Valhalla: A Lenda de Thor

The local online movie database in our country is a bit of a pain in the crack to get accepted to. You are required to rate 200 movies and then you have to take a movie trivia quiz, which is timed and can be only repeated once if you want to write reviews. Seeing the reactions for this movie made me go trough that whole process just so I could write a review myself.

Currently, the rating on that database stands at around 31%, which I feel is really unfair. The rating here on IMDB is about right. If you go into this movie expecting a marvel movie, you'll be disappointed. This is a cheap movie about northern mythology, that doesn't hold your hand. The characters are not introduced, as the target audience is expected to already know the mythology. The child characters are annoying, but it is nice seeing some of the myths come to life. Given the budget, which was microscopic in today's context, the movie looks pretty good. A fine passtime for the mythology lover. I don't know how well it relates to the animated movie it remakes as I have never seen it.

Thor (Roland Møller) and Loke (Dulfi Al-Jabouri) arrive at Midgard and ask to spend the night at the simple farmhouse of a couple of farmers and their two children, the boy Tjalfe (Saxo Moltke-Leth) and the younger daughter Røskva (Cecilia Loffredo). Thor wants to eat meat and throws away the fish soup Røskva is cooking. Then he kills his goat and tells the family to eat how much meat they want, but they should not break any bone since he would use them and the skin to bring the goat back to life. However, Loke lures Tjalfe and the boy breaks the leg of the goat. Thor decides to take him as his slave as punishment for what he did. While going back to the Valhalla, they find Røskva hidden in the chariot, and she is taken with her brother to serve Thor. When they arrive at the Valhalla, they find semi-destroyed gods since people from Midgard are losing their faith in them. They learn that the Valhalla is threatened by the giant wolf Fenrir and Røskva befriends the servant Quark (Reza Forghani). The goddess Frigg (Stine Fischer Christensen) feels that Røskva is special, but Odin (Asbjørn Krogh Nissen) believes she is only a mortal servant. During the night, Røskva and Tjalfe decide to flee from the Valhalla and Quark comes with them. However, Tjalfe decides to return to Thor and is captured by King Udgårdsloke (Uffe Lorenzen) and his people. Thor and Loke find Røskva and Quark and they believe that Udgårdslok has kidnapped Tjalfe. When Røskva connects and feels the presence of Fenrir, Thors sees that she is special and decides to help her to rescue her brother from Udgårdsloke in a dangerous journey.

"Valhalla" (2019) is an entertaining Danish-Norwegian-Swedish-Icelander movie with a great adventure. The gorgeous girl Cecilia Loffredo in the role of Røskva steals the show with a wonderful performance. The conception of Valhalla seems to be adequate for Nordic people from that Age and the disbelief from these people on pagan gods and consequently killing them is an excellent concept. The lack of knowledge of the Nordic mythology does not prevent the viewer to like this movie. The difficult names of the characters and the Danish language force most of the viewers to be totally dependable on the accuracy of the legend of the movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Valhalla - A Lenda de Thor" ("Valhalla - The Legend of Thor")

This was so much better than the Hollywood treatment, this actually felt real, as I imagined what Asgard would be like, none of that Holywood technologically advanced and old world at the same time stuff. Not sure what I was expecting when I started to watch the film, but really enjoyed it; the acting and direction could have been better, but a great watch nevertheless.

-Compared to other interpretations of the nordic mythology - this was spot on. allthough I missed a lot of details, eg I missed the lowered ocean levels after thors drinking competition and the running contest with ones own shadow. What about Frey, I'am always looking forward to see the film-makers imagination of her.... very disappointing. Anyway, this ways a good experience, a film cut to the bone, trustful to the story. (one last thing - a wooden door should be built with a diagonal braces starting from the top of a door - away from the hinge and downwards. ending close to the lower hinge - otherwise it would collapse within few weeks.... ohh please dont make that mistake again, Ive seen it made false soo many times)

There's no mistaking it, the Norse Eddas are composed of some brilliant stories. If your only exposure to the vibrant world of Norse mythology has been the highly entertaining yet very inaccurate MCU films, the original stories should definitely be on your reading list. Neil Gaiman's retelling is highly recommended. I was hoping that this film would be a fairly faithful retelling of the myths...I was wrong. To be fair, it was OK but only up to a point. I'm not familiar with the Danish comic book retelling that was the main source for this adaptation, but I am not inspired to read it having watched this. Too much emphasis is placed on two kids who barely get a mention in the original myths and there has been the totally pointless inclusion of a cutesy giant character who doesn't even provide the comic relief he was probably intended to bring (think Viking era Jar Jar Binks). On the plus side, the film looks good. Some people are stressing about the appearance of the Aesir in the film. In Norse mythology the deities were shape shifters so I'm not too bothered about casting choices (no, not all the Norse gods were fair skinned blonds as one reviewer on here mentioned; Thor in the Eddas was a redhead and Loki even took on the form of a female horse in one tale). Whereas Norse mythology presents gods and goddesses who have wonderfully human traits that make them rounded personalities, there is very little character development of what are, in this version, clueless, bickering two-dimensional tyrants. I have studied Norse culture and myth for over 30 years. I didn't hate this film, but found myself picking it to pieces as I watched it. I'm hoping that one day there will be an accurate adaptation of the Eddas. They are all such great stories, they don't need embellishment for a modern audience. These are stories that have endured for hundreds of years. As I say, the production design was decent and reflected the Norse view of their mythology before the later Christian influences crept in, but if you want to learn more about Norse mythology, for the time being at least, turn off the TV and read a book or listen to the BBC radio dramatisation of Neil Gaiman's retelling.