Time: 156 Minutes
Age Rating: R13 – Violence, horror scenes & offensive language
Cast:
Hwang Jung-min as Ko Bum-seok
Zo In-sung as Ko Sung-ki
Jung Ho-yeon as Im Sung-ae
Michael Fassbender as Ma’veyyo
Alicia Vikander as J’aur
Taylor Russell as Ai’dovor
Cameron Britton as Va’migere
Director: Na Hong-jin

I had been hearing about Hope, a sci-fi action movie that premiered at Cannes. What really got me interested in it was learning the fact that it was from the director of The Wailing, which was a great horror movie. Hope wasn’t quite what I expected it to be, and I’m really glad I saw it in the cinemas.

Hope won’t work for everyone, but it really worked for me, certainly a very weird movie. The first act is a slow build, filled with suspense as it builds up to the reveal of an alien and shifts into long stretches of some incredible action. The second act switches back into mystery mode with deliberate pacing, before locking back into action for the third act. Hope has quite an interesting tone too. There is a lot of genuine tension, the first act particularly having a dread filled build up. At the same time it is very funny (a particular monologue halfway into the film being a stand out moment) and it’s a very absurd movie especially with the action. There’s a whole lot of nonsense that you are not meant to fully understand and just meant to go along with, and I liked that. It is a long movie at 2 hours and 40 minutes and while I felt it, I was so locked into the movie throughout the entire runtime. However, I can see other people finding it to be a bit repetitive and tedious. Something that should be noted is the fact that this is intended as the first part of a story, with the ending setting up a sequel. It introduces some things that come out of nowhere and aren’t explained, because it’s confident that it can deliver on it in the next movie. I say this because as someone who was on board with the movie throughout, the last 5 minutes threw me off guard and halted the flow, and ended things on a weird note. It almost felt like a parody of setup cliffhanger endings, and if that was half the intent, I suppose that it works as a double gag if a Hope sequel never gets made. Also there is an extra scene during the credits, so make sure to stay at least an extra couple of minutes to catch it.

Despite there not being much characterisation, the actors do a lot with what they have, especially Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Jung Ho-yeon.

Na Hong-Jin’s direction is amazing. The cinematography is dynamic and beautiful with great use of wide angles. I heard that the CGI was pretty poor when it was released at Cannes. Apparently they have touched it up a bit since then, but it still looks pretty janky. Oddly enough, I think it kind of works. Sometimes the CGI is genuinely good and I liked the designs of the aliens. Even when it jitters a bit in their movements, their uncanny animation makes them look more scary, especially with how fast they were. Even with the dodgy CGI during the action and the aliens feeling like PS3 characters, everything else is so excellently constructed that  it almost doesn’t matter. The action scenes are so exhilarating and thrilling, especially in the first and third acts. They are breakneck, visceral and full of kinetic energy. The wide scale is felt, the sound work is amazing, and above all else the practical effects are top notch with the carnage and destruction and bloody violence. The stunt work is stellar too, especially with everything involving cars and horses. The only time that the CGI was super distracting for me was actually in the last 5 minutes of the movie. I can’t go into the details, but I found it very difficult to take the on screen aliens seriously. The score from Michael Abels is also spectacular, I would consider it on the level of his work on Nope.

Despite some janky CGI and a very abrupt ending, Hope is a highly entertaining, unique, absurd, and ambitious action sci-fi thriller, with exhilarating action. I would highly encourage checking it out, especially in cinemas.