The short answer is no. Despite a strong 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the buzz on different media, I think most of sound mind would have finished Hope and felt disappointed with what they saw, or probably like me just thankful that its tedious 2.5hr run time had finally come to a close.

Korean creators definitely have their own dynamic voice and approach to offer Western audiences, and any shake up of the orthodoxy is welcomed. There's indeed unique quirks and stylistic choices here that are enjoyable and refreshing, but the fundamentals concerning storytelling, character development, acting and screenplay feel like straight to DVD (streaming?) territory.

Saying that it actually starts well, and I would rate the first act a 70/100. Some of that freshness is apparent immediately, with this backdrop of a retro and decripid, yet charming seaside town, offering a peak into small town Korea, of which I'm sure many of us never seen.

This backdrop and accompanying set design was outstanding honestly. You really feel like they destroyed an entire town to make this movie, allowing those wide or big zoomed out shots capture a very real feeling of life turned to carnage, enabling some creative horror and character moments that were genuinely engaging to watch. Was the action within those sets the most compelling or original? No, but it did the basics well, and I liked the confrontation and battle with the first Monster.

There's some uniqueness to be seen in the dark, frenetic Korean humor. I remember Parasite having that same energy, so I don't know if this is leaning off that influence, or if its a true reflection of Korean culture and taste in general, the same way British humor has a specific and authentic brand to it, that came way before The Office.

When this humor is applied lightly between characters it worked nicely, and helped shift the tone. When pushed to the extremes it felt over-the-top and distracting. Take the incident where the Police chief accidently shoots a friend in town. Just not needed and it killed the momentum. Or perhaps when X taken out by the road sign, which just felt silly. The chainsaw lady.

I did like the Police Chief, 'Bum' though. He's the only character that has a real through line through all the plots, and his fear, bravery and dedication to the job was well felt. You live it through him well, and actually action and sci-movies often have a lack of realistic reflection and acklowdgement from characters about the craziness of the situation, but that actually had a lot of reflection from the characters.

Unfortunately despite the well teased out reveal of the first monster the CGI is so bad the immersion killing is strong. It felt like PS4 graphics, so my gut reaction was to laugh when I saw the monster in full flesh, and although I got somewhat used to it in the village scenes, by the time its ramped up in the third act with the whole ensamble, the b-side nature of the whole thing really started to compound.

They should really have gone for a less is more approach with the aliens, and maybe not had them so exposed and in so many shots, given the low quality. Why was it so bad? District 9 aliens looked amazing, and also cost 30m. 17 years later and the expected leaps in CGI quality and efficiency are nowhere to be seen here.

Given that, instead of wisely going for the less is more approach, teasing the aliens in action, they usually them aggresively. So much so that you have some of the most repetive screenplay, where you spend 30 minutes watching it chase someone running through the woods, where with every cut of the frame its somehow 50m further than when we last saw it.

Everything is done to death in those final 2 acts, sucking the life of the pacing, and becoming more and more ridiculous as you watch another chase through the woods where with each cut the 90mph pursuing beast gets sent 50m back each time, before eventually chomping millimeters away for the 100th time. Unless its one of the many side characters you don't know anything about of course, who get dispatched easily.

What's with these aliens any way? The concept design was all over the place. The first monster looked like something from the Witcher 3, the ship like something from Ridley's Alien, and the eventually high sci-fi aliens you'd get in Mass Effect. The runner dog-form alien looked and acted a lot like a Licker from the horror franchise, Resident Evil 2. Was he an intelligent being motivated to protect his queen, or a slobbering and clueless beast hell bent on chasing inconsequtial foe down like a rabid dog. The movie doesnt know what to do with them and neither does the audience.

There's an attempt to flesh this out with a video game plot at the end, but by this time your just praying theirs not more to come. Honestly if they had just stuck with a family of hag creatures in the swamps it would have been just fine. It didn't need the alien and high sci-fi stuff at all.

• 
  

• PS$ graphics

• So repetitive

• SHoddy acting and thing script