TL;DR
Hope is a South Korean monster-action-slapstick film with an estimated budget of 74 million dollars. It delivers impressive visual polish, detailed destruction, and fast-paced chases, but falters with jittery, video-game-like monster effects, repetitive action, crude misplaced humor, and a bloated runtime of almost 160 minutes. Viewers wanting pure spectacle might appreciate isolated moments, while those seeking tight plotting, convincing dialogue, or genuine tension should avoid it.
I heard about Hope for the first time maybe a year or so ago. A weird mix of monster movie and action with some western vibes? It was South Korea’s entry to Cannes this year, where it competed for the Palme d’Or. It looked very interesting beforehand, but I have felt conflicted about it from the start. Partly because of the length—a film that clocks in at almost 160 minutes has a lot to prove. And the fear is that it contains quite a few remaining “darlings” to kill. Furthermore, the information about the film’s monsters made me worried. The few images I happened to see looked quite ugly, and when I found out which actors were behind them, I mostly felt—why? More on that later. I still held a certain hope. Partly because it looked quite crazy, in a good way, and partly because South Korea is quite reliable in its delivery. I have found many favorites here, and if we are talking specifically about the monster movie genre, The Host, or Gwoemul as it is called in its original language, is an old favorite. I haven’t seen it in probably fifteen years, but I will never forget the euphoria over that chaotic scene at the beginning when the monster runs amok. It was stylish and tense as hell, and Bong Joon Ho hasn’t exactly been slacking off with interesting films since then. Ever heard of Parasit? But now, it is the director Na Hong-Jin and his Hope that we are shining the spotlight on.
Let’s go through the plot quickly for those who don’t already know: On the outskirts of a remote port town, a mysterious discovery is made. Suddenly, the inhabitants are forced into a desperate struggle for survival against something they have never encountered before. The plot is fairly simple, and as it turns out, the film itself is too, in some ways. With a budget equivalent to approximately 74 million dollars, Hope is said to be the most expensive Korean production to date. Let that sink in for a moment, because before the actual review begins, I must say that, with the benefit of hindsight, I find it hard to see how the people behind Hope managed to convince the financiers to provide such a sum. What did that pitch look like? That is impressive in itself. I had read a lot beforehand about how completely crazy and tense this film was supposed to be. At the same time, I have followed the ratings on IMDb, among other places, which show rather modest numbers. After seeing the film, I can report that I understand why. Much more than I understand the critics who have actually praised it to the skies.
But let’s start at the right end: the director. Na Hong-jin won several awards for his debut feature The Chaser from 2008. I seem to remember seeing it, but I have no clear memory of the film itself. I do, however, remember parts of his also highly hyped horror film The Wailing, which came out in 2016. It was stylish and had some intense scenes, but I wasn’t completely sold. Another thing I notice when going through Hong-jin’s CV is that his previous films also have a, shall we say, generous runtime. Something that is far from always an advantage. The main character, the cop Beom Seok, is played by Hwang Jung-Min, known from the superb A Bittersweet Life. He is portrayed as rather ignorant, stupid, and cowardly. Paper-thin, because he never develops in any direction. His female colleague Sung Ae, played by former model Hoyeon, who had her breakthrough in Squid Game, is significantly more colorful, even if she doesn’t undergo a development arc either. I won’t spoil anything, but there are actually a few characters who, surprisingly enough, become more flesh and blood after about 120 minutes. Good or bad? Judge for yourselves. The acting is hard to rate because there is an extreme difference between Asian, European, and American cinema. In this case, it’s not about so-called K-drama, but rather comedy. Because this is no straightforward monster or horror film. I would categorize it as a monster-action-slapstick. Yes. You read that right.
And with that, we approach the difficult passages. But I’ll start with something positive: the film looks very good. Great image quality, a high level of detail in the destruction, and some stylish, creative death scenes. In fact, almost everything in Hope is very good-looking. Except for the monsters. It looks like they were cut and pasted directly from a cutscene in a ten-year-old video game. That they didn’t manage to make it look better with the largest budget in history is actually staggering. Because it’s not just that it looks plastic and superimposed—the animations sometimes feel jittery, as if they settled for an early rendering. Incidentally, it takes almost an hour before we actually see one on screen—and this is where the problems actually begin. I like that they hold back, and there are films that stage the concealment of the antagonists in a really stylish and effective way. In Hope, unfortunately, it mostly feels contrived and occasionally turns into logical gaps. At one point, our clumsy police officer logically should see a monster but doesn’t. In another instance, he is standing outside a large storage facility of some kind with another character. They look in through the windows, and the character delivers a line that makes it sound like he has no idea what the monster looks like, even though it has already been established that he has both hunted it and seen it with his own eyes.
