Another aspect I really liked were the creepers.

I thought they were a creative envisioning of a sentient alien species adapted to the harsh environment of Niflheim.

I did think the translators were an unnecessary plot device since the motivations of the creepers did not really need any explaining-- they were behaving as you would expect a social creature to behave.

We did have a laugh after the movie because someone in a group sitting near ours made a comment about how it was stupid that the creepers cared that much about two of their young dying.

I was so dumbfounded someone would arrive at that conclusion so I asked what humans would or should do, and pointed out there’s tons of movies out there were two random kids get kidnapped or killed and there’s a whole-ass manhunt for them.

The person, Tom, argued that was to be expected of humans but not animals. I rebutted that not only are humans animals, but there’s tons of species out there that will get completely outraged about their young being endangered even when they are not the direct parents, such as elephants, gorillas, whales, crows, monkeys, cows, etc.

It led to a great conversation about the movie overall and I gotta say I really missed that type of discourse and analysis with strangers.

Normally, I usually just dread finding out just how fucking insane a stranger really may be, given the current sociopolitical environment in the USA.