The Norwegian creature feature “Kraken” starts with great promise and a visually dynamic monster attack sequence. Then it settles into a mostly formulaic groove.
The plot’s basically “Jaws” with unnecessary extra steps. So instead of a tourist-filled beach that needs shutting down, it’s the scenic Sognefjord, Norway’s deepest fjord. And while there’s no self-interested mayor here, there is a profit-driven businessman who puts lives in danger just to impress some Japanese investors.
More specifically, a pair of mysterious deaths leads Johanne (Sara Khorami), a diligent marine biologist, to investigate Jostein (Øyvind Brandtzæg), a glad-handing fish farm owner who’s desperate to please the wealthy and potentially interested financier Shiro (Etsuro Endo). Unfortunately for Jostein, the “Sonic Lice” sound technology his company uses to de-lice the fjords’ salmon has not only displaced a number of fish but also inadvertently led to the creature-related murders of two (human) kayakers. A conflict between Jostein and Johanne eventually follows.
Unfortunately, Jostein and Johanne’s respective personalities are barely developed. Johanne plays the unenviable role of the skeptical (i.e., impartial) but concerned scientist whose warnings fall mostly on deaf ears. Meaning that she takes time to listen to Maria (Jenny Evensen), Jostein’s idealistic, whistle-blowing daughter, and also keeps after Jostein and his well-meaning, but insecure, fish farm employee, Georg (Jon Erik Myre), whenever he drags his feet during her investigation. Khorami’s got an impressive screen presence, but even she can’t turn on enough charm to compensate for her protagonist’s overall sketchiness.
More could have been done with Johanne’s relationships with Maria, who accuses Johanne of being as corrupt as her dad, as well as Georg’s standoffish colleague Erik (Mikael Bratt Silset), Johanne’s ex-colleague and old flame. It’s also hard to care about Jostein, given how little time is spent building up the pressure from his interactions with Shiro. And while Brandtzæg delivers a suggestive enough performance, his character’s not oily or human enough to be worth rooting against.
Brandtzæg and Khorami’s prescribed roles are especially frustrating once the plot stops to make way for some of the most dramatically inert and visually staid monster attack scenes that you are likely to see this year. Sorry to be presumptuous, but I imagine the audience came to see giant tentacles destroying public property. Without enough on-screen time to satisfy such generically imperative needs, “Kraken” really could use some compelling human-led scenes to keep things going.
It’s also disappointing to see the movie’s eco-thriller plot treated like a disposable pretext for underwhelming special effects scenes, which are generally not well-paced or choreographed enough to warrant so much preceding throat-clearing. You don’t need to care about Maria’s angsty protests to want to know more about the stress-inducing effects of Sonic Lice’s technology on the Sognefjord’s fish, or maybe just the reports that the company (meaning George and Erik) is reluctant to show Johanne. Problems inevitably arise since the filmmakers repeatedly suggest that this stuff matters, but then fail to make it as important to us as it is to Georg and the gang.
These kinds of ancillary details wouldn’t matter so much if there were more of the movie’s promising opening monster attack sequence. That scene is a diligent Spielberg homage, complete with ominous shadows beneath the water’s surface and shifting camera angles to suggest an omnipresent threat. The rest of the movie’s effects-driven scenes aren’t half as thrilling.
At the same time, while nobody in their right mind comes to see a movie named “Kraken” for the plot or the characters, that’s most of what the movie has to offer. Dismissing this type of movie for failing to be a great SFX showcase makes about as much sense as waving away a horror movie that’s simply not scary enough. What’s the point in dinging the movie you’re watching for having a different focus than the movie you came to see?
In order to succeed on its own terms, a movie like “Kraken” would need to have something on its mind, or at least a clear dramatic imperative beyond the mindless need to keep advancing the plot. And if you think I’m being too harsh on this modest little programmer, then I strongly encourage you to watch its opening scene and try to explain to yourself why it works while the other monster scenes do not. For me, what really puts that opening scene over the top is a high level of genre craftsmanship that the filmmakers simply don’t match after this early highlight.
This type of movie isn’t hard to love, but it does get harder when its more familiar elements make you check your watch, not because of how cliched or overused they’ve become, but because of how shabby and diminished they now appear. Other, better movies will inevitably come to mind as you watch “Kraken”—not because it’s so bad, but rather because it might have been as good as you hoped.
