If you have a bad day, you may end up destroying South Korea. Fact.

Given all the recent big hitters, this film came out of nowhere on the ol’ movie radar and was actually quite hard to find a screening for. What was the marketing plan here? Put it out there and then sneak off in shame? Was this only meant to be shown on Channel 5 in the afternoon when the old people were having a nap in their chairs?

Well given it’s here and perhaps only for another week or so at the cinema before it disappears again, it’s perhaps best we start now describing what the premise of Colossal right now because it’s a head-f**k to explain for sure! Anne Hathaway plays an out of work writer called Gloria, who ends up being thrown out by her partner Tim for doing nothing with her life and drinking all night and stuff. She’s a wee mess you see and drinks too much.

So having gotten all her stuff nicely packed in bags by Tim, she moves back to her hometown where she meets an old school friend, Oscar, played quite well and at times scary by Jason Sudeikis. He offers her a job in his bar and then night after night the drinking continues along with some really weird behaviour at times.

In the mornings, Gloria wanders home through a kid’s playground doing various actions, and it’s at this time the premise just goes f**king crazy. You see, when Gloria wanders through the playground at a certain time of day, there’s a giant Kaiju which appears in South Korea and causes huge damage and terror.

You’re allowed to ask “what the f**k?” at this point.

I’m not even kidding, the huge monster in the middle of Seoul acts out all that Gloria does at that point she goes though the park and causes the world to go on high alert. It makes the news and as time goes on, the more Gloria sees the news about the monster, the more she notices that it’s repeating actions she’s done herself. Cue a few experiments and a reveal to her friends at the bar and yeah, it starts going out of control from that point.

Do the Monster Hustle!

A sneaky sex night, and a dark turn in the final third help to make this a hell of a lot more weird than just being a typical drama about a woman going back to her hometown and confronting all the people who still lived there, who may or may not have grown up or changed. That’s as close I will get to more spoilers as it’s something best experienced for yourself.

Honestly this was a new take on the monster genre with a decent amount of drama in play and it’s actually pretty well done. It was absolutely surprising that given a ridiculous premise that remarkably I was taken on the journey and I actually enjoyed it. There are a couple of laughs to be had here for sure, given the absurdity of the plot but a lot of it is serious as well and there are consequences to be had as a result of everything that happens. The acting is pretty damned good given the material and honestly it’s really Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis’s film as it will be those two where everything will eventually center around.

The ending of course was also very clever and you really don’t see it coming. The effects on screen for the Kaiju are well done and honestly there’s themes touched on which you wouldn’t expect given the story. I wasn’t bored, the pacing was right for the most part and yeah, some of it escaped me as to how this possibly could have happened in the first place.

But honestly, this was a nice little film, with a slightly fresh take on monster movies. It had soap opera style drama at times, but Colossal was at the very least entertaining. If you can, find a screening, and if not, then get on home video release / streaming services. It may surprise you in the same way it did for me….