{"id":15004,"date":"2026-09-11T21:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=15004"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:51:23","slug":"hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/09\/11\/hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hope<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Sci-Fi-Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 160 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violent content and language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Na Hong-Jin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Na Hong-Jin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Abels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Hong Kyung-Pyo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 11, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Hwang Jung-Min, Zo In-Sung, Jung Ho-Yeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Eum Moon-Suk, Lee Sang-Hee, Im Hyun-Sik.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Korean w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>:\u00a0 *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

Although it seems to invite comparison to the Godzilla movies, the Korean sci-fi action thriller Hope<\/strong> is NOT kaiju. There is so much more to it, so much that….. hmmm, how should I put it? Ah, I got it. The sequel has already been written; it\u2019s just waiting for the green light from the studio. It depends on how this first movie does. If you ask me, it deserves to do very well. It\u2019s GREAT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to keep the plot description brief and as vague as possible. I wouldn\u2019t dream of spoiling any of the wild twists and turns Hope<\/strong> takes throughout its 160-minute run time. Yes, you read that right; it\u2019s 2 hours and 40 minutes long except it never feels long. It hits the ground trotting, breaks into a run and never slows down. When it was over, I wanted more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, the first hour of Hope<\/strong> is one of those slow-burn deals. We know something\u2019s up; we just don\u2019t know exactly what. And it waits almost an hour before revealing its hand. A gruesome discovery by a group of hunters leads to an investigation by local police chief Bum-seok (Hwang) who doesn\u2019t believe their story about a tiger being responsible. When he arrives back in town (a village called Hope Harbor), he finds the place in ruins with bloodied bodies everywhere. Long story short, Bum-seok discovers a monstrous creature is behind it. Killing it won\u2019t be easy. This thing is fast and seemingly indestructible.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While Bum-seok is doing his thing, the lead hunter Sung-ki (Zo) and his group are tracking the monster through the woods. They follow the carnage to…. I\u2019m not going to tell you. I\u2019ll only say it opens a door to something more epic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Na Hong-jin (The Wailing), Hope<\/strong> is almost perfect save for some wonky creature effects, shallow characters and an ending that some will find confusing. Now that last thing can be rationalized by explaining that it\u2019s only the first part of the story. I implied as much in the first paragraph. There are so many questions left to answer. I\u2019m sure a lot of viewers will still be put off by this, but at least now you know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose the shallow characters can also be explained by Hope<\/strong> being only the beginning of the story. It\u2019s highly likely we\u2019ll learn more about the main characters in the next chapter. For now, we know all we need to know about the overwhelmed police chief, the hunter, the female deputy (Jung), the retired colonel (Lee) and the whack job local (Eum) who…… NOPE! I\u2019m not telling! They\u2019re an interesting lot who spend a lot of time yelling at each other. As for the acting, there\u2019s not much to say. They deliver the performances the material calls for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are some awesome sights in Hope<\/strong>, but the creature effects could have used a little more work. The CGI looks kind of rough for a finished movie. It\u2019s the weakest link in an otherwise strong film. The gooey gore effects, practical all the way, are very good. The same goes for the stunt work, a lot of it mighty impressive and all of it the real thing. That\u2019s right, real people doing unreal things like a mid-chase transfer from a horse to a car. It puts any given action scene in any given Marvel movie to shame.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hope<\/strong> is pure excitement and thrills. The action sequences are very well executed. The camerawork is fluid and smooth. Na doesn\u2019t go for any of that jumpy, overedited cinematography that only makes the action confusing. He also keeps the suspense level high. He successfully keeps the audience on edge waiting to see what\u2019s around the corner or hiding in the trees. He makes superb use of the natural locations in Korea and Romania (the scenes in the woods). This guy clearly knows what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think I\u2019m going to stop here. I\u2019ve told you enough about Hope<\/strong>. Based on what you just read, you know if you want to see it or not. I strongly urge you to check it out if you want to see a genre film done right. I know some of you are turned off by subtitles. Set it aside and treat yourself to one of the coolest movies of the year.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Sci-Fi-Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 160 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violent content and language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Na Hong-Jin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Na Hong-Jin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Abels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Hong Kyung-Pyo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 11, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Hwang Jung-Min, Zo In-Sung, Jung Ho-Yeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Eum Moon-Suk, Lee Sang-Hee, Im Hyun-Sik.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hope-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15009,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions\/15009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}