If It Ain't Broke: A Review of Zootopia 2

directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard

written by Jared Bush

One of my very favorite movies of 2016 was Walt Disney Animation Studios' original film Zootopia. Set in a fictional world populated entirely by anthropomorphic animals, the film told the story of rookie police offier Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a rabbit and her reluctant partner, small-time con Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox, and how they solved a conspiracy aimed at basically destroying Zootopia.  The film was a smash hit, grossing over a billion dollars worldwide and taking home numerous awards, including the Academy Award for best animated feature film.  A sequel should have been a sure thing, going by Hollywood logic. Bizarrely, it took them nine whole years to make this sequel. 

Whatever the reason for the delay, it seems that the filmmakers took their time to ensure that they could give viewers the best possible experience, and what better way to do that than by...basically making the first film again?

That may sound a touch uncharitable, but the film is so similar in its beats to its groundbreaking predecessor that it wouldn't be fair not to point it out. The winks and nods to the first film actually feel like a "welcome back" to the people who loved the first film and are back for more, kind of like what Pixar did with Inside Out 2.

Story-wise, even though it's been nine years for us, only a week has passed since Judy and Nick solved the case of the missing mammals and stopped the insidious efforts to foment conflict between the "predator" and "prey" mammals.  Judy and Nick, raring to get back into action, end up botching a sting operation against smugglers, and wreaking a fair bit of property damage all over the city, including the destruction of the statue of Ebenezer Lynxley (a lynx--duh), the man credited as having invented the weather walls that make Zootopia habitable to such a wide variety of mammals.  This prompts Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) to put Judy and Nick in "partners' therapy" sessions. However, having recovered a fragment of reptile skin at the site of the smuggling, Judy suspects that something might be afoot at the upcoming "Zootennial" event set to mark 100 years since Zootopia's founding, considering that there haven't been any reptiles since before the founding of Zootopia, when reptiles were basically banished from the mammal community after one of them supposedly murdered a tortoise in an attempt to kill Ebenezer Lynxley.  Judy and Nick show up at the Zootenial gala in disguise where Lynxley's prize journal containing his notes on the weather wall is on display, only for things to go completely bonkers when a snake (Ke Huy Quan) shows up to steal it.  In a flash of chaotic events, Judy and Nick find themselves on the run, in the crosshairs of the the very police force they were sworn to serve, and of the Lynxley clan, headed by Milton (David Strathairn) and including his children Cattrick (Macauley Culkin), Kitty (Brenda Song) and black sheep Pawbert (Andy Samberg).  

Looking at the evidence, Judy has trouble reconciling what she knows of Zootopia's history with what he has just discovered, but she may get a helping hand from, of all people, conspiracy theorist Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster) a beaver, and her...unusual friends. 

With the odds against them, can Judy and Nick crack the case once more?

 Like the first film, Zootopia 2 has its fair share of twists and turns. It is, after all, a cop movie, complete with a mystery that needs unraveling.  Writing a synopsis without giving anything away is a bit of a challenge and even involves hiding at least one pretty fun celebrity. The good news is that if Disney's main goal was to give viewers a good time, it's pretty much mission accomplished because between the pixel-perfect animation, the riotous humor, the fast-paced action and the generous helpings of fan service, the movie is basically a delightful confection.  Of course, like the first film, it has something to say about things happening in the real world, but unlike the first film, this one has villains who have some very clear parallels in real life.  To be honest, the allegory feels just a little ham-handed this time around.  That said, I really like how the filmmakers added to the already impressive world-building that they had done in the first film while leaving room for plenty more.

Goodwin and Wilde maintain their characters' chemistry from the first film, making me wonder if they had recorded their lines together.  Some welcome additions to the voice cast include Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan and comedienne Fortune Feimster, and Samberg, but of course it's the leads that carry the film to its exciting conclusion.  

In the nine years between the first Zootopia and this sequel, I had really started to worry that Disney Animation (and their sibling Pixar) had lost their way considering the films that had come out in that period of time, ranging from strikingly mediocre to downright awful. It therefore comes as a huge relief to me that they are still fully capable of replicating some of their best work, even if it does feel like just the tiniest bit of a  retread.   

