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TrollHunter
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Magnolia Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (27th September 2011). |
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The Film
 This Norwegian "found footage" film has been garnering astonishing word-of-mouth around the world and rightfully so. "TrollHunter" is yet another fantastic genre offering from the Scandinavian countries (after last year's brilliant Rare Exports from Finland) that breathes new life into the cinema. Three Norwegian students are making a documentary on some illegal bear killings - bears keep turning up shot, though never by licensed hunters and with some things distinctly off about them. The bear may perhaps not be native to the area, or there are no tracks around the bear corpse. This is when they hit upon Hans (a perfectly curmudgeonly Otto Jespersen), a mysterious hunter they suspect of being behind the bear killings. They follow him and learn there are creatures much worse than bears roaming the Norwegian countryside... It’s almost a shame the film had to be called "TrollHunter"; you can only imagine what the experience would have been to have been dumped in that situation, just as the young students are. After a particularly rollicking reveal of the hidden truth – trolls getting out of their protected enclaves and being hunted down by Hans – the old hunter opens up to the kids and allows them to follow and film him. He’s a man working a hard, thankless job and, after a few decades of it, is pretty much fed up. And what’s rather brilliant is how very much like regular jobs his one of hunting trolls is: he gets no recognition for his work, the higher-ups don’t listen to him but he’s pretty much stuck in the job for life. It is impressive that "TrollHunter" avoids almost all of the usual traps of the “found-footage genre” – no perfectly framed shots of the trolls here (yes, I’m looking directly at you "Cloverfield" (2008)), no sickeningly shaky camera work (yes, there is some shaky camera work but never in overabundance). The three journalism/film students are perfect audience surrogates, the cameraman filming the action even as Hans explains trolls and troll behavior to them and, by extension, us. And one of the students is a sound tech! Huzzah! An actual nod given to how they are able to capture decent sound on these types of films (camera mics are notoriously shitty). All of the characters are engaging enough that you’re not actively hoping for their deaths – again quite a change from other found footage films, where the idiotic teenagers at the heart of it all just piss you off so much you can barely wait for the witch or giant monster of ghost or whatever to brutally murderise them. Not everyone makes it to the end of "TrollHunter" and I actually found I cared if they did or not. Director André Øvredal and his art team have incorporated elements of troll mythology into their world and created vibrant, and very different, species of troll. They encounter four very distinct troll types, and the students greet them all with an appropriate mixture of fear and awe. This is an adventure film, though like none you’ve seen before. "TrollHunter" easily leapfrogs (or strides over) the Festival’s other low budget sci-fi Another Earth as a low budget sci-fi/fantasy offering that has smarts and a sense of fun.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 mastered in HD 1080p 24/fps with AVC MPEG-4 compression. The film is a "found footage" film, so don't expect the best possible quality in terms of this HD picture. The film has a rough-documentary feel and the photography captures that perfectly. Shot on consumer grade digital cameras the transfer was mastered from the original digital source but the footage isn't always the best. The film's jarring photography is occasionally dark, grimy and lacking in sharpness. Consistency is the issue here and there isn't much of that to be had. However, in saying that, this was the desired 'look' for the film and in that respect the filmmakers achieved it. While the majority of the issues take place in the film's night sequences, the day time footage looks good, sharp and with solid colors.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in the film's original language in Norwegian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as a dubbed English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround also mixed at 48kHz/24-bit. For the purposes of the review I chose to view the film with its original Norwegian audio. The audio track is where some creative license has been taken, for a film that is set-up as a "found footage" feature the audio mix is a rather impressive surround mix that does a decent job of immersing the viewer. The mix does feel like it's got some depth, while not as complex or far reaching as some big budget films, it certainly does the job. Dialogue is crisp and clean, ambient sounds help fill in the atmosphere and the film's more fast-paced moment are nicely weighted with an aggressive sound. