Ragnarok: The Viking Apocalypse
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Release Date: OUT NOW!
2013 | 12 | DVD Director: Mikkel Braenne Sandemose Cast: Pål Sverre Hagen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Bjørn Sundquist
Ignore the
title, which has clearly strayed from the cover of some Scandinavian death metal album. There’s nothing especially apocalyptic about this Norwegian horror – and a distinct shortfall of Vikings, come to that ( bad news if you have a taste for plaits, pillage and dragon ships).
The prologue throws some token Odin- bothering Norsemen our way, but the action quickly moves to the modern day. Our hero is an archaeologist, studying cryptic runes unearthed in a burial mound – “the biggest and most spectacular Viking find in world history,” we’re told. Played with everyman charm by Pål Sverre Hagen, he’s more muesli- fed academic than two- fisted Indiana Jones clone, struggling with single parenthood and given to quoting the Cultural Heritage Act.
As its plot follows a secret map to remote Finnmark, Ragnarok offers standard issue treasure hunt stuff before finally unmasking itself as an old- fashioned monster flick. The lamb- gobbling beastie in the lake proves to be the great Midgard serpent of Norse mythology, updating its schtick to embrace Jaws- style underwater POV shots. It’s a decent effects creation, just the right side of Syfy cheese.
The Norwegian landscapes are stunning, but Ragnarok ultimately underwhelms, its thrills neutered and family- friendly, undone by an ending that proves a scaly, slithering anti- climax.
A trailer. Nick Setchfield In Norse mythology the serpent is the arch foe of Thor. Odds are we’ll see it on- screen in 2017’ s Thor: Ragnarok.