Colossal - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Colossal



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
It seems like it’s the time for creative films to hit the market. Last night it was Sleight and this night it is Colossal. Director Nacho Vigalondo hit my radar with 2014’s Open Windows, which featured some bruised and emotionally lost people in a bit of a conundrum, so I was eagerly awaiting his next take on human scarring with the sci-fi drama Colossal. If history repeats itself, Vigalondo was not going to give us a standard sci-fi film, and Colossal is anything BUT a standard film. Thought provoking, and completely enthralling, it mixes in a bit of Godzilla with a human drama that really takes you for a ride and peels back some painful layers on this onion we call human relationship. The world of low budget cinema can be a bit rocky, but Colossal manages to be a fantastic entry in a summer filled with giant blockbuster extravaganzas.

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is having a bit of a crisis in her young age (well, young middle age really). She’s been fired from her job and pretty much fallen into a state of complete drunken partying as she tries to assuage her depression with alcohol and celebration. Her boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) has finally had enough, and in a fit of frustration packs her bags and kicks her to the curb from her comfy New York apartment that she’s been staying in. Back to the basics, Gloria is forced to move back to her home town, a sleepy little town in the outskirts of the midwest where she has to slowly put her life back together. There she meets elementary schoolmate Oscar, who offers to hire her at his local bar. There the two start to create a bond that ignites old memories and creates a path for Gloria to start healing.

While Gloria is recovering in her lazy suburban life, a fantastical and horrifying event happens. A monster appears in Seoul, Korea, and begins to terrorize the local area. It’s not long before Gloria starts to see a connection with the monster, and she puts 2 and 2 together. SHE is the creator of said monster, as every night that she visits the local park to sob her eyes out the monster makes an appearance in Seoul. Terrified and horrified, Gloria relates her experience to Oscar, who has a terrifying secret of his own. A secret that will change the dynamics of their life forever and alter the course of the movie from a sweet drama of scars and healing to a terrifying maze of pain and suffering that will peel back old scars once more.

Colossal is not your average monster movie. If fact, for most of the movie the monster really takes a back seat to the emotional pain and healing that is happening with Gloria and Oscar. The broken woman is trying to put her life back together, and her little pet monster is an allegorical element of her broken psyche trying to cope with the reality of her situation. It’s not till the middle of the movie that director Nacho Vigalondo does a complete 180 degrees and yanks the rug out from underneath the viewer in a subtle, yet effective, change of protagonist and antagonist.

Colossal is nowhere NEAR a typical film, but it is completely mesmerizing and incredible. The first half of the movie has you feeling like this is your typical emotional drama with an element of sci-fi thrown in for good measure, but the direction takes a harsh turn during the second half that really keeps the audience guessing with a brutal, if not heart rending, third act that really amps up the intensity. This is what happens when you blend a character driven drama, a smattering of Godzilla and a dash of horror into a near two hour film. The result is something that has your jaw on the floor in a stunning ending that really pulls all the right emotional strings.

Hathaway and Sudeikis really knock it out of the park, especially with the personality change that happens in the second half. Watching the two people change places in the protagonist/antagonist role is fascinating, especially Sudeikis who does such a great job that you really don’t see his transformation until it’s too late. Everyone else does great as side characters, but Hathaway and Sudeikis are a two person team, taking up the brunt of the movie’s drama and doing so with wonderful chemistry.




Rating:

Rated R for language




Video:

The digital transfer for Colossal looks really well done, with the mid western looking location appearing nice and clean. Colors are a bit on the cool side, but still show off plenty of pop, and the fine detailing is usually exemplary. You can see every little facial tweak on Hathaway’s face, and every little fiber of hair and dirt on Oscar’s bearded jowels. There’s a mild softness that creeps into the picture with the addition of the CGI elements, but without the CGI monsters the picture tends to clear up a bit. Black levels are strong, with great shadow detail, although a modicum of black crush and banding do show up from time to time.





Audio:

The singular 5.1 DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is nothing short of incredible, with a nice balance of quiet dialog driven drama, and a whirlwind of action and thundering LFE when the monster makes its appearance throughout the film. The surrounds get a hefty workout with the crunching of monster feet, and the crashing of battle between it and the robot, but it takes a back seat to the drama when Oscar and Gloria have their bar room discussions of pain and suffering. LFE is punchy and heavy, with a good amount of weight to the Kaiju battles, and even adds a good dynamic to the kind of “country” score that permeates the film. It’s a solid track. A simple one, but very solid and does everything asked of it without breaking a sweat.

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Extras:

• Deleted Scene

Final Score: ​

Colossal is a complete break for the standard fare movies that come out over the summertime. The fantastic characters make the movie, and the light humor and soft horror elements blended with the painful drama make a film that is WELL worth watching. I was shocked how much I was completely enamored with the film, as it sucks you into the subtle war between Gloria, Tim and Oscar, and adds in a touch of science fiction and fantasy to make you question everything you think you know about what is going to happen. The Blu-ray is stellar, with good video and great audio, and the only real flaw on the disc is that there is only a single deleted scene as an extra. Definitely worth watching.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austen Stowell
Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo
Written by: Nacho Vigalondo
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 109 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 1st, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. As a fan of Anne Hathaway, I have to check this movie out.

 

[Alan P]

Nice review! I also enjoyed Colossal much more than I was expecting to. Might just be a new cult classic.

 

[Asere]

I will be watching this one soon. Thank you for the review.