Some films open with a bang. Hope opens with a fuse and makes you watch every inch of it burn. Director Na Hong-jin has created an audacious sci-fi action flick that literally has the ideas and execution to please every genre faithful out there. Hope is named so because it’s set in a place called Hope Harbour and the central theme of this alien invasion film too is hope.
The first 20-odd minutes are slow, but the patience pays off. It plays like a slow burn from a veteran in the Steven Spielberg mould, building a town, a mood and a menace without rushing to show its hand. The film’s best joke is its hero. Police chief Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min) is forever a step behind the monster. Everyone around him is shooting, running and fighting for their lives, while the one man desperate for a face-off keeps arriving after the carnage.
That comic tension is a time bomb, and it goes off the moment Beom Seok finally meets the beast. What follows is nearly an hour of relentless action, blood, guts and glory. The first half is a pure adrenaline pump.
Credit goes to the director and the teams behind the action choreography, stunts, practical effects and production design. They have outdone even the best of Hollywood. The apocalyptic mayhem is absolutely incredible.
The ensemble keeps it all grounded. The cast Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon and others playing the characters of Beom Seok, officer Sung Ae, the chief’s cousin Sung Ki, Mr Hae Sul and Ahn Nak Yeon are fantastic, and there isn’t a weak link in the frame. The film also has big Hollywood names voicing the alien antagonists: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell. That is not yet a key contributor, though. Their voices arrive only at the very end, in an alien language, so we never get the full glory of their delivery.
The film does get too long, and that is where the half-star goes. The defence is that Hope changes tracks and treatment twice. The town street chase is distinctly different from the forest face-off between the aliens and the human hunting party led by Sung Ki. That in turn is a world apart from the last 30-odd minutes of car chase and alien ship arrival. Each shift keeps the film fresh, and while it certainly feels long, it never feels boring.
It ends on a cliffhanger that sets up a sequel, and the experience is exhilarating, to say the least. Hope is a complete genre disruptor out of Korea and a must watch. The fuse took its time, but the explosion was worth the wait.
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