Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.5

Ragnarok Blu-ray Movie Review

Raiders of the Lost Vikings

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 18, 2014

According to a famous (but probably apocryphal) quote attributed to Picasso, good artists copy but great ones steal. The 2013 Norwegian film Ragnarok is a study in the virtues of cinematic theft. Its screenwriter, John Kåre Raake, and director, Mikkel Brænne Sandemose, have cheerfully plundered the works of Steven Spielberg for ideas and inspiration, but they have reinvented them anew. "Ragnarok" is the Viking name for the apocalypse, and Raake penned a story about a contemporary expedition to solve the riddle of the term's origin. Out of classic Norse mythology, he and Sandemose have constructed both an entertaining popcorn movie and a compelling family adventure. The alert viewer will notice nods to Jaws , Jurassic Park, The Lost World and several of the Indiana Jones films, but not one of these moments feels like a retread. Each of them is rooted in a specifically Norwegian story unlike anything Spielberg ever made. Sandemose has also absorbed one other crucial lesson from the founder of Amblin and Dreamworks. Spielberg's films routinely have wonderful casts who create interesting characters, and so does Ragnarok.

Critical events in Ragnarok occurred a thousand years ago. Fragments appear during the credits and periodically in flashbacks. A Viking king (Jens Hultén) led an expedition to the far northern region now known as Finnmark in search of the legendary Eye of Odin. His young daughter, Åsa (Vera Rudi), warned her father against such arrogance, but in vain. As the initial credit sequence concludes, the Viking war party encounters a god-like adversary that emits a fearsome roar. (If you recall the opening of Jurassic Park with its attack by an unseen velocoraptor, the parallel will be obvious.)

In the present, an archaeologist named Sigurd Svendsen (Pål Sverre Hagen, Kon-Tiki) has devoted his life to the study of the Vikings, with special attention to the tomb of Queen Åsa. Sigurd and his late wife, who died of cancer five years ago, were convinced that the Vikings had traveled much farther north than contemporary historians believe, and partly as a way of keeping her spirit alive, Sigurd has given all his energy to proving their theory. His single-minded effort has made him a neglectful single parent to their two children, a tween daughter, Ragnhild (Maria Annette Tanderø Berglyd), and a younger son, Brage (Julian Podolski). Sigurd's theories have also made him unpopular at work, where fanciful notions are not an aid to fund-raising.

But Sigurd gets a break when a long-time colleague, Alan (Nicolai Cleve Broch), brings him a valuable find from the ocean waters: a "rune stone" that Sigurd is able to decode using one of the artifacts from Queen Åsa's tomb. (Pay attention, and you will see her wearing it on her cloak in the Viking scenes.) The result is a map. The delighted researcher quickly informs his kids that their summer vacation will be spent in the wilds of Finnmark. Brage embraces the adventure, but Ragnhild has to be bribed with a new computer.

The journey north takes the Svendsen family through rugged and spectacular countryside that confirms, once again, that not only aren't we in Kansas anymore, but we've entered another world altogether. Joining Alan and the Svendsens are Alan's assistant, Elizabeth (Sofia Helin), a tough outdoors woman with the scars to prove it and the skills to match, and a mercenary guide name Leif (Bjørn Sundquist, Dead Snow), who eyes these city folk mockingly and demands his payment up front. (His opinion of his clients is probably no better than Quint's of Chief Brody in Jaws.)

The rune stone's map directs the expedition to the farthest corner of Finnmark into the "no man's land" at the border between Norway and the former Soviet Union—an inspired idea, because it gives Sandemose a landscape littered with the rusty hulks of tanks, troop transports and other assorted military vehicles, as well as an abandoned bunker, all of which figure prominently in the adventures to come. The group does eventually find the island in the middle of a lake that the Vikings believed was the Eye of Odin, and Sigurd and Alan find their proof, but they also discover the reason why Queen Åsa left warnings against repeating her father's mistake. And that reason is alive, still roaring and very protective of its turf.