9/10

From Slasher to Swashbuckler: A Review of "Predator: Badlands"

 directed by Dan Trachtenberg

written by Patrick Aison and Trachtenberg

I find it mildly amusing that some people look back on the 1987 action/horror film Predator as if it were some kind of high watermark of action cinema.  Personally, I considered it a poor man's Alien,  and the studio's attempts to cash in on the popularity of two things that were huge at the time: a) killer aliens and b) Arnold Schwarzenegger. John McTiernan's testosterone-fueled action-slasher film hybrid was pretty decently-paced but it ultimately was kind of silly.  I do still get a kick out of reciting some of Ah-nuld's lines from the movie, though, like "Come aahh, kill meeh" or the immortal "GET TO DA CHOPPAH!" Beyond that, though I really don't care much for the original movie.

This is why it was no big deal to me that, having failed to recapture that 80s magic with the disastrous 2018 film The Predator, and having experienced some success with director Dan Trachtenberg's TV-only release Prey, which pitted a predator against Native Americans from the 18th-century, the makers of Predator decided to take the franchise in a decidedly different direction, one in which the Predator was actually the hero.

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a Yautja (the Predators' race) with ambitions of proving himself a hunter worthy of his clan, and as the film starts he is sparring with his brother Kwei (Mike Homik). Dek declares that he intends to hunt the biggest, fiercest creature known to the Yautja as part of his rite of passage to be declared one of them, and picks the nastiest one known: the Kalisk.  However, Dek's father (Reuben de Jong) is convinced that, as a runt, Dek is better off dead and orders his brother to kill him. However, fraternal love prevails over filial piety and soon Dek is off to the planet of the Kalisk, where he crash lands with a singular mission: to hunt down the Kalisk and bring its head home as a trophy, so he can take his place among the Yautja. It's a daunting task ahead, but Dek discovers that he may have  some help in the form of half a Weyland-Yutani android named Thia  (Elle Fanning), who knows quite a lot of about the fauna of the planet, especially the Kalisk, and offers to help Dek in his hunt. What she doesn't tell him, though, is the reason she was on the planet in the first place, which was how she got her legs severed from the rest of her.  Will Dek be able to fulfill his  quest to secure a trophy and take his place among the Yautja, or will the Weyland-Yutani corporation, with their army of synths, including the calculating Tessa (also Fanning) get in his way?  

 I was very pleasantly surprised by how much fun this movie was, and I enjoyed the action, the gorgeous (probably CGI enhanced) New Zealand setting, and even the humorous dynamic between Thia and Dek, who are joined in their mission by a curious creature whom Thia dubs "Bud."  It's not what I'd call the most memorable action movie of the year, but it does give the Predator franchise some new life, though I do admit I still preferred the 2010 sequel Predators starring Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. 

 Anyone looking for a serviceable, reasonably entertaining action movie should be pretty satisfied with this, though I think it's safe to say the hardcore Predator fans aren't likely to be won over by the franchise's new direction, which, if the grosses allow, will no doubt continue into the next film. 

8/10 

Faithfully Troubling: A Review of Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein"

 written and directed by Guillermo del Toro

based  on the novel by Mary Shelley

I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in college, many years ago, and I was instantly struck by how different the book was from what the movies and television shows from which I knew the story had presented. For one thing, Frankenstein's creation, more popularly known as the "monster," was a surprisingly articulate fellow, in stark contrast to the lumbering, monosyllabic creature featured in those movies.  Also, he is far  more of a tortured soul. Since then, I have seen two movies which hewed quite closely to Mary Shelley's original vision: Kenneth Branagh's 1994 adaptation, in which he starred as the scientist obsessed with conquering death and Robert De Niro starred as the creature, and now, Guillermo del Toro's adaptation available on Netflix, starring Oscar Isaac as the title character and Jacob Elordi as his hulking, tortured creation. 

The basic story beats are still very much the same: a ship bound for the North Pole encounters a mysterious threat and then finds a man nearly frozen to death, who then proceeds to tell his tale. 

