‘Hope’ review: South Korea makes a bid for its own ‘Avatar’

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Across the history of movies, filmgoers have occasionally felt the rush of a new kineticism breaking free of prior standards, thanks to the Kurosawas, Friedkins, Spielbergs, Camerons and Millers of the world who’ve expanded the form. Now comes nerve-jangling Korean director Na Hong-jin, long a revered force in genre cinema thanks to “The Yellow Sea” and “The Wailing,” with his own bid for immortality, the alien-monster tempest “Hope.”

Though the title has literal meaning — it’s the name of the quaint harbor burg where the bad things start — it’s also true to Na’s chaos-carnival ambitions, as well as being ironic about the diminishing prospects for his besieged heroes. As to whether this setpiece-driven epic is a game-changer, your mileage may vary. But it can still lay claim to being a flagship roller coaster, one with enough mechanical and storytelling hitches to give it a tantalizing oddness.

It’s quite scenic and peaceful-looking in cozy Hope, as cinematographer Hong Kyung-po casually depicts from the opening frames. But the mauled cow splayed on a lonely farm road signals to irritable local police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and chill pal Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) that a large, clawed threat is nearby. The investigating pair split up, with Sung-ki joining gung-ho fellow hunters to see if there’s a tiger loose and Bum-seok driving alone into town, where the evidence increases: mutilated bodies, gaping holes in buildings, emptied, wrecked streets, distant gunfire and smoke. Can the culprit actually be some big freaky monster? When Bum-seok frantically demands a descriptive clarification from a hunkered, terrified colleague who’s seen the thing, the man barks back, “Who cares? That’s not the point!”

Of course, Na is toying with his audience’s show me anticipation, while plying his trademark humor about rural sensibilities and desperate needling behavior. But when the gnarly-textured spindly creature finally shows itself, bursting from the top of a building like a pop-up demon doll wielding a limp human and with one swing beheading another with it, it’s pure grindhouse exhilaration, even if this roaring beast’s vibe betrays a whiff of cartoon schlock. Frankly, who cares? The extended high-speed pursuit that follows, which adds fired-up young officer Yim Sung-ae (a lively Hoyeon) behind the wheel of a gun-stocked police car as bullets and insults fly, could easily be any other filmmaker’s jaw-dropper of a climax. In Na’s case, however, this is just a first act.

There’s an understandable pacing dip afterward, when the wounded villagers think the nightmare is over and our protagonists learn separately that the forest holds more of these mysteriously strong creatures. For the hunters, a massive grey orb with a ramp protruding from it is one clue. In town, a crusty denizen relays to Sung-ae what he saw days ago in the forest, along with its digestive distress. Meanwhile, Bum-seok is given reason to believe what tore through town held an understandably emotional motivation, which is when Na — never one to leave a moral undercurrent behind — begins his campaign to cloud our minds as to who the aggrieved party is.

When the battle begins anew in the woods and we meet a regal, ferocious alien couple (real-life marrieds Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, getting their motion-capture avatar-ing on), a fatigue for Na’s hopped-up wizardry sets in. The rickety CGI not its strong suit, “Hope” never quite follows through on its crafty first hour of peekaboo velocity. Not that a drawn out, stunt-heavy chase sequence on a mountainous highway doesn’t get the blood rushing again. But it may be more exhausting than thrilling to learn in the closing, apocalypse-ratcheting minutes that Na has more of his story planned. How else keep “Hope” alive?