3 Short Paragraphs: Mortal

 2020, André Øvredal (Trollhunter) -- download/Amazon

Sometimes I feel I need to rewatch certain movies just so I can put a post in here, to remind myself how much I enjoyed a flick or two.  I recall really enjoying Trollhunter but I don't actually recall anything about the plot, but that it was found footage and there was a giant (and I mean, giiiiiant) troll. Mortal is his most personal feeling movie since that one (i.e. non Hollywood), once again set in Norway and dealing with Norwegian myths.

Eric is  an American backpacker who came to Norway seeking his roots, but all led to tragedy as the family he connected with died in a fire he believes was caused by himself. It was. Eric has weird elemental powers, fire and electricity and water, which he cannot control. It leads him to connect with Christine, a young, beautiful, blonde psychologist who is trying to protect Eric from the authorities, Norwegian and American, seeking to take him. He's killed people; it's understandable, and one vastly powerful confrontation on a bridge frightens everyone including Christine. And then people on the Internet start connecting Eric with Thor, God of Thunder and Lightning.

On the cover, this is just another of the movies since MCU became popular, exploring people with powers and the impact they would have in the "real world". But something has been itching at me since I saw it, the connection to Thor, and the recent rise of ties to "white power". Eric is American, where this racist ideal is very very loud, and he comes to his European roots to take that power as his own, to an almost welcoming (very white) support, as they begin to believe he is a God. The woman standing in his way, the "agent" from the US Embassy is brown, and she controls the shadowy American government forces that want fail to control Eric. While my brain cannot seriously think Øvredal intended this, I can easily see how certain radical groups would embrace the "writing between the lines" they find. And it ended up overshadowing, in my mind, a small story that wanted to connect ancient beings with power to the superhero trope.