SummaryPeninsula takes place four years after the zombie outbreak in Train to Busan. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether ...
SummaryPeninsula takes place four years after the zombie outbreak in Train to Busan. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether ...
Peninsula feels fairly derivative when compared to the tighter and more terrifying Train to Busan, but on its own, as an expansion of this universe, it's a rollicking ride through a hollowed-out hellscape. It's almost a complete genre shift, but not an unrewarding one.
By this time the zombie formula has been made to the end and a lot of themes and settings have been tackled from the very beginning of this genre. Peninsula focuses on an interesting new migration setting (at least to me) and it leaves behind the past scenario, is a gamble but ultimately it works in its favor.
Train to Busan was a claustrophobic movie and its action had to go with this premise both in terms of action and with a more intimate development for its characters, on the contrary, Peninsula has more openness and the action scenes have a blockbuster feel to them, they're more epic in a sense of scale. I can see how this decision could turn off some people but given the success of the last movie I think it's kind of a natural evolution, the only problem with these scenes is that they rely completely on CGI and while is serviceable it would be benefited from using more practical effects from time to time, contrary to Train to Busan were action felt more real because of a nice mix of CG and practical effects while here they sometimes look kind of fake.
Combat action scenes are managed with good clarity, the chase scenes sometimes can feel too choppy-edited maybe to hide its CG nature and not letting your brain chew on how unrealistic it looks, in a way this trick works sometimes but it can also be a little bit tiresome. A thing that always gets me nervous in adult-rated movies is the inclusion of children actors and their subplots, they often can be very annoying in terms of acting (I’m not blaming them because acting is not an easy job but it can be quite distracting to have a good adult actor alongside a new kid actor that is struggling with their lines) and have the more predictable, boring, and overused plots that feel they want to teach moral stuff to kids even when the movie is supposed to have an adult rating, however, Peninsula handled them extremely well, to the point that they’re integral to the plot in a seamless way and also well script and well-acted, not to mention that their actors are pretty charismatic and charming. So for the director and actors they did a very commendable work.
The film is clearly inspired by Mad Max movies particularly Fury Road, not only presents us car-chasing set pieces with a colorful cast of bizarre antagonists pursuing an unlikely bunch of outcasts, but it also explores similar themes regarding how society might work in a post-cataclysm world. The line between being a human or beast is ever blurry, for the people with power and the people oppressed alike, the only difference is what end of the stick you get.
Train to Busan made its allegories more clearly with the straightforwardness of a training structure, speaking of classes and privilege among other things. On the surface, Peninsula might look like it doesn’t have a clear critic to society other than “we human beings are going to do bad stuff if we’re let unruled” but it's more strong metaphor may be hard to resonate with a broader audience since is a thing that affects more greatly countries that were colonized or are still oppressed by the current capitalist structure of a more powerful nation, and that is migration policies and racism.
Like the first movie, it subverts your expectations and for the most part, the story unfolds unpredictably, giving you some twists and turns that at times may be predictable but meaningful nonetheless. Its biggest issues may be that because it wants to appeal to a more global audience some of its pieces may feel a little bit generic but never to the point of being a soulless product with the only goal to sell you cinema tickets or Blu-rays. It has a lot to say but with some of its more blockbuster explosions could be easily blinded by its more Hollywood-esque nature, nonetheless, it is a very entertaining movie that gives you a lot to chew on if you give it an opportunity.
Director Yeon Sang-ho’s Peninsula is a solid follow up to his original, with just about enough shambling momentum to distract from a fairly uninspired plot.
The sequel is a stab at world-expanding that veers off the rails as it reaches for dazzle over depth, rounding out the hit film series somewhere between a whimper and a bang.
Yeon eventually just throws his hands up and surrenders to the cheesy spectacle of it all with a frenzied third act that finds the entire cast in a death race to the border. It’s here — in an amusingly unmoored but ultimately exhausting sequence that looks like someone trying to recreate “Fury Road” on a Nintendo 64 — that Yeon stops being able to afford his own ambition, and the film’s budget suddenly feels like a rubber band stretched over a hula-hoop.
The zombie sequences are strictly pro-forma; the undead are treated mostly as a nuisance rather than a genuine threat this time around, which is probably intentional. The car chases are debilitatingly fake-looking and try to make up for their flatness with speed, to little effect.
Minhas expectativas eram acima da media por se tratar de um filme no mesmo universo do "train to busan", mas eu gostei do respeito pela primeira obra em não usar o titulo para chamar atenção e nem reverenciar o primeiro filme, trazendo personagens do mesmo apenas por fan service. Invés disso, o diretor Yeon Sang-ho, junto ao segundo roteirista Ryu Yong-jae, decidiram explorar novas historia provenientes do mesmo universo sem desgastar a obra original.
Aqui, temos uma pegada mais enérgica, onde a ação corporal fala mais alto que o desenvolvimentos dos personagens. Não se enganem, há sim um desenvolvimento bacana, mas nada comparado ao primeiro filme. Acredito que o apelo dramático não tenha funcionado tão bem na maior parte dos momentos, por conta de pouco espaço de tela mesmo. É possível se emocionar com a morte de um personagem, mas ao menos deixe-o falar. Há poucos diálogos e isso pesa demais na reação que temos ao presenciarmos seu destino.
O ambientação da Peninsula está muito bem feita. Gostei muito do trabalho de iluminação, relacionado a luz lunar. A destruição, junto ao clima pós-apocalíptico da natureza tomando conta de tudo também tá legal. A fotografia é boa, assim como a OST, que me chamou atenção em alguns momentos. As cenas de ação são acima da media, resultado de um ótimo treino vindo de Kang Dong-won. Os momentos cômicos são ok, visto que o humor asiático nem sempre me pega - mas sim, funciona aqui. Gostei da subversão relacionada aos zombies serem menos perigosos a noite, dando mais folga para trabalhar com o filme a noite. Um quesito que me decepcionou bastante foi o CGI dos carros, que é bem perceptível. Não chegou a atrapalhar minha experiencia, por conta de minha tolerância quando a isso ser alta, mas poderia ser bem melhor.
O filme é ok. Me prendeu, conta com performances, personagens e ação acima da media.
I would say if compared, it's definitely not as good as the first one, I mean I have seen some potential sences in it, but that's it, Sang-ho Yeon messed up most of the parts, wonder whether he really made the first one?
A completely different film to the first one in every aspect and never in a good way. The story is idiotic, the writing is stupid and it's about 98% really bad computer generated effects laden. Virtually non of this movie is real which I don't mind if the effects were stunning which they are not. It's of Playstation 2 CGI cutscene quality (yes not even PS3). This is even poorly covered up by having all the film at night time or in clouds of pollution... Shocking when compared to the first one which is among the best zombie films ever made, written and directed by the same person.... WTH happened?