Twilight of the Gods Review: Zack Snyder Re-imagines Ragnarok
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Move past the magical first romantic meetings where the woman appears to the man like a beautiful angel descending from the sky; we are here for the fierce warrior wielding her sword in the air, swiftly slashing the neck of the enemy while taking your breath away. Sigrid and Leif, the protagonists of Twilight of the Gods, have the coolest ‘meet fierce’ encounter (not ‘meet cute’) on the battlefield.
Created by Zack Snyder, Jay Oliva, and Eric Carrasco Twilight of the Gods on Netflix is like a mash-up between Castlevania and Blood of Zeus, but with Norse gods and myths. No vampires. And it’s made for adult viewers, so expect some sex, nudity, along with the violence, blood, and gore. The plot follows the beautiful Sigrid (voiced by Sylvia Hoeks), who is half-human and half-giant, and engaged to the Norse Viking King Leif (Stuart Martin). However, on their wedding day, the Norse god Thor (Pilou Asbæk) massacres Sigrid’s entire clan while looking for his mischief-maker brother Loki (Paterson Joseph). As the sole survivor, Sigrid vows to kill Thor and is helped by the conniving Loki to get her vengeance, even though everything was orchestrated by Loki for his own personal agenda. With Leif by her side, she embarks on a quest to gather a band of formidable warriors and convince the old gods of Vanir to fight the Aesir gods—Thor and the others on Asgard.
The animation designs, especially for Sigrid, initially reminded me of the 2009 animated movie The Secret of Kells, which is also a Viking-themed fantasy story but was somehow a lot more magical in nature. While the animation is pretty good for the most part, some of the character designs feel repetitive. For example, Thor and another character from Sigrid’s warrior gang, who wears a wolf-skin, look almost identical. And Zack Snyder, of course, seems to have some aversion to colors (remember ‘Rebel Moon’?), because the palette and color scheme of Twilight of the Gods is often monochromatic and mundane. It would’ve been a lot more vibrant, dynamic, and entertaining to watch if the animators were allowed to use a few more colors, like in the animated series Blood of Zeus.
For those unfamiliar with Norse mythology, “Twilight of the Gods” is rich with lore, with some quick breakdown of how Odin became a powerful deity and the two different groups of Norse Gods that existed in the olden times – the Aesir and the Vanir. I loved how character often tell stories and legends to each other while they are traveling or simply preparing for war and swapping tales for courage/inspiration. The background music was a mixed bag, some tracks complimented the storytelling, while other tracks felt out of place and off the mark, especially in the last few episodes that are focused on the epic war between the army led by Sigrid against Thor at Asgard.
Vengeance and arrogance of the Gods is the primary theme of “Twilight of the Gods”, with Thor being slightly more rash and violent than his Greek-counterpart – Zeus. Unlike the goofy Marvel Thor some viewers have gotten used to, this animated series depicts him for what he really was – a power-hungry, lustful, wrathful, jealous, megalomaniac God. Loki, for me, was the only character in the series that makes a strong impression. His character design is starkly different from the others, a little like an updated, vampire-ish version of the cartoon Hades from the 1990s Disney film—he is grey, evil, and always scheming against his brother. He shape-shifts and is always up to mischief, with Sigrid being a pawn in his mind games.
The final episode of “Twilight of the Gods” is over 40-minutes long, almost twice the size of the other episodes, and I really thought Zack Snyder would wrap up the momentous war against the old Norse gods in the series, but he doesn’t! In-fact, the last two episodes were sluggishly paced and certainly don’t keep the viewer at the edge of their seat, despite the epic proportions of Gods fighting Gods. I guess I would watch a season two, or a follow-up film to this show, since overall it’s a pretty engaging show about Nordic myths, legends and lore.
Rating: 6.5 on 10. Watch the series on Netflix.
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