rúnasteinninn

The shock has not yet passed after last night's viewing of a stunningly bad film. I'm not even sure it would be useful in an undergraduate class on Old Norse-inspired pop schlock, and that is saying something.


The filmmakers get points (grudgingly awarded) for the following:

• Two short lines of decent Norwegian: "Mange takk" "Det var ingen årsak"
• Incidental use of what I think was Jenny Lind
• Incidental use of Danish film
• Unwittingly echoing the Þórr-Þjálfi team by giving Týr a young human helper
• Unwittingly echoing Víðarr's waiting-for-Doomsday attitude by making Týr a clockwatcher
• Pairing off Týr against Fenrir (even though that's not the pairing at Ragnarök)
• Not calling Fenrir "Fenris" (suddenly I want to see another movie, one called Fenris Bueller's Day Off)

I draw the line at awarding points for having unwittingly made a decent Grendel costume when a Fenrir costume was intended. It is a dreadful Fenrir costume. And not dreadful in a good way.


Points deducted for the following:

• Týr missing his left hand
• A really awful labrys-like axe (why on earth do people insist on putting such things on the prop list?)
• Atrocious casting choice for a character named Almquist

I cannot be bothered to deduct points for the usual nonsense like bad runes, ridiculous pseudo-archaeology, surprisingly bad acting, and the plot, oh the plot ...