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Fantasy
Review: ‘Hope’ is a Crowd-Pleasing Creature Feature with Major Aspirations of Being Cinema’s Next, Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Franchise
September 1, 2026Ben MK
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With some of the most thought-provoking and boundary-pushing films out there, Korean cinema has come a long way over the last few decades. And whereas other nations might be best known for producing movies that fall under a specific genre, Korean filmmakers have certainly run the gamut, covering more than enough genre territory to rival even the best of what Hollywood has to offer. From action thrillers and contemplative dramas to murder mysteries and zombie horror, you'd be hard pressed to find a genre that Korean films have yet to tackle. But what if you mixed your classic monster movie formula with the foundations of an epic sci-fi fantasy franchise in the making? That's the premise behind writer/director Na Hong-jin's Hope, in which Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the police chief of the sleepy South Korean town of Hope Harbor, must deal with a mysterious creature that appears to be leaving a trail of carnage and devastation in its wake. It all begins when Bum-seok receives a call from his second cousin, Sung-ki (Zo In-sung), to come and investigate the body of a dead cow he and his friends found on the outskirts of the village. However, after seeing firsthand the massive claw marks carved into the side of the cattle's corpse, it quickly becomes apparent that the animal might have passed away from some very unnatural circumstances indeed. Believing that the gruesome discovery may be the work of a large tiger or some other wild animal that has made its way down from the forest, Bum-seok quickly hops into his squad car and immediately heads towards Hope Harbor, to ensure that there are no wild animals roaming the streets and threatening the lives of its citizens. What he ends up finding instead, though, is something much more shocking and utterly unexplainable — evidence of a three-meter tall creature that appears to be part humanoid and part animal, but which exhibits no hesitation to attack anything and everything in its way. Equipped with razor-sharp claws at the tips of its bony, human-like fingers, grinning with a malevolent smile beneath its head of long, dishevelled black hair, and capable of moving at lightning-fast speed, the creature is unlike anything Bum-seok — or anyone else, for that matter — has ever encountered. And even with some much-needed assistance from his fellow officer, Sung-ae (Hoyeon), Bum-seok can barely keep up with this unexpectedly violent and unpredictable new opponent. Meanwhile, in the sprawling forests north of town, Sung-ki and his crew of shotgun-wielding hunters have discovered something equally fascinating while venturing off in search of the suspected tiger — a massive orb-like craft that appears to be nothing short of extraterrestrial in origin. Could the primal and vicious creature that Bum-seok and Sung-ae have been chasing through the streets of Hope Harbor and this fantastical, hi-tech spacecraft be related somehow? And what motivation could this primitive-looking monster have to lay siege to this unsuspecting and relatively peaceful community? Unfolding like your typical — albeit, crowd-pleasing — creature feature, the result starts out feeling quite familiar, as our protagonists must race to stop the rampaging monstrosity from claiming more lives and inflicting more damage. Still, despite the palpable tension and adrenaline-fuelled action that permeate the film's suspenseful first half, it's what happens once the movie's parallel narrative threads converge that truly sets Hope apart from other genre fare. Suffice to say, audiences probably won't see what Na has in store for them for the film's final act, as he pivots the story from that of a bloodthirsty beast on the loose to a grandiose sci-fi tale that comes across as if it's trying to bridge the gap between James Cameron's Avatar and Denis Villeneuve's Dune. Whether viewers will buy into this genre-bending roller coaster ride, on the other hand, is another story. Either way, one can't fault Na for attempting to shake things up. And were the movie's less-than-stellar VFX more up to the task of conveying the scope of his true vision, perhaps this third-act twist would have paid off more than it actually does. As it stands, however, not even the otherwise brilliant stunt casting of Hollywood A-listers Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander can save what Hope ultimately ends up becoming from feeling any less silly than it, unfortunately, does. Nonetheless, moviegoers would be best off seeing for themselves. After all, some viewers might be more hopeful about the film's cliffhanger ending than others. Hope releases September 9th, 2026 from Elevation Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of R. Its runtime is 2 hrs. 40 min. |
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