Colossal [DVD] [2017]

Colossal is an ambitious genre defying film. Ambitious in the fact that it is, prepare yourselves, original. It is extremely rare that we find an innovative idea these days and so for that it gets additional marks. Fortunately for this indie flick, it's actually really good. Anne Hathaway portrays a woman with alcohol addiction, and she plays it with care. There is slight humour to her, but she never overacts the performance. Jason Sudeikis was also good, a different kind of role for him. The story itself is the star, the gimmick is that she is telepathically connected to a Kaiju in Seoul. Immediately presents a metaphor for the destruction and grief that addiction can cause to others close to them. An over exaggerated portrayal but poignant nonetheless. Some super clever camera shots as well, really impressive work to blend the two main locations together. The effects were also really good considering the low budget. It tries to mix a variety of genres: romance, comedy, monster, drama and even thriller. Problem is, that is where the film falls. Tonally it is inconsistent and that in itself throws the pacing off balance. But I have to applaud the sheer ambition and innovation, wasn't expecting this to be good but in fact it's a great indie film!

[SPOILER ALERT] An original and risky film, that grabs two genres (Godzilla plus abusive relationships) and welds them together to talk about the imaginative resolution of childhood trauma. If you don't get that (and in fairness, it's only revealed about two-thirds of the way through, with a magic Witches of Eastwick lightning bolt tweak), then you end up either thinking this is a badly-conceived piece of monster imperialism (a la Pacific Rim, where the only characters that matter are the American "controllers" of the monsters, and the poor inhabitants of Seoul are just collateral damage), or that it's a messed up Kramer vs. Kramer abusive relationship story (with an arbitrary Godzilla theme thrown in to make it fun). Ultimately, this is a film about an alcoholic mess of a woman that tends to wreak havoc and feel bad about it (just like 'her' monster in Seoul), facing up to her original childhood abuser (a violent man that likes to hurt and control, and doesn't feel bad about it, like 'his' monster robot in Seoul). In the end she resolves the matter imaginatively by quite literally throwing her past and abuser away and starting afresh.This is all quite a risky thing for the writer/director Ignacio Vigalondo to do, and perhaps in the end he's trying to fit too much in, conceptually-speaking, but this is very much par for his kind of course: as one can see from his opening short, 7.35 in the Morning (available on youtube), he's interested in controlling relationships and their damaging impact on everyone nearby, and this film takes that to a new level. Personally, I enjoyed it immensely: Hathaway is always a joy, and Sudeikis did a brilliant job.

It's a very dark story, therefore the cover for this film is misleading; it looks like a feel good film but it's not. I was going to let my 6 year old watch this (I didn't realise it was a 15 until I'm writing this) because it was funny and real, but it soon became very dark, manipulative and controlling because of jealously half way through.The main character (female) was just as controlling as the main male character was; although her intentions were always good because previously she had killed people unintentionally; a guilty conscience. She was protecting them as soon as she realised her faults and even stopped drinking - he didn't really flinch at the fact people died from her falling over (although, the mistake has been made and there was nothing they could do to reverse it). However, if she had just let him have 'dance' in a certain spot, he would of probably not did what he had done.I think the low ratings are because people didn't understand the film, as I said, I don't think the cover of this film helps what people are expecting. Manipulative, controlling, violent behaviour CAN happens among friends, with or without substance abuse involved all because of jealously and expectations of a relationship between two old friends. It is a good story line, it is different and does have the ending I was expecting, but a very sad one that she had to do what she had to do but he gave her no choice.

This was a surprisingly original film. You expect things to go one way with the main characters but then your assumptions are upended and the film becomes something very different. I was thinking it would be a rom-com, and was happy to find out its more about the central character learning to take care of herself than finding her happy ending in a relationship. The one star reviews are really unfair and perhaps say something about the dating culture (where some men want to control how women act) that the film is critiquing... But Anne Hathaway plays a pretty recognisable stereotype too: the pretty girl with potential who never really manages to take responsibility for herself (because she can always lean on her charm and looks to get her by) but in the end she sorts it out. She's a good person who does the right thing to make the world a better place. I really thought this was a good movie.

An odd movie which you can't make sense of at the beginning, but the Sci- fi of monsters meshes with the damaged lives of the flawed characters in a novel way.Really uncomfortable viewing at times as toxic behaviour, control,addiction and violence plays out between the characters.But I did believe, and was willing Gloria (played by Anne Hathaway)to fight back, which she does after realising that she's been in abusive relationships of one kind or another her whole life.I also liked the fact that the characters behaved as people actually doand not at all like the usual Hollywood heroines with unrealistic superstrength,who get knocked down 100 times and still get back up.By the end it all made perfect sense.This movie should have been called 'How to fight your monster.'