Review of Colossal (2017) by K Nife C — 29 Apr 2017

It's certainly not a grim-dark "Godzilla" or nauseating "Cloverfield", but there's a more convincing giant robot fight in "Colossal" than this year's "Power Rangers".

Obviously big things hitting each other are not the crux of the film, as the film's kaiju is actually a metaphor for Anne Hathaway's deep-seated frustration with the boys/men in her life keeping her down, judging her, confusing her, and driving her to alcoholism.

As every review and piece of promotional material about the film points out, Hathaway has some supernatural link with a giant lizard creature that wreaks havoc on Seoul, South Korea. There is some attempt at explaining why, but it's doubtful whether this will satisfy anyone looking for something in the realm of physics.

Instead, Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis give us a complicated performance for a female/male character dynamic that has rarely been explored since "The Silence of the Lambs". This is especially strange given that the film is primarily a comedy.

It goes into some extremely dark territory that fits most of the time but could be really uncomfortable as the film depicts different gradations of abusive relationships and addiction. Fortunately, there's enough whimsy from the cute, drunk, regretful, and empowering sides of Anne Hathaway to keep the tone of the film relatively light, especially considering its heavy themes.

The monster movie aspects are a bit cheesy by design, and they add to the silliness. It's nice to see this level of unconventional storytelling happening with such scale and budget as well. Director Nacho Vigalondo is a relatively unknown filmmaker, and "Colossal" is a great effort and hopeful sign of bigger things to come.