Friday, September 08 11:59 PM RYERSON
If this is the first in a series of Korean monster movies, then I'm anxiously awaiting more.
The star of this movie is definitely the monster, it's a totally new monster with moves you ain't never seen before. Just a hairsbreadth underneath the monster in importance is the family that are the focus of the movie and provide all the comedic relief.
The young daughter is taken by the monster (which has recently developed A Taste For Human Flesh!) and the rest of the family are determined to retrieve her at all costs. Unfortunately, she was the most capable of them all.
Against all opposition (local police, emergency military forces, sterilzation teams, and of course the monster itself) they determine the location of the creatures hidey-hole and everything leads up to a dramatic final confrontation where the family finally comes together in an inspiring and impressive (and hilarious!) action scene.
It's only at the end where the creature effects are anything less than fully believable. When it catches on fire, it just doesn't look... quite right. I certainly don't know what a monster looks like on fire, so maybe they nailed it exactly, but it wasn't until then that I felt I'd been whacked over the head with CGI. Which is a good testament to how well done it was. It looked totally awesome till the last 5 minutes, at which point it merely looked really good.
We have the technology, we can make the monsters. Faster, stronger, better. Bigger.