Hope / 호프 - Movie Review

The Movie: Hope / 호프

The Director: Na Hong-jin

The Cast: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender

The Story: A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before.

The Rating: 6 / 10

The Review:

Well, that didn't go quite like I was expecting or hoping that it would, and I don't mean that in a good way. You know how there's those restaurants who offer everything they possibly can on their menu but none of it stands out and the reason why is because they offer everything they possibly can? yeah, that's what happened with this movie. At times, it's a really fun action movie and then it tries to be all these other things and it never really lands on any of them.

When the movie tries to be a comedy, the humor feels out of place even if it is entertaining. The story takes a really long time to reveal what all the people are running from or chasing after and, by the time it gets there, I was like, whoa. Wait. Is this happening? lol

Before the reveals start kicking in, Na Hong-jin brilliantly creates a chase sequence that has police chief Beom Seok, played by Hwang Jung-min, attempting to catch up with a mysterious threat that seems to get bigger and more dangerous around every corner of the small harbor town of Hope. The tension is off the charts as he scrambles through ruined buildings, streets littered with bodies, and alleyways painted with oversized and bloody hand and footprints. There are some really fun sequences during this part of the movie that I wish had continued throughout in the same way that Battle: Los Angeles (random reference I know) is just an unrelenting mission through carnage and mayhem.

The problems I had with this movie really come into play in the third act as more and more of the threat is revealed and the whole thing just goes off the rails. As always, I'm going to stay spoiler free which does make it difficult to explain my issues with the story but just know that things get real weird and the movie becomes something completely different than what it felt like it was setting out to be. I do kind of like the idea of what could happen in future installments if this becomes a franchise, it's just a very odd way to make this whole movie as a vague introduction to whatever that might end up being.

I also have to say that the special effects in this movie really needed more time to get the shading and lighting and textures to look more lifelike and in place with everything else in the movie. This is also glaringly apparent when special effects type things (no spoilers!) are placed in a small town in what I'm assuming takes place sometime in the 1980's. The town itself and the people that inhabit it are all spot on perfect and then, all of a sudden, you have CGI things and stuff thrown into the middle of it that look like they are copied and pasted straight from a video game.

There's actually a couple moments in this movie that seem to make fun of how absurd things are getting as they are happening which makes me think that there is some intent to the chaos. In one scene, two characters marvel at and question how a third character suddenly has these amazingly heroic abilities and that same character also not only survives but continues to fight after being brutally thrashed around by the things they are battling against. Another scene features a horse with incredible stamina, speed, and an ability to keep pace with a car that's flying down the highway all while some really crazy stuff is happening. Like I said. Things get real weird.

It's sad because I had really high hopes for this movie and we get really fun performances from Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon, who recently made a name for herself on the Squid Games Netflix series, both of which end up being wasted in all the craziness. If you look at this movie as a comedic action science fiction spectacle that doesn't try to make any sense, then you'll probably be okay. I'd still recommend this movie is a decent theater experience but with a fair amount of hesitation. This year is shaping up to be a pretty big one for action spectacles and this movie just isn't om par with a lot of the stuff that's out there or still on the way.

감사합니다 (thank you) for reading this review, I hope reading it makes more sense to you than watching the movie did for me. I love Korean cinema so it's hard for me when a movie doesn't live up to my expectations. I know a lot of people out there are enjoying the experience so, if you're on the fence, I'd say go ahead and give it a shot. It's not a bad movie; it just falls short in some areas and ends up trying to do way too much as it flails its way into a big finale that doesn't have an actual ending. Speaking of ending, that's all I've got for you. See you in the next review!