Since describing a movie as keeping you “on the edge of your seat” is quite an overdone cliché, I would instead like to describe “Hope” as a movie that straps you onto an ejection seat, blasts you through the ceiling in the first five minutes, and keeps you flying for its whole 157-minute running time. Yet on closer inspection, the seat you’re on seems to be made of miscellaneous bits and bobs that have no business being put together, and yet somehow they work, even if there is some turbulence along the way. 

“Hope” follows a local police chief, his rookie deputy, and a band of hunters in a small town in South Korea right as a mysterious monster suddenly starts wreaking havoc. 

Throughout its arguably too-long runtime, “Hope” mixes in countless expertly choreographed action scenes, horrifying moments that make you feel like your blood is running backward, and comedic bits that make you desperately hold back your laughter.

But after a propulsive first half, the tight structure that held its beginning together starts to wane. It trades narrative tightness for a plot so interested in its own details that it loses sight of the emotional intensity that made the picture beautiful to begin with. Similar to the ping-pong nature of its plot, the tone of the movie can elicit strong emotional whiplash. There are numerous moments where a character is trudging through a practically annihilated part of town that is littered with the bodies of townspeople, only to suddenly pivot into a comedic gag. Although this aspect of the movie undoubtedly got some laughs, I can’t help but think that this tonal audacity dilutes the deeper thematic weight that a more focused cut might have achieved.

Despite a meandering second half, I can’t help but admire the sheer amount of ambition baked into this movie. Even though its clashing tones and wild influences won’t work for everyone, I still find plenty to appreciate in the unique genre gumbo that is “Hope.”