Mortal Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Mortal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 5, 2020

American Gods rather intriguingly posited a bunch of “old” Divinities, including the Norse “father figure” of Odin, struggling to make it in the wild and woolly modern world where people tend to worship things like television and the internet more than than some “spirit in the sky”. Something at least a little similar is at play in Mortal, though in this instance it might be salient to refer to another character in American Gods, namely Shadow Moon, since this film’s focal character, a young American expat in Norway named Eric Bergland (Nat Wolff), is, like Moon in American Gods, not quite sure who he is or what exactly is going on around him with regard to any number of supernatural phenomena. Mortal begins with an interesting and virtually dialogue free sequence that documents what seems to be the almost feral activities of Eric in the woods of Norway. He’s scraggly, unkempt and evidently suffering from some extremely bad burns. Though he makes a fitful attempt to clean himself up in a gas station restroom, he’s accosted by a bunch of punkish Norwegian kids who assume he’s a homeless “bum” (as they call him), an interaction which leads to tragedy when one of the kids grabs Eric despite Eric's warning not to, and perishes as a result. That in turn ends up with Eric under the guard of a local policeman named Henrik (Per Frisch), who then recruits a local psychologist named Christine (Iben Akerlie) to try to make sense of both what happened with regard to the punk kid as well as generally what’s going on with an obviously deeply troubled Eric.

As interesting as Mortal undeniably can be, it also lapses into outright cliché on more than one occasion, and in that regard, the whole situation between Eric and Christine is the stuff of Lifetime movies, albeit perhaps with just a soupcon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thrown in for good measure. While my colleague Brian Orndorf mentions Christine recovering from the death of a relative in his review of the film, I actually inferred that a previous client of hers had committed suicide, but one way or the other, the point is that both Christine and Eric are "wounded" souls who predictably bond together to not just uncover some mysteries about Eric, but to "find themselves" generally in the process. Add in a star-crossed romantic element, and a climax seemingly designed to be Tragic in the classical sense, and it may be just a little much, given writer and director André Øvredal's emphasis on the supposed "human" side of someone with superhuman powers.

The bottom line is that Eric is a "conductor" of sorts, able to relay both heat and electricity through his body, in a plot conceit that can seem awfully derivative, especially since it's in moments of emotional trauma or excitement that these phenomena literally erupt. A shadowy and almost completely unexplained "Black Ops" team arrives to take Eric back to the United States, a group headed by a woman named Hathaway (Priyanka Bose, kind of oddly given second billing her, despite what is arguably a more prominent and central role for Akerlie). That also predictably ends in disaster, which is when the film opts for yet another hoary trope by having Eric and Christine take off on the lam, chased not just by Hathaway, but also Henrik, and, just for good measure, the grieving father of the punk kid, a man named Bjorn (Per Egil Aske), who is obviously out for revenge. It's probably too melodramatic by half, but what's interesting and ultimately commendable about Øvredal's approach is that it's often low key (and, yes, there is a horrible pun there).

Øvredal also attempts, with perhaps fitful results, to weave in Norse mythology, especially in an over the top ending that has Eric discovering a certain magic hammer, and also with other overt references that include people starting to think of Eric as a god of sorts. Øvredal mentions in the supplemental making of featurette that he wanted to make a "Terence Malick superhero movie", and in that regard, there is a connection to the natural world here that's quite striking. Hilariously, according to the closing credits (and in opposition to what's stated on the IMDb) the film was evidently shot at least partially in the Czech Republic, despite being about Norway and funded in part by the Norwegian Film Commission, but Øvredal offers some stunning vistas that could have come straight out of Song of Norway.

Note: Brian probably liked Mortal a bit more than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts on the film here.

Mortal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mortal is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to track down authoritative technical data on the shoot, but the making of featurette clearly shows some kind of digital capture (though I couldn't make out a model) and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. The bulk of this film features rather cool grading that tends to emphasize blues and greens, so that the palette doesn't exactly look "natural" a lot of the time, but is still rather evocative overall. Detail levels are generally quite good, though there are a number of "arty" effects, including quite a bit of haziness courtesy of diffusion filters and some askew framings. The film has some rather well done CGI in terms of the lightning and other fire effects, and what I'm assuming was at least in part practical makeup effects are also well done.

Mortal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mortal features a really fun and often bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and about the only complaint I can imagine some folks having is that this release didn't feature a DTS X or Dolby Atmos track, since so many of the "electricity" effects could have exploited verticality in the sound mix. There's some nice, rumbly LFE in some of the effects sequences in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly, and in that regard, the film kind of ping pongs between Norwegian and English, depending on who is speaking. Optional English subtitles for either/both the Norwegian and English language dialogue are available.

Mortal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Dark Hero: The Making of Mortal (1080p; 23:35) starts with a spoiler warning, though the cover art of this release reveals about as much in one image. This has some decent interviews and lots of snippets from the film.

Mortal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mortal is undeniably interesting a lot of the time, but I would have liked it better had Øvredal not exploited quite so many clichés. There are also a number of underdeveloped elements, though that said, the entire film seems to be a set up for a sequel, so, if that's the case, maybe some of those questions will be answered in subsequent installments. Technical merits (especially audio) are solid, and with caveats noted, Mortal comes Recommended.