Courtney Howard // Film Critic
HOPE
Rated R, 2 hour and 40 minutes
Directed by: Na Hong-jin
Starring: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Eum Moon-suk, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton
Bayhem reigns in the massive scale, absolutely rousing creature feature HOPE where people are tossed around like rag dolls and frequently yeeted into their afterlives. Writer-director Na Hong-jin emphasizes that Big Fun is on the menu. And he cooks up a feast, serving up an irrepressible, impressive sci-fi thriller centered on a remote South Korean harbor village dealing with the fallout from a mysterious invasion. Do all the rules of the world make sense? Hardly. Do we still have a great time watching insanely ingenious shenanigans transpire? Totally.
The humble hamlet of Hope’s chief of police Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min) has been called to duty by local hunter Sung Ki (Zo In-sung) and his buddies after their discovery of a bull riddled with deep claw marks lying dead in the middle of the road. As they debate what could’ve happened and casually joke around, the mystery begins to unfold elsewhere. Beom hears reports of his tight-knit town being threatened by a giant menace wreaking havoc on citizens and destroying businesses. He shows up to find the aftermath of unprecedented mayhem. Bloody body parts, explosions, walls punched through as if by missiles and prolific piles of rubble strewn everywhere greet him as he runs through the streets curious and frightened at what roaring hell awaits him. Turns out, it’s ugly, dreadlocked Hulk-like alien Va’migere (Cameron Britton).
Headstrong officer Sung Ae (Hoyeon) speeds to the rescue in her killer introduction, and bumbling Beom joins forces with her to take down the otherworldly creature. Sung swears like a sailor, loudly cursing the beast around every turn in the road, while driving at breakneck speeds in her pursuit. They hear from survivors of the melee, from a crazy old man to eccentric, weird taxidermist Yung Bae (Eum Moon-suk), who confesses he killed an alien. Meanwhile, in the lush forest, Sung Ki and his friends come upon an abandoned camp, whose inhabitants have fled under suspicious circumstances. They explore the area and find there’s more than meets the eye as adaptive creatures Ma’veyyo (voiced by Michael Fassbender) and J’aur (Alicia Vikander) make their presence known.
Even though the film is set in the contemporary era, themes of trust, betrayal, xenophobia and cold war paranoia hit, giving the film a tangible atmospheric glimmer. The forest boarders the DMZ. Signage reading “Report spies” and “Protect the nation from infiltration” dot the landscape. Information gleaned from the autopsy is kept on top secret lock down, as is an unexpected encounter. One long-running, unresolved conflict involves Beom and his mounting deception and deflection from accidentally shooting a local chef, whose poor hiding skills are actually to blame. Also, hunters and those who are hunted are character-driven conceits that reverberate throughout.
Director Na and his camera team move the camera in a similar, visually kinetic fashion as Michael Bay’s signature mayhem displayed in the TRANSFORMER films. Big Action set pieces are adrenaline-charged. Those gasp-worthy sequences include cars speeding through the town’s maze-like roads and men on horseback evading the monsters hiding in the woods all whilst the camera pans, focusing our attention on details like the practical effects work and screaming, panicked performers. Plus, there’s a really cool kill using a tree branch as a javelin.
Subtle ecological ideologies and bumper sticker-ish “co-exist” commentaries that begin to brew in the latter half of the film echo those in James Cameron’s AVATAR films, along with the grandiose scale and scope. The spaceship’s interior design is influenced by H.R. Giger’s in the ALIEN franchise (specifically as it relates to the Space Jockeys). Director Na also rips a page from Steven Spielberg’s JAWS in that he shows the chaotic carnage of the beastie that rips through the close-knit community first, taking his time before revealing his Big Bad causing death and destruction. This technique is copied for good reason too, as we learn. It increases suspense, but also lets the audience allow the film some grace once the extra-terrestrial beings appear and look more than a little wonky.
In the case of Spielberg’s JAWS, not showing the shark until the end was because the mechanical shark frequently busted. In the case of HOPE, the CG, character design and animation is left wanting. VFX on the creatures are ropey at best, cringe-worthy at worst. Yet by that point in the picture, the bad aesthetics aren’t distracting enough to outweigh the fun and other impeccable craftsmanship. The 3rd act climax essentially relies on our denial-induced forgiveness as it powers an intense highway pursuit where Michael Abels’ slow-building, swirling symphonic score reaches transcendent, stratospheric heights. If it were a live-score-to-screen event, the orchestra would have to take its intermission right before this sequence to properly rest up for the workout to come.
Unfortunately, it’s not all forgivable difficulties, nor overwhelming praise. Dramatic lulls occur throughout, leading us to formulate questions that necessitate answers we don’t receive within its over 2½-hour timeframe. Rules of the world that are set up, mainly that these giant invasive beasties can die, seemingly are ignored during the film’s second half. Though its blights are blunted due to the onslaught of entertaining hijinks on display, there’s an abrupt, manipulative conclusion that assuredly will leave audiences hanging – and a sequel isn’t a guarantee for an innovative, high concept film such as this.
HOPE not only serves to creatively inspire, it inspires crowd-pleasing exhilaration and awe-inducing thrills. It cosplays as a bombastic blockbuster whose personality mutates from homage to parody and back again at uniquely creative crossroads. If it were to play midnights at repertory cinemas, rowdy screenings or genre festivals, it would blow the roof off, growing in cult-like appeal. We can only hope (pun intended) that we’ll be privy to another installment or two in the future.
Grade: 4 out of 5
HOPE opens in theaters on September 9.
