Spoilers had high hopes for this one.
They say hope is the last thing you lose. In a strange way, this feature lost me right at the last act. I can’t help but being in the fence on the decision to recommend it or not, because I was really into it for most of it run. Most movies that lost their potential in the finale are still watchable despite a lousy end, but unlike them I wanted to let you know it’s really hard to forgive the final twist. We’re going to get into it, because I feel you need to be warned. It’s that bizarre. Pass the scapel.
Hope (2026) was written and directed by Na Hong-jin. Welcome to the sleepy coastal town of Hope Harbor. Police Chief Ko Bum-Seok (Hwang Jung-min) and local hunter Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) are checking in on an incident with dead cattle being slashed by something big. As he follows the wake of destruction of the unknown creature, he finds buildings caved in and people mauled and crushed. Survivors have managed to grab weaponry and are shooting at anything that moves – and so does Bum-Seok, who genuinely seems terrified. He eventually finds some backup when he runs into capable office Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon). Together they will have to track down the creature and stop the rampage. Meanwhile, Ko Sung-ki, leads a ragtag group of fellow hunters to trail down the path of destruction left in the countryside. This will eventually take them to run into more of creature’s kind and their actual origin.
The first half of this feature is extremely solid. We’re mostly following Bum-Seok. He’s not a hero, he’s not former special forces or a martial arts badass. He’s trembling, he’s not keen on rushing into danger and he often find himself firing at something he can’t see, which introduces an element of humour in the middle of disaster when he inadvertently shoots at civilians. The locals are not big help as they somehow show up better armed than their Police Chief. Fortunately Sung-ae proves far better at both shooting at driving when she appears.
The movie seems to scale back a bit as the creature finally appears in full view, but that’s when the chase wisely speeds up to a breakneck pace. This also spells trouble for Sung-ki and his friends as it’s soon reveal the creature is not alone. The forest scene does depend on more cgi getting exposed and unfortunately it’s noticeably flawed. I could have forgiven it if we had kept the action going, but as the movie relies more and more on it we do the unthinkable. As our remaining heroes make a break for home, the cgi creatures are given a chance to speak and do some exposition.
It was working fine for the first half, then its reliance on cgi becomes a problem until the finale. The finale is where the filmmakers threw the baby out with the bathwater. Not even the best cgi effects survive full blown dialogue exposition in broad daylight but that’s this movie went for. We’re actually trying to build an entire movie lore and make our menacing creatures do a 180 degree turn unto space opera royalty using the voices of Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender. Call it jumping the shark or nuking the fridge, this is where the movie wants us to be engaged in the last fifteen minutes into a cheap Avatar-like knockoff cliffhanger.
The best I can do is probably recommended with a lot of reservations just in case you want to know what was behind the trailers. That being said, be strongly advised you’re walking into a major disappointment of a finale/reveal. The film does a rather decent subversion of a creature feature in the beginning using a flawed protagonist and keeping its monster off screen. It even manages to create a third act that feels very stable despite shaky cgi. But by the time it enters its late stage and final reveal, it’s obvious it wants both to set up a lore, a cliffhanger and to start a space opera saga in less time than a commercial. And that makes it watchable only if you’re ready for a major letdown. Lose all hope before showtime.
That will do for now.
