Colossal
24/05/17 Filed in: Cinema
I’ve tagged this film as ‘fantasy’, but I’m not sure that’s altogether accurate. In fact I think it’s fair to say that it's unique. I was also going to say that you will either love it or hate it, but on reflection I doubt anybody will love it, although quite a few may hate it. And many will be intrigued by it. So what’s it all about?
It starts in Seoul, South Korea, with a little girl looking for her doll in a park, only to be confronted by a colossal monster. We cut from there, and move forward 25 years. Gloria, played by Anne Hathaway as a bit of a Suzi Quatro lookalike, drinks too much and has arrived back at her boyfriend Tim’s flat with her usual excuses and untruths. This time he’s had enough and tells her to leave. Her bags have already been packed.
She returns to her home town, where she moves in to her parent’s empty house. It’s unfurnished, and the first night she sleeps on the floor, waking up with a stiff neck. After buying a blow-up mattress, she’s carting it back home when a school friend Oscar passes by in his pickup. Thinking he recognises her he stops, and they renew their acquaintance. They drive to his bar, where they talk, and Gloria remarks on the fact that half the bar has been closed off. The better half in her view. Oscar obviously has a thing about Gloria, and he starts to supply things for her house. He also offers her a job as a waitress at the bar.
Permanent features at the bar are two of Oscar’s friends, Garth and Joel. Joel’s the good looking one and when Gloria makes a pass at him, Oscar’s demeanour changes. A warning sign of things to come.
Thus far this film seems completely normal fare, if one forgets the monster bit at the outset. But at this point the monster returns to Seoul, bizarrely appearing at the same time each day. It’s a strange monster, though, seemingly harming people and damaging property by accident rather than by design. It’s antics are also very odd.
Watching the television that Oscar has thoughtfully provided, through her alcoholic mist Gloria realises that the monster is in fact mimicking her movements of the previous day, when she was standing in a children’s play area. How can this be. Is she going mad? She confides in Oscar, Garth and Joel, and they set up a session in the play area where she performs moves and they watch the monster in Seoul replicate them. At first they think it’s a trick. A smartphone app of sorts. But it’s not. Then things get even weirder. Awakened after another alcoholic night by Oscar, Gloria finds that her monster has been joined in Seoul by a giant robot, and the robot is animated by Oscar!
I think that about sets the scene. From here on things get messy. Oscar’s unrequited desire for Gloria sends him over the edge, especially when he suspects something is going on with Joel. And to compound the paranoia, Tim turns up asking Gloria to come back to New York with him. At this point Oscar decides to weaponise the robot against the people of Seoul as a threat to keep Gloria there.
You will have gathered that the film is no longer normal fare. It’s also at about this point that the connection is made with the incident 25 years earlier, increasing the fantasy quotient significantly.
Gloria wants to go back to Tim but how does she stop Oscar creating mayhem in Seoul? Well, she has a plan. I’m not quite sure how she worked it out, but it provides quite a neat ending.
Reviews of this film have been mixed. It’s certainly not a typical Anne Hathaway movie, although she adorns it quite nicely, and it’s not really a Godzilla type of film. As I’ve said, it’s unique, and perhaps that’s a good reason for going to see it.
Watching the television that Oscar has thoughtfully provided, through her alcoholic mist Gloria realises that the monster is in fact mimicking her movements of the previous day, when she was standing in a children’s play area. How can this be. Is she going mad? She confides in Oscar, Garth and Joel, and they set up a session in the play area where she performs moves and they watch the monster in Seoul replicate them. At first they think it’s a trick. A smartphone app of sorts. But it’s not. Then things get even weirder. Awakened after another alcoholic night by Oscar, Gloria finds that her monster has been joined in Seoul by a giant robot, and the robot is animated by Oscar!
I think that about sets the scene. From here on things get messy. Oscar’s unrequited desire for Gloria sends him over the edge, especially when he suspects something is going on with Joel. And to compound the paranoia, Tim turns up asking Gloria to come back to New York with him. At this point Oscar decides to weaponise the robot against the people of Seoul as a threat to keep Gloria there.
You will have gathered that the film is no longer normal fare. It’s also at about this point that the connection is made with the incident 25 years earlier, increasing the fantasy quotient significantly.
Gloria wants to go back to Tim but how does she stop Oscar creating mayhem in Seoul? Well, she has a plan. I’m not quite sure how she worked it out, but it provides quite a neat ending.
Reviews of this film have been mixed. It’s certainly not a typical Anne Hathaway movie, although she adorns it quite nicely, and it’s not really a Godzilla type of film. As I’ve said, it’s unique, and perhaps that’s a good reason for going to see it.