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| Image Courtesy Netflix |
Not to be confused with the American cult classic of the same name, Troll 2 (2025) has everything a sequel should have: more of the not-so-serious bits that made the first film fun and more creative uses of Norwegian lore around trolls. Unfortunately, it also has more of what made the original only an average monster movie: plot holes and borrowed tropes. Still, Troll 2 can be an entertaining film if you can turn off your brain and roll with it.
After helping to defeat a giant troll in downtown Oslo in the first film, heroine Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) has become a hermit, residing in her father’s isolated cabin. It’s here that nerdy hero and friend Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck) finds her and asks to show her something very important.
In traditional sequel fashion, Tidemann learns there’s another troll hidden away in a secret mountain lab. And since she has been dubbed the ‘troll whisperer,’ Andreas asks for her help in progressing the troll research. Enter a new, underdeveloped character of Dr. Marion Aurryn Rhadani (Sara Khorami), who explains that they’ll lose funding if they don’t get some sort of research breakthrough on the troll. After this initial explanation, Rhadani usually just recites children’s rhymes to help explain what’s happening with the trolls.
Once this troll escapes, the military is needed, which is how military hero Major Kristoffer Holm (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen) returns from the first film. He completes the troupe of main characters who try to pacify this new troll.
There is some interesting depth in the movie to help distract from all the recycled bits. Tidemann debates with Rhadani about whether the trolls are just monsters or beings who have feelings and should be treated as such. There’s also some interesting Norwegian lore involving the Christianization of the country and how this threatened the trolls’ existence. Returning director Roar Uthaug (2018’s Tomb Raider, The Wave) keeps things light and moving swiftly.
But then the movie becomes a little bit of everything, with scenes and plot elements borrowing from everything from Godzilla and Rampage to National Treasure. The climax involves a kaiju fight outside of Norway’s beautiful, gothic Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.
Despite its not-so-original elements, Troll 2 can be entertaining and fun, winning you over in the way it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
- Eric Beach