WELL, THAT WAS HOPELESS
(no spoilers)
I really wanted to like this movie. I walked into that theater with a bias towards Korea, and I walked out screaming, “What the hell did I just watch!”
There is a story to Hope – you’re just not privy to it until the last five minutes of the movie. Just imagine watching the movie Ghostbusters. But instead of learning about Venkman, Egon, Ray, and Winston, and how they got into Ghostbusting, from the beginning, the story of the Ghostbusters is told by following New Yorkers who are busy running away from ghosts. And your camera crew stayed on these New Yorkers for the entire movie until the last 5 minutes. And that’s when we get the privilege of learning who the Ghostbusters are.
Could you imagine if The Ghostbusters were told this way? That would suck – right?
And that’s why Hope is hopeless. The camera crew was literally in the wrong part of the city to tell the story – for 3 freaking hours.
There’s a VERY simple story in here. But you’ll need to wait for the sequel to find out what the true story is about because there’s nothing here. Oh yeah, you can watch an interview with the director on YouTube where he explains the world he envisioned because, apparently, he didn’t explain it in the movie. And there’s no guarantee that the sequel will get made. The director “hopes” it will get made, but this movie was rather expensive – and it’s still in the hole. Here’s “hoping” it’ll turn a profit.
So where’s my review?
Honestly – there’s really nothing to review – it’s incomplete. There’s literally no story to criticize. The characters are all flat, all the same. They all scream, they all overreact, they all can run, and for the most part, they all can’t aim straight to save their lives. Oh yeah, and they are all pretty stupid. I can’t count the number of times I slapped my head and said, “Really? Are you kidding me!”
GRADE: F
Steve Young
