Film Review: Hope
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I am going to start this review of Hope off with something I will likely never do again, which is to tell you to stop reading it. This has nothing to do with the quality of the film, quite the opposite in fact. I hope that you dear reader get a chance to go into this film with as little knowledge about the plot as I did when I entered the theater to screen this movie. I mean it, stop reading this review of one of the year’s most audacious, thrillingly shot, eminently watchable, frustratingly ended, yet makes me want more movie of the year.
Now that I have given you adequate warnings, we can dive into the full course meal that is Hope.
The film begins with an auspicious sight, a cow that’s been killed in the street. Police Chief Beom Seok is called out to the scene by Sung Ki and his buddies. What starts as a simple search for the culprit (a tiger) soon becomes a nightmare, as a larger creature is terrorizing the town, leaving dead bodies and destruction in its wake. Reinforcement comes in the form of Officer Sung Ae, eminently capable and bad ass, whose welcome presence is but a temporary salve. While our heroes are dealing with the because is as the danger ramps up to epic proportions.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a monster movie, and invasion picture, and a Transformers film had a threesome and then had an unholy baby? Well if you had, it might look something like Hope. This movie truly broke my brain as I was watching it. Writer/Director Na Hong-jin might be a mad man, but I am thrilled he got to make a film as bonkers as this. His control of both the craziness and the grip he has on the narrative are something to witness.
Though the VFX in this movie certainly strain the film (there’s a few shots that are terrible), this movie has some of the most compelling and thrilling action scenes of the year. Whether it’s watching a monster alien trample through the town in an opening set piece that might be an hour long to the fights in the woods, this movie has some serious style. At every turn I feared for the main characters (I don’t know if there’s been a group so overmatched since Cowboys vs. Aliens) but Na Hong-jin keeps us enthralled with beautiful visuals and a compelling sense of dread.
You might read the above and think that this is one serious action caper, and it is, but it is also one of the funniest movies I’ve seen all year. Hope shares a lot of similarities with the Apple TV show, Widows Bay, in that both attempt and execute a high wire act of blending genres and make it work. To that end, while Widow’s Bay feels effortless, this movie is much more effortful. You can feel every change in tone, in a way I typical would advise a writer against doing, but when the result is a new, more ridiculous scenario, you tend to just go along for the ride.
However, this is abated when you’ve got actors having us much fun in peril as this ensemble. As the police officers we come to love, Hwang Jung-min and Jung Ho-yeon are both eminently capable as action heroes, and nimble enough to move through the shifting emotions of the piece. They’re great leads, but this film belongs to Zo In-sung, who plays Sung-ki. He’s head strong and brash, and steals the show in every moment he’s on screen. He’s the action hero we needed in 2026.
Despite all the praise I have lavished on this movie, Hope is not without its faults. The structure of the film is very unbalanced, which will likely make the back half feel very long to general audiences. Like many movies reliant on the intrigue of a monster, the movie does lose some tension the more you see of them, and the more they become the alien version of the Terminator. And after you survive all the various shenanigans, the movie goes and hits you with an all timer of an inexplicable ending.
While the ending infuriated me, it also left me with an aching desire to see a sequel, to revel in the world of this filmgoer just a bit longer. Hope is the type of movie that is made for the big screen. With its wild approach to storytelling, filmmaking, and acting, it’s one of my favorites of the year.
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