Movie Review: Hope (2026)

Don’t let the Cannes Film Festival logo fool you into thinking what kind of film Na Hong-jin’s Hope is. This is closer to an American action spectacle than a Palme d’Or nominee. Hope is a non-stop, action-packed blockbuster about monsters terrorizing a small town and the underqualified police and townspeople trying to stop it. Sounds like something right out of a Michael Bay movie.

In the remote town of Hope Harbor, strange happenings begin; large animals are dying, homes are destroyed, and nobody knows how or why. They discover that what is attacking Hope Harbor is not from this planet, and the local police, led by Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min), have no idea why they are here and how to stop it.

Hong-jin doesn’t show us the alien monsters right away. For nearly the entire first hour, all we see and hear is the destruction of Hope Harbor. Yells and shrieks from the people, explosions, and bizarre noises keep happening at a more constant rate. Hong-jin takes us on a journey with Beom Seok, who runs amok on the island from one catastrophe to the next. He has no idea what is going on, and neither do we. It’s a strong setup, and it had me constantly asking “What the hell could this thing be?”

At around the fifty-minute mark, Hong-jin shows us the monsters for the first time, and it is a strange experience. After the film’s premiere at Cannes, much has been said about the monsters’ look. Some critics and viewers likened the monsters to decades-old video games, saying they look incomplete and haven’t been fully rendered. While I somewhat agree with this, I found the strangeness of how the monsters look to be effective in making them seem otherworldly. The CGI is rough, how they move is strange, and when we see their faces, it’s even more bizarre. But it all adds this idea that these monsters are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, which is true for the people of Hope Harbor. It might turn some people off, or even make them unintentionally laugh, but I thought it added an unconventional level of strangeness to the creatures, and made them more than a run-of-the-mill extraterrestrial.

While Hope might feature strange-looking aliens and have a general plot that sounds like a cheap blockbuster and hardly makes any sense, Hong-jin’s earnest and skillful direction makes it more than just sci-fi slop. Hope features some of the best action sequences in recent years. They are long, non-stop sequences that hardly give you any room to breathe. They are coupled with a pulsating score by Michael Abels that elevates every scene. The film’s climax is an astonishing directorial effort by Hong-jin, featuring characters shooting guns while riding horses and a seemingly endless chase on an empty road between an alien and a beat-up car. These sequences are a blast and are made with the skill of an action maestro.

Did the plot leave me more questions than answers? It sure did. Do I care? No, I do not. Hong-jin’s direction is spectacular, and Hope is silly, sci-fi fun. You won’t find better action sequences in a movie this year. See Hope on the biggest, loudest screen you can, and bask in its skillful insanity.

TL;DR Review of Hope

• A big, silly, action blockbuster that somehow was In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival
• The plot leaves you asking more questions than answers. It also doesn’t really matter.
• Incredible direction by Na Hong-jin. Entertaining, skillful, masterfully executed set pieces.
• Some of the best action scenes in a movie this decade.

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