I hope you see this cool alien movie.
Watching the new South Korean alien movie “Hope” reminds me of my youth. When I was learning all about the joys of independent and international films, I used to go to special screenings of the genre. And one of the movies was a South Korean monster movie called “The Host.” It was a monster movie, but didn’t rely on big budgets or major stars to sell. It relied on originality, character development, and drama. And I almost feel the same way about “Hope,” which is also the fourth feature from South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin (“The Chaser,” “The Yellow Sea,” “The Wailing”).
Whatever happens in this movie makes me think of a stew with ingredients from “A Quiet Place,” “Alien,” “Predator,” “Avatar,” “Cloverfield,” “Planet of the Apes,” and basically any “Godzilla” movie that has been thrown at us. And it’s elevated by characters, who are able to acknowledge that their reality is now different thanks to you know what. No cliches of non-believers or blaming, just people trying to fight the aliens, getting injured by them, and getting back up again.
The title “Hope” comes from the small town of Hope Harbor. And as the film begins, a police chief named Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) is called in by a group of hunters-led by his cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung)-who all discover a dead cow in the middle of the road. It wasn’t devoured, but it has giant claw marks on it, so it couldn’t be a bear or a tiger. But whatever it is, this creature is big, it’s covered in shabby CGI effects, and it’s destructive. Like a humanoid Godzilla of sorts. Or maybe I’m wrong, and they’re something else.
The cop would eventually collaborate with a rookie cop named Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon), who won’t stop until it’s dead. And meanwhile, the hunters embark in the forrest and end up in the spaceship. And on each side of the equation, it would take a lot of will power to defeat them. And it’s not just one alien they need to worry about.
If you’re wondering how Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton are in this movie, they play the aliens through motion capture. And if you’ve taken my advice and seen their movies before, you can sense that them by their faces and dispositions. I felt the same way about Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough as hairy forrest people in “Sasquatch Sunset.” Although I do wonder if casting names that most American movie-goers would know is just a way to help sell the film (distributed here by NEON). But all the South Korean actors are excellent for their abilities to enter the Sci-Fi genre by playing characters persistent enough to go near the danger. Any loud noise or destruction, they have to walk towards them with their guns. Or in the rookie cop’s case, turn the car around to try to run the alien over.
Before my viewing of “Hope,” I was asked by a friend of mine what kind of character I would be in a horror movie: coward or funny one. And I told him I would be the funny one. In certain cases, cowards tend to make stupid choices in horror movies. There are no comic relief characters in “Hope,” but there are those who make poor choices when they come face to face with the aliens. Should they be more curious about them and what powers they have? Well, they did slaughter a lot of people and animals in their paths, so it’s not a good idea at this point.
Na Hong-jin uses a lot of freedom with his direction, and he makes an alien movie that’s as cool as it is different. And I mean by how he displays the story. And even if the alien effects don’t always work, their spaceships do, and even a crash scene is as exhilarating and scary as anything hurtling from the sky.