Young Victor Frankenstein (Christian Convery) grew up with a loving mother (Mia Goth) whom he lost when she gave birth to his baby brother, William, and a stern father (Charles Dance) whom he lost to old age. His experience with his mother's death has formed an obsession within Victor to conquer it once and for all, and when as an adult (Isaac) he is expelled from medical school for demonstrating his ideas on conquering death, he then catches the attention of Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) a wealthy arms merchant who offers to finance his experiment. Harlander is the uncle of Elizabeth (also Mia Goth) who is engaged to the now-successful finance whiz William (Felix Kammerer).  Harlander's deep pockets ensure that Victor has the equipment and the place he needs for his experiments, and his knowledge of when battles will take place provides Victor with a fresh supply of dead bodies from which to stitch together his creation (Elordi). Victor succeeds in his grim quest to reanimate the creature using a combination of lightning and the lymphatic system, but in fairly short order, things go horribly wrong as he learns the real reason for Harlander's interest in his experiment. Victor then finds himself confronted with the reality of what he has created, and with his own petty jealously as his brother's fiancee, with whom he has developed an unhealthy obsession, seems more enamored with the creature than she ever would be with him, and he attempts to destroy the creature by burning his entire laboratory down with the creature still inside.  The creature lives, however, wanders the countryside and settles in a cottage beside a family, where he learns to read, and to appreciate people, until things again go horribly wrong, and he finds himself hunting down his creator once more to exact a final reckoning.

As faithful as this movie was to the book, I noted several liberties taken, such as number of prominent characters removed from the book that even featured in Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film, but more prominently, I noted that Victor Frankenstein was no longer an even remotely sympathetic character and his creature was depicted as almost completely blameless, which somehow felt right.  The book and the Branagh adaptation had Frankenstein's creature doing fairly monstrous things, like outright murdering people which made Frankenstein's own rage feel righteous somehow, even though he was very much to blame for what happened.  The Frankenstein of the books and Branagh's film was misguided but one could feel he had good intentions at heart. Del Toro's and Isaac's Frankenstein oozes of narcissism and vanity, and basically every truly horrible thing that happens in the film is as a result of Victor's own reckless disregard for others.  Unfortunately, this little tweak makes the narrative denouement a little harder to accept, though I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film.

In terms of production value, this film is a lush, extravagant throwback to the days of huge, imposing physical sets, and it was gratifying to see Netflix give Del Toro the money he needed to make this movie in all its gothic glory.  Due praise should also be given to the heart-wrenching performances, from Isaac's magnificent mad scientist to Elordi's soulful, forlorn and misshapen creature. 

It's a movie I could have liked a whole lot more if the ending had been written but a little differently, but it's still something I can recommend. 

7/10  

 

Pleasant Surprise: A Review of "Kontrabida Academy"

 directed by Chris Martinez

written by Alpha Habon, Randolph Longjas and Martinez

I tend to expect very little from original Netflix movies by way of production value or storytelling. While Netflix has managed to produce its fair share of decent movies, they seem, in equal measure, capable of producing some complete and utter shlock, and that is often the case with its Filipino-produced content, which tends to be derivative and sometimes nonsensical.   It was such tempered expectations, a few weeks ago, that I watched "Kontrabida Academy" an original Netflix film starring several known Filipino actors including comediennes Eugene Domingo and Barbie Forteza. The premise was fun and outlandish enough; Gigi (Forteza) a downtrodden assistant restaurant manager with problems at home, at work and in her relationship, is at wit's end when a mysterious television set is delivered to her home. As she watches the drama always broadcast on the TV, one of the characters on screen, the villainous Mauricia (Eugene Domingo) invites her to step into her world, and one day, in a fit of despair with her life, Gigi does exactly that, and discovers an incredible new world beyond the screen, but one which she can only navigate with the skills that Mauricia and her cohort of fellow villains kontrabidas can teach her...at the Kontrabida Academy! Gigi's life, suffice it to say, will never be the same.

Let's get this out of the way; this film is not high art, but at no point does it aspire to be so.  It is, however a whole lot of campy fun. Writer-director Chris Martinez and his co-writers Alpha Habon and Randolph Longjas lean heavily into the tropes of Filipino soap opera writing and have a whole lot of "meta" fun in the process. It helps, of course, that they have an entirely game cast led by Barbie Forteza and Eugene Domingo, and including actors both old (Michael De Mesa, Baron Geisler, Carmina Villaroel and Jaime Fabregas) and new (Jameson Blake, Xyriel Manabat).  Impressively, though, the film also has something to say about the quality of writing in Philippine soap operas, critiquing the one-dimensional manner in which "good" and "bad" characters are portrayed, basically explaining that in real life, people have to be a little bit of both. 

It's a film that, like most of Netflix's catalogue, is pretty easily forgotten, but it was worth the time it took to sit down and watch it. One could say that's the beauty of Netflix; it gives us the opportunity to watch, free of charge, movies that we otherwise would not have the time and money to check out.

