by Chantal Ashford, Contributing Writer
The trailer is what instantly sold me on Hope. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the actual story, but the adrenaline I got from the trailer alone was enough to get me into a theater seat. Once I finally got into that seat, the movie ended up being… not too bad at all.
Hope follows Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the police chief of Hope Harbor, a quiet coastal community mostly populated by elders. Their peaceful existence is completely destroyed when a mysterious creature begins rampaging through the town, forcing Bum-seok to protect his community while, deep in the mountains, a pack of hunters suddenly finds themselves becoming the hunted.
And Hope wastes absolutely no time getting into it.
Death. Explosions. Chaos. Gun power. Intense car sequences. The film drops the audience right into the middle of everything and basically tells us to keep up. For much of its whopping 156-minute runtime, it keeps its foot firmly on the gas. Well… mostly. Occasionally, it throws the car into neutral because we’ve gotta squeeze some backstory in somewhere. Even with all that exposition, though, I somehow walked away with more questions than answers.
Would I call Hope terrifying? Not necessarily. Does it get your adrenaline pumping? Absolutely.
Director Na Hong-jin manages to juggle several genres within one enormous movie. There’s action, science fiction, horror, thriller, and even comedy sprinkled throughout to keep everything from becoming relentlessly bleak. Sometimes those tonal shifts shouldn’t work, yet somehow, they mostly do.
The cast also does a phenomenal job. Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, and the rest of the ensemble completely commit to the insanity unfolding around them. And then there are a few Hollywood names involved—including Michael Fassbender—which genuinely caught me off guard once I realized what they were doing here. Their involvement isn’t enormous, but it’s enough to make you go, oh… okay, there you are.
Hwang Jung-min is easily the standout as Bum-seok. He does a fantastic job transitioning from this cool, collected police chief into a terrified survivalist desperately trying to keep his head attached to his body while simultaneously protecting an entire town. There are also unexpected moments of empathy from Bum-seok that initially caught me off guard, but they ultimately add another layer to the character and make certain scenes work better than I expected.
Jung Ho-yeon as rookie cop Im Sung-ae brings exactly the right amount of badassery while occasionally providing some much-needed comic relief. I also loved the banter between Bum-seok and Lee Sang-hee’s retired colonel Ahn Nak-yeon. Half the time, I couldn’t tell whether these two wanted to hug each other or kill each other, and honestly, that made their dynamic even better.
But the action sequences are where Hope really comes alive.
Whenever things start heating up and we get closer to discovering exactly what is responsible for all of this carnage, the movie becomes incredibly entertaining. There’s one particular sequence involving shadows and a hand that freaked me the hell out more than most of the actual creature reveals. The jump scares are also surprisingly effective because the film doesn’t bombard you with one every five minutes. They’re scattered throughout the movie just enough that you aren’t constantly waiting for the next loud noise. I can appreciate some restraint!
The CGI, however…
It’s not spectacular. There are definitely moments where it’s wonky and extremely noticeable, but strangely enough, it kind of fits this movie. At the very least, I’ll take this over some of the CGI slop we’ve been getting lately. The creature designs themselves aren’t necessarily nightmare fuel either—except for one. When you see it, you’ll know exactly which one I’m talking about.
My biggest issue is easily the runtime.
At over two and a half hours, Hope is simply too long. There is a version of this movie somewhere that could’ve been a smooth 90 minutes, and I probably would’ve loved it even more. When the action is moving, the runtime isn’t nearly as noticeable because there’s so much happening. But whenever the film suddenly quiets down, you feel all 156 of those minutes. There were several points where I started getting antsy and wondering how much longer we had before the inevitable cut to black.
At the same time, the amount of world-building makes me wonder whether this entire movie is essentially setting up something much bigger. There are too many unanswered questions and unexplored ideas for me to believe this is necessarily supposed to be the end.
Unfortunately, the final act comes up a little short. After such an enormous build-up, I expected something that would completely knock me out of my seat. Instead, I was left wanting more—not necessarily because the ending was bad, but because it feels incomplete. Once that screen finally cuts to black, there’s an undeniable “to be continued…“ hanging over everything.
And you know what? I hope it does continue.
Hope is messy, occasionally confusing, too damn long, and sometimes doesn’t make a lick of sense. The CGI can be wonky, the pacing desperately needed tightening, and the finale doesn’t completely deliver on everything the film builds toward.
But I still had a good time.
Rating: Liked It
Hope is currently in theaters.
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