Directed By Na Hong-jin

Starring – Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Hoy-eon

The Plot – 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.

Rated R for sequences of bloody violence, gore, and adult language

HOPE | Official Trailer | In Cinemas October

POSITIVES

As difficult as it is to believe that it’s been a whole decade since Hong-jin’s last film, the criminally underrated The Wailing, Hope proves that his direction is as strong as ever in the epic scope, scale and lore of this wild card of a project, offering a fitting return to form for a visionary who absorbs tones every bit as much as does genres. On the surface, Hope might feel like your basic run of the mill alien invasion flick, however there’s a scintillating new taste conjured from the many genre-familiarized ingredients that Na is stirring scintillatingly with, crafting a story that would fit seamlessly into the kinds of stories that Stephen King once conjured in his prime, and while the frights and tension certainly culminate towards an edge-of-your-seat experience that isn’t short on spontaneity or back-handed surprises, it’s just as funny by the realistic reactions and cautionary approaches of his characters, helping to override some of the limitations to characterization that the script is so obviously not invested towards. What Hong-jin maintains in the passed time since his previous project is this ability to craft and value ambiguity and mystique to a story that asks a few more questions while it resolves another, and considering the opening act not only keeps us in the dark with the visuals of this monster, instead showing us the magnitude of their unrelenting devastation to speculate on what exactly it is our human protagonists are facing, but also the life-altering circumstances of these characters, it makes the single day setting transpire nonstop action throughout, feeling structurally akin to something like Mad Max: Fury Road, in that it feels like one two-and-a-half hour set piece. The action itself is helmed remarkably from Hong-jin and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, who sifting through a siesta of smoothly cerebrally sprawling camera motions, breathtaking background captures, and lingering long takes, excels at garnering the suspense and urgency of every enticing sequence, allowing one set piece to bleed into the next with razor sharp continuity and editing techniques that maintain every square inch urgent underlining that concerns Hong-jin’s vision. While the rampant velocity of top speed car chases offers the single most rewarding moments to a theatrical engagement involving top notch sight and sound quality, my personal favorite moments were scenes of the story’s setting shifting seamlessly to the woods, in order to enact some of the low-angled immersive choreography of the lens from something similar to 2015’s The Revenant, but this time with a far more elaborately detailed range of meaningful framing conveying the out-of-reach danger and inevitable uncertainty for the characters, all the while offering us meticulous motions and craftsmanship in every single shot adding to the bigger element of atmospheric dread that humbles these characters and this engagement with an unpredictability for environment that makes any of the characters feel expendable at any given time. While on the production’s technical components, the heft and influence of the sound mixing and editing help to make up for some of the glaring artificial transparency in lukewarm special effects for its alien characters, specifically during out of frame moments when we coherently interpret their presence without all-together seeing it, as well as an elaborately layered element of set decoration that proves much of the movie’s 48-million dollar budget when towards fleshing out the crumbled ruins of a small town with livable influence to the ways it’s constantly captured. When you consider that so very little of this on-site South Korean filming location contained any of the imploded buildings, overturned cars, or splattered gore on its town walls, you really start to appreciate the level of time and energy that went towards fleshing out the distinct detail of such a small-town isolated feeling from the rest of the outside world, and while many of its citizens unfortunately pay the ultimate price to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, there is attainable evidence in the look and feel of the setting before the untimely arrival of this unforgiving force of nature, leaving me all the more curious to see Na direct a Godzilla film, as I have been for the last decade plus. In addition to exceptional direction, investable characters, and effectively meaningful production values, the film is also elevated by compelling turns in everyone responsible for the main characters, but also the unique casting of English-born actors to the motion capture of its outsider aliens, leaving little to chance with an ensemble this decorated to maintain the empathetic intentionality of these characters. For the human portrayals, the aforementioned trio of Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Jung Hoy-eon undoubtedly shine the brightest with their opportunities, specifically Hwang’s dastard duality between the projected stoicism of a brave police officer and frantic panic that understandably trivialize his desire to confront something that he has no knowledge of, as well as the fearless resiliency of In-sung and Hoyeon inspiring advantageous optimism to a situation that grows bleaker by the second. Zo’s headstrong local tracker is tougher than two dollar steak, and Jung’s exhilarating eagerness offers an adaptable dependability that comes through at the right moments for this team that is unfortunately tasked with resolving matters with their dangerously titanic adversaries, and I just found so much about their constantly bickering banter to be charmingly intoxicating, especially as the conversations drift unknowingly to everything from diarrhea troubles to situational misunderstandings that illustrate humans being responsible for their own demise more times than not. As for the familiar faces cast to project the aliens themselves, the impressive quartet of Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton disappear seamlessly into their otherworldly roles with menacing conviction and even momentary earnestness during an invented alien language for the project, and while Na Hong-jin has gone on the record for saying he wanted global star power and distinct dramatic heft for the alien faction, I personally believe that the nationalities of the actors play a bigger part in the outsider paranoia of the material’s profound subtext, perhaps as a means of conveying that no matter our visual differences, we all seek the comfort and stability of a world where we can raise a family in uncontested harmony.

