I read a few reviews about this film before watching and I'm beginning to wonder if they haven't all been written with the Korean authorities standing behind the reviewers at gun point.
The plot line is childish and dated. It's basically Godzilla with a bizarre touch of Outbreak.
The acting made me cringe. It oscillates from hokey, comedic and frenetic to overly heavy and portentous. The English dub is done by voice overs who are even worse than the original actors - which believe me, is quite a feat.
The editing is bad, certain scenes were protracted to an uncomfortable degree for no apparent reason. Mid chase the family have dinner. I could've gone out and had mine in roughly the same time and caused the same amount of excitement.
Special effects, B grade. I wasn't too bothered about them - they certainly don't live up to current Hollywood standards, but for such a rotten movie, they're on par. The actual monster was animated fairly well, but the design was a hotchpotch and not particularly believable. Given the resources that were obviously thrown at this, most Polytech grads could do better.
People have waxed lyrical about the scenery - the mighty Han etc. What I saw was a muddy grey river, concrete walled and full of sewerage. The rest of the city was reduced to, at best, the occasional skyline. The director chose to blur the background out most of the time. There was certainly nothing there to encourage a visit, that's for sure.
The camera work was pretty good in places, I'll grant them that.
But overall, a dreadful Godzilla remake. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. The resources that went into this pile of poo could've been put to much better use. Except the 'actors', who should never appear on a screen again.
I'm not Korean, maybe I missed nuances that appeal to an Asian audience, but I doubt it. I just can't understand how anyone bar the cast's mums and dads could say they enjoyed this with a straight face.
The plot line is childish and dated. It's basically Godzilla with a bizarre touch of Outbreak.
The acting made me cringe. It oscillates from hokey, comedic and frenetic to overly heavy and portentous. The English dub is done by voice overs who are even worse than the original actors - which believe me, is quite a feat.
The editing is bad, certain scenes were protracted to an uncomfortable degree for no apparent reason. Mid chase the family have dinner. I could've gone out and had mine in roughly the same time and caused the same amount of excitement.
Special effects, B grade. I wasn't too bothered about them - they certainly don't live up to current Hollywood standards, but for such a rotten movie, they're on par. The actual monster was animated fairly well, but the design was a hotchpotch and not particularly believable. Given the resources that were obviously thrown at this, most Polytech grads could do better.
People have waxed lyrical about the scenery - the mighty Han etc. What I saw was a muddy grey river, concrete walled and full of sewerage. The rest of the city was reduced to, at best, the occasional skyline. The director chose to blur the background out most of the time. There was certainly nothing there to encourage a visit, that's for sure.
The camera work was pretty good in places, I'll grant them that.
But overall, a dreadful Godzilla remake. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. The resources that went into this pile of poo could've been put to much better use. Except the 'actors', who should never appear on a screen again.
I'm not Korean, maybe I missed nuances that appeal to an Asian audience, but I doubt it. I just can't understand how anyone bar the cast's mums and dads could say they enjoyed this with a straight face.