Tuesday 23 May 2017

Colossal (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 23rd, 2017*

I gave it a day before I wrote my review for Colossal, as I had mixed feelings, but I overall liked it. The more I think about it, the more I loved it. Colossal is not entirely succesful, but it is one of the most unique and bat-shit weirdest things I've seen in theaters this year.

It follows an alcoholic woman who is kicked out her apartment and forced to move back home because she is broke, upon returning home, she gets a job as a bartender for her friend, she also discovers she has a connection to a giant monster that's destroying a city in South Korea.

It's mad stuff, but at the same time, it is so madly original and unlike anything I've ever seen that I sorta loved it. Anne Hathaway gives the performance of her career as the lead alcoholic who is both parts hilarious and easy to root for.

Anne Hathaway
Nacho Vigalonda delivers a script that is smart, funny and meaningful. I was surprised at how dark the film was too. The trailers made it out to be very light-hearted, which it is for the most part, but goes to some really dark places thanks to Jason Sudeikis, who gives a surprisingly intense and strangely scary performance, which is the complete opposite of his usual role.

As great as the two lead performances are, the main problem with the film I had was the characterization. It's quickly established that both the lead characters are alcoholics, but I never really once felt like Hathaway was really going through that much of a struggle. She moves back to her home town to get her life in order, but she never really struggles with her addiction too much.

There's the odd scene where she looks at a bottle of beer while the camera zooms in on it slowly as the sound and music fades out, but that was really it. There are a couple of scenes where she actually gets drunk and controls the monster (A fairly heavy-handed metaphor), but she's fine for the most part. I just wish they dug deeper into her addiction a bit more.

It's important to note that this isn't really a giant monster movie in the vein of say Godzilla or Pacific Rim, it's an indie comedy with a little bit of monster action thrown in. I think that's what I loved the most about Colossal, it's a bizarre mix of genres that really shouldn't work, but somehow comes together by the end.

Anne Hathaway's monster
Where my biggest flaw with the film lies is maybe within Jason Sudeikis' character. He has a lot of tone changes and does a lot of strange things that don't entirely make sense to me. I understand he's an alcoholic with a lot of regrets, but his behaviour is really erratic and comes out of nowhere. His performance was great though and I loved seeing him play such a nasty person at times.

There are a few things I won't spoil that were left out of the trailer, which was nice to see for a change. The ending is excellent though and everything comes together for a satisfying end a surpris punchline that left things on a great not.

Colossal isn't 100% succesful at what it tries to do, but most importantly, it is a unique and original film that deserves to be supported, but thankfully it is also an excellent and funny film with the strongest Anne Hathaway performance I've seen.

8/10 Dans

Colossal is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron 

Facebook
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) - PS4 Review

Review: *Originally written November 19th, 2019* There's no denying that EA has had a bad run with the Star Wars franchise since i...