NEGATIVES

While most of the production values add some meaningful component to the overly positive integrity of the movie’s finished product, the glaring weakness among them is undoubtedly the special effects designs of the creatures, which are at times so jarringly distracting that they break the concentration and immersion of every sequence that involved them. Considering the entirety of the opening act keeps them tucked away to drive the mystique and curiosity factors of their reveals, the reveals coming in the kind of broad daylight that emphasizes their artificiality is detrimental towards their appeal to the film, with designs and movements similar to something of a PlayStation creature from the original console, and while the transparent dimensionality of their designs aren’t as bad in colorfully accommodating settings, such as those aforementioned scenes in the woods, the moments that the aliens stray far from home are the most compromising to the movie’s integrity, offering a feeling of unfinished detraction from the designs that I wish more budget was spent perfecting. In addition to some at-times atrocious special effects work, at just over two-and-a-half hours, the film is far too long in capturing the expanse of the story that they’re attempting to capture, particularly during the lulling of a second act that serves as the bridge of exposition between the two action oriented opening and closing acts. While narrative shaping and development are obviously vital to any story’s success, I will express that the scenes around this section felt a bit prolonged for what the characters are asked to convey to one another, taking a nosedive from a once urgently enticing experience, and while I was never bored throughout the extent of the engagement, I will say that this particular section left me feeling a bit anxiously antsy to return to the top form of action-inducing annihilation, where an airtight two hour runtime could’ve sufficiently told this story while remaining persistent with the pacing. Finally, though a personal choice with my own prejudice towards a creative helming, the movie is unfortunately merely the first part in a two-part proposed bigger movie, where the film’s flirted cliffhanger to catastrophic events in the distance prove that the war has only just begun between these species. As is the case for most two-part films, there’s a feeling of unfulfilling resolve to this particular installment that underscores everything previously attained in my positive sections, leaving us waiting for a sequel (Of sorts) that could look and feel completely different as a result of technological advancements or character likenesses in the passed time, and considering this already bloated film features a surrealistically silly mid-credits scene that only further trivializes the stakes of this movie’s ending, it doesn’t exactly leave me clamoring to continue another day in the life of this depicted world, even if Na Hong-jin is one of those rare directors whose films feel like an event on the cinematic calendar.

OVERALL
Hope is a rousingly riveting and mesmerizingly engrossing return to form for Na Hong-jin, whose alien invasion thriller offers a sprawling jaw-dropping scope that sizzles, even against an overlong runtime and lifeless special effects testing the attention of its inevitably divisive audience. While far from the best that the director has capably conjured in a career of classics, one after the other, the film still offers a boldly provocative lore that pushes action cinema to its creative and conventionalized limits, offering an action-packed juggernaut of monster-centered action so unpredictably enthralling that it reaches frenzy by way of Fury Road.

My Grade: 7.3 or B-