Hope (2026)

I know that everyone’s taste in movies is super subjective, but I personally had an absolute blast watching this movie. Plus, there were literally only about four of us in the entire theater (it was the biggest studio in this small town), which made for such a quiet, focused, and deeply immersive watch. It felt like our own private screening!

I will admit, though, the negative critiques aren't completely without merit. As someone who always pays close attention to plot execution, I have to say the pacing in the first act is a massive struggle. It takes forever to actually get to the point, and the beginning is just incredibly bloated and drawn out. With a runtime stretching over two and a half hours, I literally had enough time to get up, go to the bathroom, and grab a drink refill without feeling like I was missing anything crucial because the buildup was just so agonizingly slow!

But once the narrative finally finds its footing? Wow. It turns into such a genuinely refreshing and rewarding cinematic experience. I am honestly just so thrilled that I got to see two different Korean movies in theaters this month, and both of them completely delivered!

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Repetitive and slow, despite constant action

After the movie ended, the guy next to me turned to his friends and told them that he fell asleep during a chase scene. When he woke up 20 minutes later, the chase was still going on.

And that really is the biggest issue with this movie — it's just a string of action sequences that go on forever AND do the exact same thing over and over again. There are so many chase sequences and gun fights, but I never feel any actual tension during them. It's partly because the characters are all really flat and there's no emotional arc attached to any of them, and partly because there's just so much plot armor. I usually don't mind plot armor for our heroes, but it's not used in any meaningful way to move the story forward; everyone just gets up and continues to do the same running around for 5, 10, or 15 more minutes.

In the final act we're randomly given insight into the antagonists' perspective, and it felt extremely random and unnecessary. The CGI was highly questionable, which ruined my immersion in the story every time there was a close-up, but more importantly, there was no build-up to the characters or the lore. The ending feels really abrupt.

The humor didn't land for me either. There's one car scene that's pretty funny, but other than that I found the constant yelling and swearing really grating and annoying. That one poo joke goes on for way too long.

Maybe it's my fault for expecting something with more emotional substance, but this really was just an action flick, and everything about it — the plot, the antagonists, the humor, the CGI — feels very 2010s (derogatory).

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