Netflix's Troll Is The Latest Critics Vs. Fans Divide
As the 21st century dawned, the days of the ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek monster on the loose B-movie seemed to disappear. The late 20th century gave fans of the horror and science fiction monster sub-genre such classic characters as King Kong and Godzilla, who both took turns playing the villain, the hero, or even the victim in the many sequels, remakes, and reboots of each giant creature. Monster flicks based on folk tales are another consistent trend in creature features, and these movies hit a bit closer to real-life thanks to the stories' importance for many different cultures from across the world. Some of the most ferocious beasts adapted to the screen from folklore are undoubtedly trolls.
"Troll," now available to stream on Netflix, manages to re-capture the spirit of monster films from the past while maintaining some of the horrors attributed to this mythical creature from Norway. For those perhaps expecting a kid-friendly giant-on-the-loose story, the movie's trailer put those expectations to rest as it depicts the monstrosity as a terrifying behemoth destroying and terrorizing the Norwegian countryside. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the feature is also one of the latest in the ongoing critics vs. fan divide.
Critics are fond of Netflix's Troll while the audience rating remains dismal
The Rotten Tomatoes score for Netflix's "Troll" stands at 88% on the Tomatometer based on 17 critic reviews and a not-so-great 49% in the audience vote. The assessment is a tad bit better, although not by much, on IMDb, where the film holds a 5.9/10 rating, which indicates slightly below-average overall user reviews and ratings. On the critical side of things, the movie has a unique approach to its tone, with Bloody Disgusting's Meagan Navarro describing it thusly, "While light on narrative, it's when 'Cold Prey' director Roar Uthaug embraces its monster that 'Troll' reveals its magic." Despite the attention to detail given to the beast in question, viewers were not entirely sold on the film's narrative.
On Twitter, some viewers kept their disdain for the movie short and sweet, such as @shivanienaik, who simply stated, "Do not waste your time watching #TrollNetflix." While others, such as @Caputmortem, summed up some of the illogical actions in the film by tweeting, "Watching #TrollNetflix, genuinely curious as to WHY military thought shooting bullets at STONE would do anything, hell even RPGs didn't do anything and they STILL were shooting at it...thought you had to be smarter [than] that to be in the military." "Troll" is another example of how the divide between critical assessment and viewer enjoyment is sharp and prominent when it comes to genre movies.