8/10

The Better Movie About Manuel Quezon: A (VERY LATE) Review of "Quezon's Game"

 directed by Matthew Rosen

written by Janice Y. Perez and Dean Rosen

I could have sworn that I reviewed this film back when I watched it in 2019. Back then I watched it with just one of my children, and we both enjoyed it quite thoroughly, whatever its flaws may have been.  I was ready to refresh my imaginary review by posting a link of it on my Facebook feed in view of the incessant chatter surrounding Jerrold Tarog's new film Quezon, a film I distinctly disliked, but to my shock I found that this review only ever existed in my mind.  

Well, it's time to remedy that.

Quezon's Game tells the apparently little-known story about how Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth, saved the lives of 1,200 Jews who were fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany back in the 1930s, just before the Second World War broke out.  In the film, President Quezon (Raymond Bagatsing) faces the most challenging time of his presidency; the world is on the brink of war, into which the Philippine Commonwealth will undoubtedly be swept up, when he is approached by a Manila-based, Jewish American businessman Alex Frieder (Billy Ray Gallion) with a desperate plea:  asylum for Jews seeking to escape persecution in Europe by Germany's Nazi party.  It is far from a straightforward task, and Quezon finds himself having to walk a diplomatic tightrope with America, still the ruling colonial power, and even Nazi Germany, which has opened a consulate in Manila.  Though Quezon is on good terms with General Dwight D. Eisenhower (David Bianco) and Philippine High Commissioner Paul McNutt (James Paoleli), the challenge of bringing these refugees over from Europe will put their relationship to the test. Standing firmly by Quezon's side are his devoted wife, Aurora (Rachel Alejandro) and his Vice President Sergio Osmena (Audi Gemora).

There's so much to love about this film, helmed by British filmmaker Matthew Rosen. First of all, it is gorgeous. Shot in sepia against the sumptuous backdrop of a beach resort in the province of Bataan containing actual Spanish-era houses and buildings and faithful reproductions thereof, it evokes the atmosphere of 1930s Manila quite vividly. The Filipino actors like Bagatsing, Gemora and Alejandro are pretty much in top form here, inhabiting the real life historical figures they play not as larger-than-life archetypes but as humans, with frailties and doubts, capable of making good and bad decisions but often choosing the latter, especially in the face of such a tense situation. 

This brings me to another remarkable point here; with the exception of a very brief scene early in the film depicting a chase between a fugitive and Nazi soldiers, the film is entirely a "talking heads" affair, relying on acting, cinematography and music to generate and maintain the tension that the story demands.  The atmosphere evoked by the location and set decoration can only do so much without strong performances driving the narrative, and fortunately, as far as the leads are concerned, the acting is as strong as it can get. 

 

Bagatsing, in particular, truly stands out as the first President of the Philippine Commonwealth and the man who helped usher in the independent Philippine Republic, even though he would never live to see it come to pass. I first saw Bagatsing in a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire way back in 1996, and I feel he was a good choice to play Quezon, with just the right mix of debonair swagger and cautious statesman. I liked how he navigated between the three languages Quezon reportedly spoke the most: English, Spanish and Tagalog. Most of all, I really appreciated the humanity he brought to the character. His Quezon was neither a hero nor was he a villain, but a man with a conscience who was ready to do questionable things to achieve his goals. It helped that the script by Janice Perez and Dean Rosen gave him a lot to work with, but Bagatsing truly made the character his own. It may not have been a 100% true-to-life depiction (no portrayal ever is) and it wasn't punctuated by the histrionics of Jericho Rosales' performance in Jerrold Tarog's film, but it was a deeply affecting turn just the same.  Gemora and Alejandro were also outstanding in their respective turns as Vice President Osmena and First Lady Aurora Quezon.  The American actors were...competent, which is better than I can usually say about foreign actors in Filipino productions (even though this was directed by an Englishman), though the actor who played the Nazi was simply awful.  

If I had any nitpicks, it was with the largely electronic music score, which, unfortunately was a result of the film having a miniscule budget, and, well the score not being particularly good. 

Still, the movie was both uplifting and educational, a marked contrast to the highly cynical take on Quezon now playing in cinemas. There are no self-inserts of the filmmakers getting up on soapboxes in the middle of the narrative, and whatever liberties that may have been taken do not feel gratuitous.  

The best part of all is that this movie is available to watch, completely legitimately and free of charge on YouTube. I highly urge everyone to check it out.

