Colossal

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is unemployed and often drunk. Her boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) dumps her and kicks her out of his New York apartment. She moves back into her family home and reconnects with childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). She discovers that she is directly connected to a monster destroying Seoul. It's the result of a childhood incident with Oscar twenty five years ago.

It's a fun and different take on the monster movie. Hathaway is good. I like Oscar's heel turn. I would rather not tell Joel and Garth about the secret. If it's kept only to Gloria and Oscar, the tension could be much higher. I don't see Joel going along with Oscar's turn. Joel's character could be combined with Tim to make this more of a love triangle. There are some questionable logic with the ending but logic can't be taken seriously in this movie. This has a fresh take and stays compelling despite some bumps along the way.

I enjoyed this. Look, there are a lot of people who I'm sure are perfectly fine who are leaving low, head-scratching reviews, but if you're a fairly damaged person, like myself, you'll probably get a kick out of the movie.

Don't expect a moral payoff, any wisdom, any heartwarming feels. It's a perfectly good way to kill a couple of hours.

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a mess. Her existence revolves around drinking, sleeping and abusive men. Dumped by her boyfriend, Gloria returns to her hometown in a half-hearted attempt to begin again. She continues to be a sucker for abuse. The men in Gloria's life, each controlling in their own way, manipulate her will-power as much as the alcohol.

At about the same time a gigantic monster begins stalking Seoul. Gloria discovers a connection between this monster, herself and her tragic relationships with men and the bottle.

Endearing qualities of the film include touching scenes, powerful underlying themes and independent charm. Yet the storyline is disjointed and lacks effective transitions. Gaps need to be filled in the writing/directing. Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis and Tim Blake Nelson are fun to watch, yet Nelson seems somewhat restrained. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The viewer feels little compassion for the problems these characters both find and make for themselves. Worse, the characters wreak murderous destruction on an Asian nation, but we're supposed to feel sorry for their romantic entanglements? The story, such as it is, is told thru the wrong end of the telescope.

I just saw a sneak preview of Colossal. I really liked the concept of the movie, it was original and fun. Sadly there was something lacking in the execution. It just didn't feel put together correctly, like there was something in the story telling that was missing that would have made it more compelling.

Anne Hathaway was cast a bit too far out of character. She just wasn't quite believable as the wastrel party girl. She couldn't quite pull off acting drunk. Her character's story is a classic redemption tale, with the monster twist.

Jason Sudeikis plays her foil in the story. His character arc is very poorly handled. There wasn't enough setup, almost like a few scenes in the middle were cut. That being said, he played it pretty well, except it was hard to tell when he was supposed to be drunk.

As I've mentioned both main characters being drunk, there is a lot of drinking in this movie. The central movie set being the bar run by Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) where Gloria (Anne Hathaway) starts working. This is after returning to a home her parent's left vacant, and after being kicked out by her boyfriend for being a party girl who can't get her life together. This is where I would caution that this isn't really an appropriate movie for children, despite the silly almost cartoon premise.

The bottom line of a movie review is the recommendation of whether or not to see it. If you are bothered by plot holes and trite characters, you probably want to steer clear. If you like silly popcorn movies, you might want to give it a shot. I don't feel like I wasted 2 hours on the movie, but I probably wouldn't watch it again.