A lot of things don’t sit right. There are some really stylish and exciting scenes in Hope. The problem is that seventy-five percent of the scenes that could have been very tense, perhaps even uncomfortable, are dragged down into the dirt by unwarranted humor. Unlike, for example, Resident Evil, where at least parts of the humor were funny and disarming, here it mostly becomes an annoyance. This makes it difficult to take the threat seriously despite all the bloody bodies. And then, to be honest—this thing with monsters that are difficult, almost impossible to kill—is ultimately almost as interesting as superheroes or supervillains who are impossible to kill. It can be effective or uncomfortable for a while when the characters realize how inadequate they are. But then it usually just becomes repetitive. Spoiler alert: In Hope, it mostly becomes repetitive.
Speaking of things that don’t sit right, let’s talk about the length. I have read reviews that praise Hope as a 150+ minute pure adrenaline rush and breathless excitement. I don’t agree. Sure, some of the chase scenes are really cool and the pace is high almost throughout, but the problem is that in the midst of it all, it’s repetitive and oversimplified. It is essentially one long chase. However, it works reasonably well when the story in the city alternates with the hunters moving in the forest. At first, anyway. Additionally, the script feels as if it were written by a hormone-fueled teenager who woke up with a cool idea for a monster movie but zero experience in how real people talk. Most of the dialogue consists of “What the fuck is happening?”, “Hell!”, and “Die, you bastard!”. And when they actually attempt real dialogue, it mostly becomes wooden and overly explicit. And again, there’s the humor popping up in all the wrong places. For example, we have a major revelation—at least for the main characters—coming from an injured old man. Here, they throw in five levels of poop humor. Those of you who have read my review of Vi är Metal Dragon know that I can appreciate that too. Sometimes. Here, it could have been funny if it had been limited to a single, crude comment, but instead, it makes the scene almost painfully silly—and unnecessarily long. They could easily have cut at least forty-five minutes of drawn-out clips and unnecessary scenes without losing anything of value.
The characters are mostly screamy, even if the female police officer steps in with a cool presence. And speaking of screaming, the film’s final twenty minutes are almost deafening. It’s loud, grand cinematic music mixed with four characters sitting in a car and screaming almost incessantly at each other. I sound extremely negative, and I am. I like this type of film, and the idea of a sleepy little community being attacked and massacred by monsters is obviously appealing. Not least the previously mentioned near-western feel. That’s right. I completely forgot to mention Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, who lent their faces and bodies to ugly monsters. I don’t really want to say anything more than that. A strange move, but there is some form of explanation that I don’t want to go into more deeply. There are quite a few disconnected things that work in Hope. Stylish scenes. Plenty of chaos. But it just doesn’t work as a whole. And there is way too much repetition. And the ending. Well, what can one say? I won’t spoil anything, but the tone and direction shift here to squeeze in an opening for a sequel. Not just through hints, but by twisting everything in a way I haven’t seen done before. It’s surprising and could perhaps have been called innovative and stylish, but the result is mostly clumsy.
Hope is, in summary, a mishmash of good and bad ideas joined together with Karlssons klister and stubbornness. To quote myself after panning The Odyssey this summer for Gamereactor—there is a good movie buried here somewhere under all the unnecessarily drawn-out scenes and deafening noise. And that sequel, which will surely come if Hope makes enough money? I’m not overly curious about it.
Review Highlights: Q&A
How long is the runtime?
Hope runs for almost 160 minutes, though around 45 minutes of drawn-out sequences could easily have been removed.
How do the visual effects and monsters look?
While the overall image quality and destruction look great, the monsters look plastic and jittery, resembling cutscenes from a ten-year-old video game.
What is the tone of the movie?
The film functions as a monster-action-slapstick blend where misplaced crude humor and screams frequently undercut potentially tense scenes.
Who plays the main characters?
Hwang Jung-min plays police officer Beom Seok, Hoyeon plays his colleague Sung Ae, and Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender portray monsters.