9/10 

Nothing Personal, Just Politics: A Review of Jerrold Tarog's Quezon

 directed by Jerrold Tarog

written by Jerrold Tarog and Rody Vera

It's hard to believe it's already been ten years since Jerrold Tarog launched his "Bayani" trilogy with the narrative tour de force that was Heneral Luna, and seven years since its sequel, Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.  Yet, here we are with the third film in the trilogy, Quezon.

Set primarily during the tumultuous years before Manuel L. Quezon (played here by Jericho Rosales and Benjamin Alves as his younger self) was elected president of the Philippine Commonwealth, the film tells the story of Quezon's ascension to the power, including the people with whom he clashed, like former President Emilio Aguinaldo (Mon Confiado), Speaker of the House Sergio Osmena (Romnick Sarmenta) and Governor General Leonard Wood (Iain Glen), and the many compromises he had to make in pursuit of his avowed dream of an independent Philippine Republic. This narrative is framed through the perception of Tarog's fictional avatar, Joven Hernando played by Arron Villaflor as a young man and by Cris Villanueva in his older years. I have a lot to say about this character later.   

There's a clear trajectory here for Tarog's historical protagonists; General Antonio Luna of Heneral Luna was easily Tarog's "purest" protagonist, untainted by any kind of corrupt motive and who acted purely for the good of the nascent Filipino nation, even to his own detriment and eventual destruction, which was largely brought about by his own arrogance.  In Manuel L. Quezon, Tarog presents the most morally compromised character of his entire  "Bayani" trilogy. 

The problem for me is that, to be properly considered compromised, there needs to be some good to go along with the bad. Even most villains in fiction nowadays are depicted as flawed people who made really bad choices, often in the name of some perceived greater good.  The problem with Manuel Quezon, as depicted in this story, is that he simply has no redeeming qualities. This film presents a deconstruction of this larger-than-life persona that is so thorough, so merciless that it borders on being a demolition job.  The man is a liar, a womanizer, a narcissist, and possesses virtually every one of the most despicable qualities of the worst of Filipino politicians. One might argue he's even the godfather of modern-day patronage politics, though the film stops just short of saying that.  To depict the man as a saint would, of course, have been idiotic, but it feels like Tarog has gone too far in the other direction. 

Every good thing Quezon is depicted as doing in the film is underpinned by some darker truth, some act of wanton betrayal of either the people who trusted him, the Filipino people or even just basic human decency.  That the film would shine a light on the darker side of a career politician who made many, many shady deals in his relatively short lifetime made perfect sense, and one appreciates the candor on display here, but the problem here is that there is no nuance, just as Heneral Luna felt somewhat like a hagiography, this is basically the complete opposite. The Manuel L. Quezon of this film is such a bastard that one even wonders how this film can be called part of the "Bayani" trilogy. Tarog even torpedoes narratives that he pushed in his previous films, such as Emilio Aguinaldo's very strongly-hinted hand in the deaths of Antonio Luna and Andres Bonifacio, by out-and-out declaring that Quezon's people made it all up. As is usual with films like this, it has been declared that creative license was taken with historical facts, so one wonders how much of Quezon's onscreen depravity was based on actual events, and how much was a product of Tarog's mind?

This brings me to the part of the film that I quite vehemently disliked; fictional journalist Joven Hernando goes from the audience avatar, a passive observer and recorder of events, to an active character in the story, who interacts quite closely with all of the principal characters in the story, and who eventually gets screwed over by Quezon when he dares write unflattering things about him.  This part was the last straw for me. This was where story went from an earnest attempt to tell the complicated, flawed legacy of one of the Philippine Republic's most important founding figures to a mean-spirited smear job. Another thing that irks me about this glaring creative liberty is that Hernando feels like a narrative crutch that Tarog leans on. Ironically, of all the three "Bayani" films, Quezon takes place in the most recent period of history, at a time when more information was available than during the settings of previous two films, which would mean that stitching a cohesive narrative together should have been even simpler given the available data. It confounded me quite a bit, then, that Tarog seemed to take even more liberties here than he did with either of the previous "Bayani" films, by expanding the role of the fictional character. 

My final critique is with the acting. Now, in the previous two films, I found the acting to be mostly beyond reproach, with John Arcilla's booming line delivery still ringing in my mind.  To Tarog's credit, he assembles a mostly competent lineup of performers here, too, but there were two things that stood out. First of all was Scottish actor Iain Glen's turn as Governor General Leonard Wood.  In the final analysis I thought Glen turned in a mostly decent performance, but I was struck by how for several of his lines early in the film, Wood had a distinctly British accent, which he fortunately dropped as the film went on. 

