Gåten Ragnarok

I had been wanting to watch this movie for a couple of months, but I could not find a version that had been dubbed in English - until now. This is a Norwegian film, so you'll need to find it with sub-titles or a version already dubbed in English. The quality of the audio dubbing was not all that great, but it worked. It was a lot better than having to read sub-titles or watch it in Norwegian.

A down-on-his-luck archaeologist is having problems with his job/research into Viking mythology. He's a widower and a single father of 2 children. After losing funding for his work due to lack of progress, his friend shows up from the northern coast of Norway with an ancient rune-stone, which launches them all into their next adventure.

Nothing here is too exceptional, scary, or gory. It's a decent movie for the whole family - and I'm not generally "into" family movies. So, I was surprised that I liked it so well. Honestly, I was expecting a little bit more from the "monster," but it wasn't completely cheesy either.

Overall, the plot was pretty predictable. I think I enjoyed it so much because there were believable characters and good acting - especially from the child actors. I find many child actors tend to make or break a movie like this, and these kids can hold their own. The main character was also a good actor. None of the acting was completely bad, which is why I think the whole thing worked. For being a lower-budget production, this movie holds up very well. It's a bit of a slow start, but once it gets going it steadily builds tension and held my interest right up to the ending.

This Scandinavian production fails to live up to its expectation. All the actors do commendable jobs and the cinematography is good, but it falls much short in providing the viewers with ample horror scenes and monster action that a scary monster movie is supposed to. With all that being said, the movie does have something to offer in terms of some tensed moments and the way in which it connects certain stories of Norse mythology with reality. The plot revolves around an archaeologist, his family and his co- worker. They go for a trip/adventure that becomes their nightmare as they encounter a giant monster with maternal instincts. However, the monster action in the movie is literally limited to few moments and the viewers don't even get a full view of the creature even once. The movie has some hint of resemblance with "Jurrasic Park" except for the fact that it is not even close to it in terms of the thrill or screenplay. It does manage to keep the audience fairly entertained but for a few dry patches. As an ardent fan of monster movies, I would say that it was kind of a letdown.

Coming from a premiere screening of the Norwegian family adventure film "Gåten Ragnarok" I'd have to say I expected more. This is not a big genre in Europe, being a mix between a realistically told Indiana Jones and National Treasure and a tad of Jurassic Park. It's got appraisals from the first festivals it's been showed in Canada and USA, but that might have made my expectation too high.

We meet a couple of archaeologists which do an exciting find just when the scientist's funding are cut down. The find is a stone with old runes, which is old Nordic letter-writings carved in stones and wood. The find is supposed to be lead out of the mysterious find of the Oseberg viking ship, which is a real and factual unique find of a viking ship used as burial ground for two women made at Oseberg in the South of Norway.

The story is of course just adventure, and no answer to the riddle of who these women where, though one of the probably were a viking queen, and the other probably her slave. Still the archaeologist are both looking for a treasure and for more viking finds up in Finnmark in northern Norway.

The film starts up quite good, though the two kids slowly ruins the film for me with a bit to unprofessional play, but for a young audience (this film is rated 11 years in Norway), this will have good entertainment value. The audience in the theater thought so, I understand. Still there where too many plot holes for me, and I also found the story dragged a little too much for my taste. But then again this is not my genre of film if it's not kept more funny or realistically told.

I liked "Troll hunter" because of the great CGI and the humor, and I liked the action in Indiana Jones and "Jurassic Park", though I found "National treasure" to be boring, and "The Mummy" awful. This falls short of the best, but far better than the two worst. But good family entertainment, though too scary for the youngest if they don't have hands to hold.

Adventure, mythology, family life, old spirit of childhood. A beautiful film. Not good, great, ot unpredictable. But the right choice for young public and for their parents for nice memories. A map becoming warning. Idealism and not the perfect father. The truth and the confrontation against it and the end. So, real nice. But not for high expectations.

This is my first review here. First of all, I need to emphasize that this is a bit of soft horror movie. That already means that my scale is lowered (because there is LOAD of utter junk horror movies) and adjusted to the genre. By no means is this LOTR or Guardians of the Galaxy, and it should not be watched as one of those movies, characterized by huge budget and top of the line acting.

If you take above said in consideration, this is all in all a good family movie that adds a bit of horror elements. Just the right amount to scare kids and entertain adults as well. I am not a parent, but i am an adult and i find this movie good.

Acting is actually VERY good, in rank with top of the class movies out there. CGI is also good, although i did want to see a little more of if. Language is Norway, but i don't live in English speaking area, so we watch everything with subtitles anyway, and kids read at age of 4-5. It could be issue for kids that had learned to watch movies without subtitles, so be warned. And, personally, non English movie that is above average is quite refreshing. Even approach is somehow different and "new" compare to Hollywood.

All in all, i do recommend this movie. It is not an Alien, but story is still better than, say, Prometheus, and acting is top of the class. 8/10.