After a tense and steady buildup that reveals hidden agendas within the group, Sandemose cuts loose with one set piece after another, including an elaborate escape by rope slide with a deft quotation from a non-Spielberg film that any connoisseur of Nineties action films should recognize immediately. (I say "deft", because Sandemose retains the central device, while shifting almost every other element.) That these sequences work so well is a tribute to the exceptional work of the cast in creating believable relationships among the characters so that the sense of shared danger feels urgent and real. In bringing his children on this expedition, Sigurd was trying to draw them closer to the bond he shared with their mother, but in protecting them from dangers he never anticipated, he finally becomes the father they have been waiting for.

Ragnarok Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Specific information about the shooting format of Ragnarok was not available, but from appearance alone the film is obviously a digital production, with major effects works and significant color correction in post-production. Examples of both the effects and the color grading can be seen in "The Visual Effects" featurette listed under "Extras". The credited cinematographer is Daniel Voldheim.

Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced from digital files, provides a sumptuously detailed image that transitions effortlessly between the dark, torch-lit landscape of the ancient Vikings and the contemporary bright home and office where Sigurd lives and works. As his family ventures north following the map on the "rune stone", the palette shifts to accommodate the gray skies and lush greens of the wild forests, and it eventually shades back to the hues of the Viking opening, when the family descends into the caves where they find what remains of their ancestors' expedition. The blacks of the Viking night and the cave (and other) interiors are deep and solid, and the detail in both bright light and shadow is very good throughout. Except for an occasional hint of banding at scene transitions, there are no artifacts to report, even though Magnolia has departed from its usual custom of using BD-50s and providing a high average bitrate. Here, it has compressed a 96-minute film with two lossless audio tracks onto a BD-25, resulting in an average bitrate of 19.00 Mbps. Given the letterbox bars and the digital origination, the studio has gotten away with this level of compression, despite the film's many complex action scenes.

Ragnarok Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The deafening roar of the nameless creature discovered by the Vikings (and rediscovered by the Svendsen expedition) is the most memorable effect on Ragnarok's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack (in Norwegian with English subtitles), and it could easily stand comparison with the famous T. Rex roar in Jurassic Park. But the creature's presence is signaled by other sound effects, most of them at the low end of the scale. Sometimes they emanate from deep below the lake surrounding the island that forms the Eye of Odin; at other times, they have no identifiable source. The better your subwoofer, the more you will feel the creature. Just be careful when the beast finally roars, because the effect is designed to knock you sideways.

Other sound effects are less stunning but still have an impact: the chaos of the Viking retreat, the modern-day voyage to the Eye of Odin on a makeshift raft, a lengthy sequence in underground caves, a dramatic escape by rope and pulley and an extended chase sequence through the "no man's land" graveyard of abandoned military facilities that ends in an old Soviet bunker. The sound designers pull out all the stops, and the sonic assault comes from all sides. The rousing adventure score was supplied by Norwegian composer Magnus Beite, who obviously grew up on the same diet of big budget Hollywood adventures that inspired director Sandemose.

Note that the Blu-ray also includes a dubbed English track, also in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, for those who do not wish to read subtitles.

Ragnarok Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ragnarok: The Visual Effects (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:28): This short featurette contrasts various plates and "passes" of visual effects shots with the finished product.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 1:33): This trailer has been deliberately constructed to conceal the fact that Ragnarok is a foreign-language film.



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for Honeymoon, The Protector 2, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and Europa Report, as well as promos for the Chideo web service and AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back later for updates".

Ragnarok Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In a statement released to the press during Ragnarok's brief U.S. theatrical run, Sandemose said: "The Vikings were convinced that there was a primal force in the abyss that was so powerful that it influenced their beliefs and lifestyle. In Ragnarok I wished for these primal forces to break loose and collide with the modern world right before the eyes of the audience in a spectacular way." One of the many reasons why Ragnarok has an internal coherence and integrity that Hollywood action films have largely lost is that the powerful force that both connects and threatens the characters isn't just some random excuse for an effects team to blow stuff up. It's a force that's rooted both in history and (in a fanciful, Michael Crichton style) scientific possibility. Like all the best popcorn movies, Ragnarok treats its sources seriously, even when it's being playful. Highly recommended.