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Magnolia/Magnet have released this film with a few extras that include a collection of deleted scenes, a collection of improv and bloopers, extended scenes, visual effects clips, a series of featurettes and photo galleries as well as BD-Live access. Below is a closer look at these supplements. There are 5 deleted scenes (1080p), which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "Hans is Collecting Evidence" runs for 36 seconds, in this scene Hans is hidden looking through some binoculars. - "If You’re Driving at 80 KPH" runs for 24 seconds, in this scene Johanna puts her hand out the window as they are driving. - "At Finn’s" runs for 43 seconds, in this scene they visit Finn, who turns out to be of no help. - "Wolf Wolf!" runs for 1 minute 24 seconds, in this scene a farmer is interviewed about a wolf attacking their sheep. - "Troll Hairball" runs for 27 seconds, here we encounter a giant troll hairball. Next up are a collection of 3 improv and Bloopers (1080p) which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "Trashed Car" runs for 52 seconds, Thomas and Hans talk about landmines on the road. - "Frozen Pizza and Hunter’s Stew" runs for 29 seconds, Hans, Thomas and Johanna talk about food. - "Bloopers" runs for 46 seconds, is a collection of mistakes cut together. Following that are 3 extended scenes (1080p) which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "The Electricity Goes Nowhere" runs for 2 minutes 27 seconds, Hans at the electricity plant investigates any irregularities and where the high voltage lines run. - "Pioter’s Painter Service" runs for 3 minutes 29 seconds, Russian bear hunters are interviewed. - "Breakfast at the Diner" runs for 2 minutes, Hans is interviewed about troll security service among other things at a diner. The disc features 4 visual effects clips (1080p) which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "Visual Effects Breakdowns: Ringelfinch" runs for 1 minute 25 seconds, this is a sequence breakdown for a scene in the film showing the various stages of effects. It is silent without a soundtrack. - "Digital Models" runs for 27 seconds, this is a look at the digital model for the various CG creatures and characters in the film. Also silent but features some text explaining what we are looking at. - "Jotnar" runs for 2 minutes 10 seconds, this is an effects reel breakdown by effects company Gimpville, showing the various stages of the troll model and compositing into the final shot, it's also presented without audio. - "Tosserland & Mountain Kings" runs for 2 minutes 7 seconds, this is another effects reel breakdown, this time by effects company Storm Studios. Adding more context to the film's production are a series of 7 "Behind the Scenes" (1080p) featurettes, which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "Troll Foot" runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds, in this clip we see the prop department builds a giant practical troll foot on location and the filmmakers block out a scene for some test footage and shot a take. - "Good Vibes at the Shoot" runs for 2 minutes 1 second, in this clip the cast and crew joke around while setting up for the second shot of the day. - "While We Wait" runs for 3 minutes 6 seconds, a collection of footage of the cast and crew doing various things on set while they wait for shots to get set up including setting up an explosion. - "Russian Bear" runs for 2 minutes 10 seconds, the assistant director helps set up a shot as we get a look at the filming of a scene involving some bear tracks. - "The Tin man" runs for 6 minutes 42 seconds, this clip takes a look at some night shooting with Hans in armor. - "The Beard" runs for 2 minutes 38 seconds, is a look at the make-up department. - "Movie Stars" runs for 4 minutes 27 seconds, we get a tour of the actor's trailer and on their downtime. Next up are 2 photo galleries (1080p) which can be played individually or with a 'play all' option. They include: - "Troll Sketches" runs for 1 minute 21 seconds, and are a series of production sketches and art work. - "Troll Habitats" runs for 4 minutes 51 seconds, production photographs taken for the various locations. "HDNet: A Look at TrollHunter" (1080i) is a featurette that runs for 4 minutes 21 seconds, this is a fairly generic puff piece about the film and covers the basics of the productions, featuring some interviews with the cast and crew, some behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film. The disc also features some bonus trailers for: - "13 Assassins" runs for 1 minute 56 seconds. - "Hobo with a Shotgun" runs for 1 minute 33 seconds. - "Good Neighbors" runs for 2 minutes 27 seconds. - "The Perfect Host" runs for 2 minutes 19 seconds. - "HDnet" spot runs for 1 minute 1 second. You can also gain access to the BD-Live portal for profile 2.0 players and also bookmark your favorite scenes on this disc.
Overall
The film review was originally published on the blog Rockets and Robots are Go! by Andy James. The A/V and supplements were reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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