Colossal Surprise

My wife and I sat down to watch "Colossal" last night and it really surprised me, in a great way. If you've seen the trailer for the film you'll probably expect it to be some sort of dark rom/com about a woman who manifests as a giant monster attacking Seoul, South Korea.

If you haven't seen the trailer, here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlyFHc5Bsv4

This trailer is definitely one of the most deceptive trailers I've seen for a movie in a long time, but I think it was done intentionally. I mean, I've seen the movie and I'm not sure how I'd cut up a trailer to advertise it.

It's hard to pin into a single genre. This movie is really wonderful and really original. Yes it's about a giant monster that rampages through a city, but it's also about alcoholism, drug abuse, and abusive relationships.

Anne Hathaway gives a really great performance, she is able to shift between the comedic and darker portions of her character, her facial expression reveal more about what her character is going through than her dialog (which is another thing I loved about this movie).

Jason Sudeikis gives a performance that is truly haunting. He really stood out for me in this movie, playing a character that I'm sure I won't be able to get out of my head days later.

I definitely wanted more background story on Anne and Jason's characters, and I think this might be my biggest issue with the film. The backgrounds of the main characters aren't really explained or explored other than a few surface-level moments of dialog.

For example, Anne's character explains that she used to be a writer for a famous online magazine, but we really don't hear any more about it. Same for Sudeikis' character, his fiance has left him but we never really get that "aha" moment with either character as to why they are the way they are when we first meet them.

I highly recommend checking out Colossal, I give it 8/10.