Colossal (2016)

I was really looking forward to this when I first heard about it. Thought the premise was really original and worse case scenario would be that I would see an ending I couldn't have thought of. Now though it wasn't the worst case scenario for me, it wasn't what I expected nor was it as good as I was expecting. The story follows Anne Hathaway playing Gloria, an alcoholic without a job that has just been kicked out of her boyfriends apartment. She moves back home and bonds with old school mate Jason Sudeikis all the while a giant monster terrorises Seoul. Slowly Gloria realises that she is in control of this monster and has to figure out how to stop the havoc she's caused. Great idea, decently executed, the ending I don't think anyone saw coming, though isn't necessarily that satisfying.

The cast was good but not all were great. They weren't bad but I don't think they all meshed that well. I love Anne Hathaway but her character needed a bit of honing in on. Rocky development but development none the less. She did some things that didn't have much reason to them unless it were just for her wanting to cause chaos. Which would be acceptable if that avenue was explored just a little more in depth. Some of her decisions seemed half assed, yet more half assed from the script than from the character, lazy writing almost, like a space filler to the next part of the story. Little parts of her, like her being a writer, were mentioned quite late in the film and didn't seem to have much acknowledge until the end. And even then it was almost too subtle after the dusting of information we had for it, for it to have some proper weight behind it. Her progress of understanding the monster and owning up and figuring out how to fix it and conquer her demons parallels clearly enough with her drinking problem and it's nice to see her grow even if its just a small amount.



























 I did like Oscar's development, played by Sudeikis, I also didn't. I'm conflicted by this. I stand strong that bad people don't make bad characters. Awful people aren't always awful characters, you can still like them and they can still be integral to the narrative whilst being the antagonist. I'm just not 100% sure that's what this is. It was pretty gradual thankfully, but Oscar spiralled down from being likable, potentially lovable, to pretty awful. With no solid reason, and that's why I think it was a bit of a struggle. No spoilers but I liked that he became basically irredeemable. It's refreshing to not be forced to sympathise with a troubled character. Keeping that in mind the little reveal of back story at the end is okay but again not that satisfying. But maybe that's the message, the lack of justification, the unforgivable behaviour of chaos.

I'm a big fan of Dan Stevens who played Gloria's boyfriend Tim, but they didn't seem believable together. You could somewhat believe that he had put up with a lot, but their opening argument didn't hold enough weight to balance Gloria being kicked out and leaving the city so abruptly. Tim's character actually came back in parts during the film which surprised me somewhat, as from the trailers I had guess he was just used for the sake of starting the story. He was pretty charming but being British in an American cast does that kinda automatically. The other two actors of the film were Joel and Garth played by Austin Stowell and Tim Blake Nelson respectively. Both alright but again had development issues, and we didn't get given enough information to know if we needed that or not. Were okay but in a way not detrimental.

Cinematography was odd, as if now and again it made a point of reminding you you were watching a film and created a poster like shot, something oddly symmetrical or simple. I did enjoy that for almost every scene of the film Gloria wears black. To begin with it appears as if she's in mourning and expressing this with her clothes. She has a slight change when she gets a job in Oscar's bar but soon again she goes back to black. The images in Seoul Korea are good but its hard to make a giant monster in such a big city look uninteresting.

Hathaway was our only real outlet to the real world. We get shown new stories from the worlds point of view alongside being in the city itself to experience the fear and confusion. Personally that's what I found to be the most interesting part of the film, though it didn't go to the degree that I would have liked. It's a very interesting concept to imagine what would actually happen in the world if a giant monster magically appeared and disappeared in a busy part of civilisation. Gloria is the only one to really think about the severity of this and how big of a deal it is. Other than that we wouldn't have felt the gravity of the situation and the risks as well.

If you were expecting a comedy it isn't one. I'll put that there. Described as a dark comedy yes, but even that, its not funny. It's not a funny film. There are the odd awkward interactions that are kinda funny but no jokes. Not necessarily a bad thing just not what I expected, I thought it would have more laughs. 

5/10 go if you're curious but it's kinda whatever. Seeing a woman gain power over her personal monsters should be more empowering but Hathaway's character is still the highlight of this interesting feature.

CINEMATES - A