GENRE | Aliens Attack! – Na Hong-jin Never Loses 'Hope' x TIFF 2026

"Bring forth true fate."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

South Korean genre director Na Hong-jin's new sci-fi alien action thriller, Hope, boasts the highest budget for a film ever from the East Asian nation while featuring some of the truly worst CGI seen in a major release in many years. It's difficult to describe just how electric the first hour is when audiences are dropped into the eponymous harbour town chasing monsters before the poorly rendered creatures are revealed.

Starring Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and the incredible Jung Ho-yeon as local townspeople, hunters, and cops trying to neutralize the extraterrestrial threats, there's basically no real plot (complimentary) until the confusing finale that's clearly setting up a much more mythological sequel that opens up the alien invasion angle. By design, the film creates a fine action throwback sensibility of pure adrenaline despite some strange leaps in logic and spatial awareness or impact.

Filmed through motion-capture performances, the giant alien creatures are all portrayed by various accomplished American and European actors, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender, who all provide some eerily creepy, otherworldly performances. However, the odd detail in their alien physicality, mostly rendered in the harsh daylight, pulls viewers out of the monster movie action constantly.

Na's strong, bold directorial choices propel much of the breakneck creature feature, despite its glaring narrative flaws and subpar visual effects, before things go delightfully off the rails. Everything outside the alien action feels particularly masterful for a focused genre mashup of this calibre.

Hope screens at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Midnight Madness program.


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