Mortal (2020)

AKA Torden. What's up with that translation?!

If the title doesn't clue you in immediately, this is a movie about Thor.

Or more so the descendant thereof. A more traditional - less grandiose - but equally awesome and modern (comparing to the Marvel Universe counterpart here) rendition thereof.

Though I actually didn't realize this until a while in, even though I saw the movie knowing the original name. And it might be better if you don't know, too. If you start watching without expectations and let them grow as the story unfolds. But how can you do that if you've read this far now? Never mind. Hope it still upholds a certain sense of magic regardless.

The cast's small but functional. One American, and a bunch of Norwegians, and occasionally a crowd.

The scaled down cast makes it intimate sometimes, but sometimes also unfortunately lacking - like the news stories and crowds don't hold as much weight when they're as small as they are here. It needs to be the whole world to really be epic - and though they manage that in part by adding in some foreign elements among the 'villains', that link doesn't really come across. You still just see Norway. Norwegians. Small place. Limited scale of potential doomsday event.

The lightning's where it shines though. And with the views (fjords are nice). And with the effects, which are occasionally impressively well done.

Nat Wolff's tattered body coverage may occasionally almost look like a tattoo, the hallway encounter wasn't as emotional as I hoped it would be, and it ends in a bad way, but still. It's got something special.

The people. The lights. The places. They build.

They managed it pretty well after all. Better than Gundala even. Different though these similarly supernatural cinematized tales may be.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle