Black Crab (or Svart Krabba in its original language) is a
Swedish action movie currently at the time of writing, available on Netflix. It
has some good pedigree, not least it’s lead actor, Noomi Rapace, whom English
language movie-goers will recognise as Dr Elizabeth Shaw from Alien prequel
“Prometheus”, as well as appearing in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and
all three movies in the “Girl with a dragon tattoo” series. It also features
Aliette Opheim from Icelandic mystery thriller “Katla” (also available on
Netflix) and Norwegian actor Jakob Oftebro (whom I was pleasantly surprised to
see, while researching, that he starred in a movie called Max Manus!). The
movie’s director is Adam Berg, who along with producing Amazon Prime’s Tales
from the Loop series, appears to have directed numerous pop videos.
The trailer and promotion for this movie is what drew me. An
apocalyptic movie, involving a rag-tag team on a mission to save the day. Now,
maybe I’m sick and twisted, but I do love a good apocalypse movie. I like a bit
of spectacle and the world falling to bits.
This is not that kind of movie. The story opens up with Rapace’s
character, Caroline Edh, in a car, in a tunnel with her young daughter, when
what appears to be a marauding terrorist incident takes place. Edh remains in
the rear of the car, with the daughter, when one of the gunmen smashes the
window and it all goes dark.
Fast forward what is clearly a number of years, but Edh
still looks the same. She is hauled from a train by soldiers and ordered to
some military compound. She is escorted
by a captain, Nylund, who makes a stop in a village of sorts, and exits the
vehicle. For some reason Edh gets out and into a fight with the population,
resulting in her stealing the car and making for the compound without Nylund.
There she is informed she and a small group are to transport a package across a
frozen “Archiepelago”. Edh is told that her daughter has been found in a
refugee camp and she can be reunited with her once the mission is complete.
I found myself with more and more questions as the film went
on. Why choose Edh? What’s her speciality that makes her an ideal candidate to
join the group on the ice? Was she a champion ice skater before the war? (I’ve
since read a review that says she’s a speed skater). Oh yes, there appears to
be a war. The enemy is never made explicit. Who are they? Why have they waged
war? Unfortunately, it seems to be a story for story’s sake. Equally
unfortunately, none of it makes any sense whatsoever. After watching numerous
escapades on the ice, and yes like any other quest movie, some of them die on
the way, the story then takes a bizarre turn. After receiving some news she’d
rather not have received, Edh makes a decision that makes the whole story
pointless.
I felt very disappointed and underwhelmed by the story’s
conclusion. With a running time of almost 2 hours, it’s hard not to feel
frustrated. It’s not all awful though. The CGI is very good on occasions and
some of the gore is rather good too. I also liked the music, by a group calling
themselves “dead people”. However, it’s too little to save this movie and I
would not recommend it. The movie didn’t thrill me and I couldn’t have cared
less for the characters (I was going to say I didn’t warm to them, but that
sounded a cheap joke!).
Year – 2022
Availability – Netflix (various language and subtitle
options)
HYBW movie rating – 4/10
