And we’re back in the world of contorting zombies! ‘Train to Busan’ (2016) was one of the real film surprises that I have had this year and so when I saw that it’s sequel, ‘Peninsula’ (2020), was playing in my local cinema it was a no brainer that I was going to see it. And the fact that it me something to do on Halloween was an added bonus. I went it with decently high expectations because how much I had enjoyed ‘Train to Busan’, but I also went in with the feeling that the film would probably not hit the dizzy heights of that film. Let’s find out if it proved me wrong. The film follows Jung Seok (Dong-Won Gang), a former army captain who managed to escape to Hong Kong when the zombie outbreak broke out. His life in Hong Kong is a hard one with him living in poverty. This leads him to accept a job which promises to make him rich. However, the job entails returning to South Korea and into the zombie horde to pick up a truck carrying $20,000,000.
So, let’s get it out of the way early, no this is not as good as ‘Train to Busan’. It doesn’t really ever come close if I am being honest. But that is not to say it is a bad film either, but I did leave the cinema thinking that the film could have achieved so much more. The first thing I want to mention is that the film feels like it is trying to play towards a Western audience. Not that this is inherently a bad thing, but it feels really forced in this film. There are several American characters who are seemingly only there to be American characters and after the first twenty minutes they just disappear. Maybe it is just me, but it all felt a bit forced to me. The narrative and characters are also a little cliché. The film doesn’t really add anything new to the zombie genre and I felt like I knew where the story was going at every step due to it relying on these cliches. This meant that I found it hard to become fully emotionally invested in the plight of the characters. The film did manage to have a genuinely emotional climax that worked for me, but there were several more moments where I should have felt more emotion and I didn’t. This film is also filled with a lot of action scenes involving cars. Now, the special effects on the zombies throughout the film look great, but as soon as these scenes involving cars happen the film really doesn’t look great. I felt like I was watching a video game more than film. Granted it would be a good-looking video game, but none of it looked real to me and it completely destroyed my immersion during those scenes. Apart from this the film mostly looks good apart from some weird shot choices and far too much slow-motion for my liking.
What this film really lacks in comparison to ‘Train to Busan’ is the absolute adrenaline rush that that film provided. Every moment of that film had me gripped, where as this film never managed to get to that point. There are some great action scenes in this film though. It starts off really strong with an opening on a boat that managed to get me hooked and deliver an emotional punch. There is a also a scene where Jung Seok storms a compound of rogue survivors which is really well done and gave me that adrenaline rush that I wanted. But after these two scenes there are not many more scenes, I can remember that were all that exciting. And I think one of the big issues that this film has is that it doesn’t particularly feel like a zombie film. In fact, during the final act of this film I almost forgot that it was a zombie film at all. But you know what this film did feel like? ‘Mad Max’. I can’t go too much into it without spoiling some of the film, but there are several elements of the film that really feel like they were inspired by ‘Mad Max’. Unfortunately, I don’t really care for ‘Mad Max’ so it didn’t really do anything for me. The film has some great moments of action, but a lot of it doesn’t land as well as I had hoped.
I realise that this review makes it sound like I am very down on this film, which isn’t true. It is a pretty solid zombie film with some good moments of action and a decent emotional core. But the issue is that it is a follow up to one of the best zombie films I have ever seen, and it never manages to hit those same heights. But I did still enjoy it and I would still recommend it on the whole. Just don’t expect to be wowed, and maybe wait for it to come onto streaming services.