Fjord Expedition
According to the site Trust Nordisk, Kraken cost $5.3 million, which is still remarkably low for staging one of humanity’s largest imagined mythological beasts. Facing these budget constraints, the team evidently chose to sharply limit the creature’s appearances to the final half-hour rather than sacrifice the quality of the visual effects.
A sensible choice, since the CGI in the last act is indeed fairly palatable for a stripped-down B-movie of this scale. One could say we’ve seen worse. But to make the whole thing work, the preceding hour had to be particularly gripping. It’s unfortunately far from the case. After a forgettable opening scene, the clichés pile on: a salmon farm testing a new technology, a stingy boss who refuses to turn it off, a biologist who investigates…
Mais surtout, pas la moindre trace de début de tension. Avant le massacre promis, il faut se fader une conférence sur l’élevage de saumon biodynamique, une vague tension romantique post-rupture et la panoplie du cliché d’activistes (l’idéaliste, le connard, le petit copain inutile, tiercé dans l’ordre). Seuls certains plans sur le superbe Sognefjord, où se déroule l’intrigue, dissuadent de zapper sur National Geographic, dont les reportages sont plus généreux en poulpes.
Kraken Survivor
When the eponymous monster finally pokes its suction-cupped tentacles out, after nearly 45 minutes of the film, the narrative doesn’t particularly sharpen in intensity. You really have to wait for the final act for it to strike, and unfortunately, the wait isn’t rewarded all that much.
Digital tentacles, more digital tentacles, even more digital tentacles… The onslaught, staged in submarine-station sets pieced together in a studio with little coherence, feels a touch repetitive. Worse, it is notably stingy with horror and suspense sequences, without dipping into family-friendly fare. The body count is low, and you mostly have to rely on the parasites for the few nasty moments.