The biggest problem for me, though, was Jericho Rosales as Manuel Quezon. Now, I have nothing against Rosales as an actor, but to my mind, he was simply out of his depth here, and it did not help matters any that the film's makeup department couldn't be bothered to age him beyond giving him a gray dye job (or wig). Rosales is 46 right now, but the Quezon he was depicting was in his late 50s and quite haggard as a result of the tuberculosis that ravaged his body.  Sure, he mimics his voice and mannerisms, having no doubt pored over newsreels of the Commonwealth President, but too often, his performance feels like it strays into caricature, and Rosales fails to elevate his character past the teleserye villain that the script so clearly makes him out to be. 

I really, really wanted to like this film. Like its predecessors in the trilogy, it has excellent production value, and outstanding performances from the likes of Bodjie Pascua (as Aguinaldo's running mate Raymundo Melliza), Mon Confiado as Aguinaldo, and Benjamin Alves, who in a rather confusing turn plays both the younger Manuel Quezon and an actor who plays Quezon in a series of propaganda films made by Hernando's daughter Nadia (Therese Malvar) for Quezon's presidential campaign.  It has some pretty good humor and is a winner from a technical standpoint, with some pretty sharp editing and music scoring, both courtesy of Tarog. For all of that, though, Tarog has fallen short, to my mind, of the standard that he himself has set. 

I like to imagine there's a draft of the script somewhere that contains a more nuanced portrayal of Quezon, one that, while not necessarily making him more heroic, makes him a bit more sympathetic. Whatever his flaws may have been, and I'm sure there are many, Quezon managed to make a significant contribution to our country's efforts towards independence, and I feel he deserved a portrayal even just a tad more sympathetic that what we got here.

6.5/10

Riding the Zeitgeist: A Review of K-Pop Demon Hunters

 directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans

written by Danya Jimenez, Hanna McMechan, Kang and Applehans

In a cinematic landscape dominated by Intellectual Property of one sort or another, be it derived from books, comic books, video games, or even old movies, it truly is refreshing to see a new property truly take off, which what the new animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters, has managed to do since it dropped on Netflix over two months ago. A completely original film (with a kind of regrettable title that sounds like they never moved past the concept stage), this film give American animation a shot in the arm it has needed since original properties from studio giants like Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks have all been faltering.

As the title states, K-Pop Demon Hunters is the story of a group of K-Pop singers named Huntr/x, who, by day are a hugely popular music group, but by night, hunt and kill demons. The three girls Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-yong Yoo) are actually continuing a tradition that's hundreds of years old, of three women fighting demons with not only martial arts skill but with the power of song. It is through this song that they maintain the Honmoon, a magical barrier between the Earth and the Demon's world that helps keep them at bay. The demons aren't easy to keep out, however, especially considering that their boss, Gwi Ma (Lee Byung Hun) hungers for souls to consume, which is why Huntr/x seek, through their music, to create the Golden Honmoon, which will bar demons from entering the world completely.  The demons, however, may just have an ace up their sleeve in the form of Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop) a handsome singer of a demon who hatches a bold plan; to fight the singing demon hunters with a band of their own. Meanwhile, things get complicated when Rumi's normally golden singing voice starts to falter on her, which may or may not have something to do with a dark secret she's been keeping from her friends. Will they be able to seal the Golden Honmoon in time to stop Gwi Ma?

Given the success of their giant-killing, Oscar-winning smash hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it's gratifying to seen that Sony Pictures Animation hasn't just leaned on existing IP to keep their slate running.  While the worldwide popularity of K-Pop may have made this movie seem like an obvious choice to make, it was still a risk to make something so culturally specific, and yet this risk appears to have paid off in dividends.

To my mind, what makes the movie work is its accessibility to non-K-Pop fans. The story lets us "normies" in on the ground floor, and even though there are undoubtedly plenty of Korean of K-Pop references that fly over our heads, the filmmakers give us characters that are somehow both ultra cool and relatable at the same time. It helps that both the animation and the voice acting does a sterling job of bringing these characters to life.

Now, I'm still not a fan of K-Pop music, but I appreciate how it propelled this movie forward in a catchy, earworm sort of way. This is the kind of thing that will eventually date this movie, I suppose, but it is definitely good fun, which to my mind is something the other big studios seem to have forgotten about. 

 This is easily worth the 100 minutes or so that it will take to sit down in front of one's TV and tune into Netflix. Well done!

9/10