Colossal (2017)

From my favorite movies..

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I don't know exactly what it would feel like to have spent any amount of time or money to create this movie, but I do know that having spent the last hour and a half watching it I feel like ANY other application of my time would've been more satisfying and / or entertaining. As soon as she realizes she is the monster attacking Seoul it just goes downhill from there, taking any of its somewhat interesting premise down with it. There's no point in any of it. The story could have gone in so many directions, it could've actually BEEN a story. But instead it got lazy, boring and completely empty in every sense. The nonsensical ending would have been hugely disappointing but instead it brought a feeling of relief.... relief that it was finally over.

Colossal is a great movie, that is not defined by a genre, rather it blends a lot of them together. The Acting in this movie is believable, at least on a standard "movie acting" level. The scenes where the characters are drunk don't always work, which is a shame, because those scenes are important to the movie. A lot of the problems people have with it are based on them not noticing that a lot of the changes one certain character goes through are obvious, especially after rewatching the movie, where you can see it clearly and them just not enjoying the movie, which is fair. It's not a movie, that everyone will enjoy. I enjoyed it for the characters, that start as your predictable protagonists, but end up having something, not new, but still refreshing enough to feel new when you watch it. I loved all the scenes with the creatures. Some metaphors and symbolism are obvious, if you paid attention and I really don't want to be this guy who, in defense of a movie, just says "people didn't understand it", but a lot of people seemed to miss important parts of the story, while I was reading some of the reviews, all I could think of was "did they even watch this movie?". I watched this movie twice and I liked both times. It's a kind of movie you don't get everyday, the story was sometimes predictable, but even when the things you predict happen, you don't get disappointed. It's at least a solid 7/10. Nothing below that.

Odd fantasy film about power, control, and monsters (both within and without). Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is an alcoholic, self-destructive writer who ends up returning to her small town home, where she starts hanging out with child-hood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). Soon after, a giant monster appears in Seoul that seems to mirror her behaviour when she is a specific point in a playground. She is initially amused, but when her drunken cavorting results in multiple deaths, realizes that there can be disastrous consequences to thoughtless behaviour. Unfortunately, Oscar also discovers that he too can generate a giant avatar, which he uses as leverage in his increasingly abusive relationship with Gloria. The film is an enjoyable, well-acted parable despite a number of plot holes, lapses in logic, and a cast of not particularly likable characters. Don't hold your breath for an explanation, none is offered beyond a cryptic flashback sequence that connects Oscar and Gloria with the time and place of the monster manifestations. Note: Toho threatened to sue based on early descriptions of the project that implied that Gloria's kaiju would be similar to Godzilla, however, there is little resemblance other than both creatures occasionally break into dance (see 1965's "Invasion of The Astro Monster" for an example of Godzilla's moves).

Very few movies are interesting to me anymore. This movie kept me interested for not only the sci-fi aspect, but also what the main character did in her "real" life. The combination of recovering alcohol and sci-fi is definitely odd and somewhat arbitrary, but the way its put together is interesting and entertaining. The other nice aspect is that the acting is pretty good. The plot itself has no deeper meaning in my estimation, but that's fine. Its still good entertainment.