HOPE Review: Na Hong-jin Delivers a Wild Sci-Fi Epic

Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi thriller delivers wild action, strong performances and an experience worth seeing on the biggest screen possible — even if its visual effects don’t always keep up with its ambition.

There is something special about walking into a movie knowing almost nothing about what is coming. With HOPE, that may be the best way to experience it.

Directed by Na Hong-jin, HOPE follows police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon), and the residents of a remote South Korean village after a mysterious creature begins killing animals and wreaking havoc throughout the area. What initially looks like a local threat quickly becomes something much bigger.

And honestly? That is about as much as you should know.

I had the opportunity to see HOPE on behalf of The Nerd Wire ahead of its North American theatrical release, and I walked out genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Go Into HOPE As Blind As Possible

I first saw footage from HOPE at CinemaCon earlier this year, where the marketing kept the nature of the threat intentionally mysterious. That mystery was one of the things that immediately caught my attention.

The newer trailers reveal considerably more about what audiences are going to encounter, so my recommendation is simple: if you already know you want to see HOPE, stop watching trailers.

Go in knowing that it is a South Korean sci-fi action thriller involving something very strange terrorizing a small community. That’s enough.

Part of what makes the movie so much fun is discovering the scale and insanity of the situation alongside its characters. The story continually raises questions about what these creatures are, where they came from and exactly what the people of Hope are dealing with.

That sense of discovery makes the experience considerably more exciting.

Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon Give HOPE Its Heart

For a movie built around massive genre spectacle, the performances give HOPE a surprising amount of personality.

Hwang Jung-min is excellent as police chief Bum-seok and makes for a compelling leading man. He anchors the film as the situation around him becomes increasingly unbelievable, and I remained invested in following him throughout the entire journey.

Bum-seok wants to protect his community. He wants to understand what is happening. And, eventually, he has to figure out how anyone is supposed to fight something they barely understand.

Hoyeon, best known to many American audiences from Squid Game, is also terrific as officer Sung-ae.

She brings both charm and humor to the movie without making its danger feel less serious. In a film that can become extremely intense, those moments of comedy are welcome, and Hoyeon handles them incredibly well.

The ensemble is a huge part of why the increasingly ridiculous circumstances work. No matter how enormous the action becomes, HOPE keeps you connected to the people caught in the middle of it.

The Action Is Absolutely Wild

This is where HOPE really won me over.

Na Hong-jin takes the basic idea of people being hunted by an unknown creature and just keeps escalating it.

There are chases. There are people fleeing on horseback. There are vehicles involved. There are moments where I genuinely found myself wondering what the movie could possibly do next.

And then it somehow got crazier.

The cinematography, score and sound design all contribute to the scale of the experience. When HOPE is firing on all cylinders, it feels enormous.

This is absolutely a movie I recommend seeing theatrically.

If you have the option to see it on a premium or particularly large screen, take it. The action, sound and cinematography benefit enormously from being experienced in a theater rather than waiting to watch it at home.

The Visual Effects Don’t Always Match the Ambition

My biggest criticism is the visual effects.

There are sequences where HOPE looks fantastic. There are also shots involving the creatures where the CGI is noticeably weaker, and the inconsistency becomes distracting.

It isn’t enough to ruin the experience, but in a film so heavily dependent on convincing audiences that its otherworldly threat is physically present in these environments, you notice when the illusion slips.

That is particularly frustrating because so many of the movie’s other technical elements are strong.

The cinematography looks great. The score works. The sound design works. The action is exciting. The overall craftsmanship is impressive.

The visual effects simply don’t hit that same level consistently.

At 160 Minutes, HOPE Is Also Too Long

The other issue is the runtime.

At roughly two hours and forty minutes, HOPE is a lot of movie.

I had enough fun that the length never completely killed the experience for me, but there are certainly places where the film could have been tightened. A more streamlined cut might have made some of its biggest sequences hit even harder.

Still, when my reaction after a movie that long is that I kind of want to watch it again, clearly something worked.

Final Verdict: HOPE Is One Hell of a Ride

I went into HOPE unsure of what to expect and came out a new fan of Na Hong-jin.

Despite some inconsistent visual effects and an overlong runtime, the movie delivers exactly the kind of ambitious genre experience I love seeing on a big screen. The performances are strong, the action gets wonderfully ridiculous, and the technical craft surrounding it makes the entire thing feel huge.

More than anything, HOPE reminded me how exciting South Korean genre filmmaking can be. There is an ambition and willingness to get weird here that makes the film stand apart from a lot of conventional blockbuster sci-fi.

See it in a theater.

See it on the biggest screen you can.

And, seriously, stop watching trailers.

Rating: 8/10