HOPE
Starring: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-Sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender
Director: Nah Hong-jin
NICK
In the opening hour of Hope, director Nah Hong-jin presents a film on an impressive scale, filled with intense tracking shots and only the destruction and carnage of its unseen creature. It’s brilliant. Then the creature is revealed and Hope devolves into a film with too heavy a focus on highly underwhelming VFX as it struggles to justify its lengthy runtime. Despite this, it is still a good film that features a ton of entertaining (albeit repetitive) action and chase sequences. However, after Hong-jin showed what this film could have been in the first hour, everything else feels like a step down.
ADRIANO
For the first hour, I was perplexed about Hope’s mixed reception. The filmmaking and action were perfect and had me thoroughly excited about what director Na Hong-jin cooked up for the next two hours. Then the monster is revealed, horribly rendered and looking like Morbius. From there, it becomes clear there is no compelling story and it’s all action, which is very well made aside from the horrendous visual effects. Eventually, though, it becomes repetitive, followed by some gibberish that sets up a sequel that I’m not stoked for despite this movie's strengths.
BODE
It seems crazy that a film as defiantly wild as Hope could play in-competition at Cannes, but here we are. For the first hour, I couldn’t have been more in love with director Na Hong-jin’s vision, as he pulls together a string of monster movie sequences so muscular that it puts most Hollywood blockbusters to shame. It feels like watching the best Michael Bay knockoff there is. However, while still fairly engaging as it continues (even with some dodgy CGI), it becomes needlessly overstuffed, and the stakes become less compelling. All that said, I’ll likely watch the sequel it so shamelessly sets up.
