going to blow your mind? Plus, the tagline on the poster reads, “All legends have their origins;” I just knew this was going to be about a great adventure of discovery.

After watching the movie and prepping for my review, IMDB revealed to me that the actual movie tagline is, “Some creatures aren’t just real, they’re unbelievable.” Are you beginning to see where this is going?

3. What did I think of the main character(s) and how the actors performed them?

I’m a total newb to Norwegian films and, therefore, knew nothing of the actors in this movie. For the most part, they seemed to be well trained. They played their roles with a natural and un-coached feel, even the children.

As for the characters, I didn’t really like any of them except for maybe the daughter. She had the typical pre-teen attitude one would expect (glad to know that’s not just an American thing), but she was probably the smartest character on the screen.

4. What did I think of the direction and cinematography?

This film was shot beautifully and the use of CGI was kept to a minimum for the genre. I give the director a lot of credit here for two reasons (unless he also wrote it; I didn’t bother to check).

1. He/she did a great job of making the characters stand out in their perspective   environments. With a film like this, it’s easy to get lost in the scenery and forget   about the characters you haven’t become attached too.

2. Lighting for me often makes or breaks a scene and with so many cave or dark   scenes in this film, I thought all the shots came out clear and crisp.

5. What did I think of the soundtrack and score?

The soundtrack was odd. Not that any particular song or track was odd, just the use and placement of  the music was odd. Sometimes it seems as though the music was suggesting that events on screen were much more intense than they were and more jolly than they were. It wasn’t a bad score, just a little odd.

6. What did I like about the story as a whole?

I like that overall there was a positive message about family, but the “Brady Bunch” ending was a bit much.

7. What did I not like about the story?

I thought the story was disappointing. I wanted there to be more to it and I wanted the archeologists to be smarter than they were- not only in the expertise of their field but also in common sense. This movie had the perfect set up for a real action adventure (which it is listed as on IMDB), but it quickly changed to into a monster/horror flick in an instant, filled with one monster movie cliché after another … Oh and it wasn’t that scary.

8. Would I recommend this movie to others?

Actually, I would, but there would be parameters.

9. If yes, who? What would I rate this movie?

If I’d known this was a monster movie going into it, I’m pretty sure I would have thought it was a pretty good monster movie. For that reason alone, I’d recommend it to all my friends who like monster movies and wouldn’t mind reading a few subtitles (the dialog is short and sweet, not hard to follow at all).

On a scale of 1 to 5 movie reels, I give this film 3 reels.

10. Was there anything in this movie that could be related to me or anything I have written?

Yes actually. I often write about myths, legends, and even religious or spiritual themes and have even been toying with the idea of writing a monster into one of my stories. I’ll just have to be sure I stick to one genre from beginning to end if I ever do. I don’t want to start writing an action adventure and end up with a purely monster fest.

Watch, rent, or buy this movie here.

Mock Squid Soup – Film Society

MOCK! and The Armchair Squid are proud to introduce Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society. Each month, on the second Friday, we shall host a bloghop devoted to movie reviews. We invite others to participate and post their reviews…Don’t be shy; come join the fun! 😀

I’m attempting to start a new bookish blog hop. Please check it out to see if it’s something you’d be interested in. BooktagsBlogHop

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords