Directed By Yeon Sang-ho

Starring – Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook

The Plot – Professor Se Jeong (Ji-hyun) attends a biotech conference, only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility.

Rated R for bloody violent content and some adult language.

COLONY | Official Trailer | STUDIOCANAL

POSITIVES

Appraising originality to an overly exploited and often redundant concept such as zombie thrillers is a difficult task to say the least, however being that Yeon Sang-ho is not only responsible for the best zombie thriller of the last decade, in Train to Busan, but also an urgently enticing follow up, in Peninsula, there’s hope for the advantageous outlook of this subgenres future, especially in the unique angling of Yeon’s co-written script, full of the kind of nourishing social commentary that we’ve come to expect from him. Like those aforementioned films, the zombies are supernaturally quick and offensively aggressive, however this time around they’re capable of connective interaction with one another, as a result of the evil mastermind behind it all, making it easier for them to strategize more devastatingly inescapable assaults on often unsuspecting preys. This is already difficult enough considering the multiplying magnitude of their seemingly limitless army of undead biters, within the claustrophobic confines of a high-rise, but it’s made even more terrifying with the enacted tendencies of those influenced by the transformative virus, where jarringly abrupt bodily contortions, mimicking of their objective adversaries, and ear-piercing communication to the intricacies of the movie’s sound design, makes these versions of zombies feel all the more cunningly deceiving and constructively adaptable than anything previously conjured, and considering the kind of thematic heft from which they spawned from, it’s easy to understand exactly the kind of creative objective that Sang-ho is going for here. While plenty can be effectively absorbed from the experiences of its characters, the most underlining emphasis seems to pertain not only to the perils and dependency of Artificial Intelligence and hyperconnectivity amidst capitalist greed, but also the ages old debate of individualism versus collectivism, in which the film coherently explores how individual identity dissolves into a broader and dangerously omniscient system. Especially for the world of cinema, there is perhaps no greater controversial topic currently than that of the former, where filmmakers and artists are essentially losing their implementing imprint on a movie’s integrity for technological advancements that do things cheaper and quicker, and while this idea in the confines of a zombie lockdown might obscure some of the sentiments that Sang-ho leans passionately into, there’s an unmistakable balance towards audience interpretability that articulates the conflicting feelings on its many uses, where the very same connectivity that weaponizes these zombies to work together is also the very same technique that our group of established protagonists fight back against them, ultimately leaving much to the meaningful merits of his material once again creatively tapping into a vulnerable angle that currently persists in the world beyond the screen. As for those aforementioned characters, while the movie is obviously relegated with the very same trope type personalities who serve as nothing more than the indulging beef unloaded at a zombie buffet, there are a couple of noteworthy exceptions who endeared me to the stakes and circumstances of this particular conflict, particularly Se Jeong, who is truly one of the most badass horror heroines in recent memory, without the need for Sang-ho’s direction constantly beating the audience over the head with that realization. Part of her appeal as a protagonist is certainly the bountiful intelligence that she conveys throughout the group’s situational adversity, where her adaptable uses of the environmental aspects certainly help level out the playing field against the swarms of the undead, even while she’s typically on the defensive at all times, but there’s an earnestly attainable isolation factor to her design that materializes as a result of an opening act that spends enough time fleshing out the dreaded disposition of both her crucial unemployment and her best friend of an ex-boyfriend, who we come to understand is finally moving on without her, and while empathy is no problem for a character so rooted in vulnerable tangibility, it’s refreshing to experience the progressive actions of a character who isn’t overly emotional with the bleakly disparaging circumstances of her outsider conflict, instead constantly putting her best foot forward to remarkably resolve some challengingly complex set pieces along this two hour journey. Sang-ho’s faithful developmental depth certainly realizes this creative intention consistently, resulting in a firmly cemented investment to character, however the performance from Jun Ji-hyun ultimately takes it one step further, even despite an eleven year absence for the actress from the screen since 2015’s Assassination. Ji-hyun seamlessly slips back into a commanding presence, both with effortlessly enticing charisma and free-range emotional versatility, that bring a lot of energy and earnestness to scenes evoking both, and while she exudes a comfortable confidence over the conflicts, it never feels like it compromises the palpable suspense of these mesmerizingly directed sequences, instead remaining undeterred in the focus of ever-shifting conflicts and unraveled character dynamics. Koo Kyo-hwan is also a lot of fun as the mastermind antagonist behind the outbreak, bestowing limitless depths of sleaze and seediness to an unapologetically irresponsible character who seemingly always has an ace in his pocket to play. While everything heralded is certainly important to the movie’s integrity, it would be peanuts without the grippingly intense kind of physical sequences that we’ve come to expect from Sang-ho, enacted rivetingly here not with buckets of blood and bone-crunching brutality, but instead a rich tapestry of challengingly complex camera angles and cerebral motions of the lens, that move kinetically with the destructive dead. To the untrained eye, this might feel like a particular brand of shaky-cam freneticism, however the clarity and cohesion of the visuals never feel compromised by the expressiveness of Yeon’s artistry, instead imbedding just enough atmospheric influence for the depiction to breed urgency and suspense to the overwhelming vulnerability factor of its characters, with much of the uniquely framed perspectives effectively emulating video game sensibilities on a grander scope and scale.

NEGATIVES

After an opening act full of compelling characterization and grippingly enthralling action, the second act detracts upon much of Sang-ho’s manifested momentum, specifically as a result of some intrusive outsider arcs that eviscerate a lot of the much-required containment of this claustrophobic setting, in turn bringing with it an abundance of long-winded exposition dumps that further echo everything that the audience have already experienced in real time. This wouldn’t be a big problem if the storytelling maintained the urgency of previously captured conflicts, but this is the section of the engagement that grates abruptly on the fluidity of the movie’s pacing, where the unappealing realities of an unnecessarily bloated two hour runtime finally catch up to it, and considering so many of these dialogue exchanges and frivolous developments are repetitious to the point of annoyance, it leaves me wishing that the post-production took another delve in the editing room, in order to omit some of these moments from the finished product, in turn leading to an airtight 100 minutes that could’ve conveyed the extent of this story without losing anything vitally integral to its framed foundation. Likewise on the detracting aspects, the production utilizes low-grade C.G special effects during one particular scene involving infected monkeys, where the entirety of these animalistic actions and movements stand out egregiously with artificiality when compared to everything else in frame. While it’s undeniably a justifiable use of the technology, as the difficulty to steer live-action monkeys to do what the scene requires of them would be impossible, however I wish that the rendering was given more time to bring it to life in ways that feel convincingly, and between this and some overwhelmingly obvious explosions during the movie’s climax, it clumsily conjures some jarringly distracting imagery that fails to showcase the dedication and craftsmanship of its post-production team, where it feels very reflective of its minimal 12 million dollar budget. Finally, though Sang-ho does succeed at eliciting some endearing originality to the lore and creativity of the zombie subgenre, he’s still not able to effectively evade the majority of its time-honored tropes, where many of the actions of these interchangeably forgettable supporting characters converge towards familiar avenues of exploit from far superior predecessors. Considering Train to Busan and occasionally Peninsula went deliberately out of its way to carve creativity and complexity to the value of its characters, the majority of which here are by and large surface level nobodies, and with many of those moments of them meeting their untimely demises failing to conjure any semblance of emotionality over the interpretability of the scenes from which they spawn from, it emits such a lack of influential impact that unintentionally summarizes their lack of importance over the proceedings, with mind-numbingly stupid and irresponsible actions that certainly measure how little they value their lives.

OVERALL
Colony is a subversively clever sociological allegory about man’s dependency of Artificial Intelligence, as seen through the murky depths of a zombie lockdown where collectivism comes to take shape over individuality. While the film strays far from the tracks of Train to Busan, with limitless tropes and a long-winded second act to its detriment, it’s leagues better than Yeon Sang-ho’s previous film, Peninsula, with its freshly unique touches on ages old concepts, cementing a rip-roaring high-rise of horror that offers a profound bite of substance to chew on, long after the movie ends.

My Grade: 7.3 or B-