Hope

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

Director: Na Hong-jin

Believing a wild animal to be responsible for an attack on local livestock on the outskirts of his small village Hope Harbor, Police Chief Beom Seok (Jung-min) heads back to make sure the inhabitants are protected in case the animal tries to attack again. Meanwhile, his Deputy and second cousin Sung Ki (In-sung) takes a small group of men into the forest to investigate. Neither man is truly prepared for what they find, as Beom Seok discovers Hope Harbor has become a war zone, with the inhabitants fighting an unseen menace, while Sung Ki and his gang discover something more terrifying than a wild animal that is currently residing in the woods. After being joined by rookie Im Sung-ae (Hoyeon), everyone finds themselves in a fight for survival against an enemy no one is prepared to face.

I am not even going to bury the lede here: This movie rocked and Michael Bay wishes he could produce chaos like this! Hope might be one of the best pure adrenaline rides since Mad Max: Fury Road.

I have been following this movie for a while now since it made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year. There was a lot of muted praise, mostly with concerns about the unpolished visual effects present in the film. Director Na Hong-jin (The Wailing, The Yellow Sea, The Chaser) said the movie was unfinished when it screened and took the time leading up to release to finish the effects work.

Despite the quality of the visual effects present in the now finished film, I still had a hell of a time with this movie. This says a lot, considering the run time of 2 hours and 37 minutes as well as the.. let's call them "charming" special effects. The fact that I was still drawn into the movie and had as good of a time as I did despite this is a testament to filmmaking on display. Na Hong-jin's camera weaves and cuts through the action with gleeful abandon, with a lot of the action being displayed practically. It's all very impressive and I wanted to stand up and cheer every time a vehicle did a sudden, sweeping about-face to rush towards the action.

This movie has several prolonged action scenes throughout the run time. There are two that are at least forty minutes long that had me on the edge of my seat. While they are all impeccably filmed and edited, nothing tops the opening sequence. What happens during the scene is simple, with Beom Seok exploring a now carnage-ridden town while trying to find the source of the chaos. We don't see what is causing the danger, but we hear it and see what it has left in its wake. It's incredibly suspenseful and sets up the threat that our leads will be facing throughout the film.

The film is funnier than I was expecting as well. A great reoccurring gag happens when Beom Seok comes across members of the town who are seemingly armed to the teeth out of nowhere. When he asks them about it they just simply answer with "don't worry about it" and move on. Also, characters will often comment about how Sung Ki reminds them of an action hero. It’s a very realistic and hilarious response to characters who are in a very unrealistic situation.

The score is incredible in this film. Michael Abels, who also did the music for Jordan Peele's Nope, deserves at least an Oscar nomination for his pulse pounding accompaniment. Not only was it one of the more memorable aspects of a very enjoyable film, but I could recognize how great it was while watching the film and how well it meshed with what was happening on screen, which is something you don’t always notice. But this score is loud, fits the action, and adds to the overall experience.

The actors are all great as well. Their characters are incredibly out of their depth as far as the story is concerned and yet they are all given their action hero moment. I have to give credit to Hwang Jung-min for playing one of the more least stoic action heroes I can remember. He constantly fumbles his weapon, loses his cool, and admits that he has no idea what to do or that he doesn't have a plan. And yet, when the time comes he proves to be very capable. It's great cinema.

Yes, the visual effects aren't great, but they do seem to get better as the film progresses. I haven't even mentioned the fact that the film takes a wild swing in its final ten minutes to set up a sequel. Despite this sudden shift, this is a fantastic sci-fi epic that screams to be seen on a big screen.

Grade: A