Mickey
When there is something wrong, there really is something bound to happen
You know when there is something wrong, something is really bound to happen. That is basically what the movie is trying to convey, as with all disaster films.
What I liked the most here was that it developed the characters quite well. The first part which introduces the characters is a must and is the most common choice to start with disaster movies. In a sense, it might be a cliche, but for this case, it was not. As a result, it was not boring since their own stories were introduced one by one, and the overlapping of said people made sense in determining their respective connections with each other. I also liked that there were several perspectives shown here: the hotel workers/management, the guests, and their eventual life saviors/rescuers. At this point, the mood was still happy as it was Christmas Eve.
The pacing was rather expected but still entertaining. It was Christmas Eve, the busiest night at the Sky Tower. Of course, the priority was to serve the guests the best way possible, which lead to the negligence of the structural flaws that was fueled by an accident. The mood shift towards thrill and suspense was naturally executed. They were now facing a pandemonium with several dilemmas thrown here and there, again which is common in this type of movie.
My criticism here would be the overtly focus on the emotional aspect and its drama, which is already a norm in Korean disaster films. On most cases, the drama part would be good in tugging my heartstrings, but in here, I just found it to be too much and overshadows the story itself. The addition of what was an attempt to black comedy in the middle of a serious scene was just not properly timed. It rather made me confused as to what direction this movie wanted to go at that point. Furthermore, the ending was just adequate in terms of closing the story of the characters here, but it would have made more sense had it shown if were there any consequences on this disaster by the government to the hotel's owners since they were basically shrugged off (or maybe the film just wanted to show the loose punishment for the rich in Korean society, in this case, it was poorly done.)
On the other hand, the cinematography here was actually great for 2012. As I have already watched some of the newer Korean disaster movies with more sophisticated CGI, I had to adjust my lens to a 2012 perspective. The scenery and setting (the hotel itself), as much as it was fake, was still believable and was integrated with the plot quite successfully. You won't be able to easily spot the CGI at first glance, and the cinematic effects/music timing were also well done.
In the end, it was a decent movie with complete check points on what a disaster movie should be. It didn't show a new perspective in terms of the disaster aside from it happening on a Christmas Eve. But as most movies in this genre, when there is something wrong, there really is something bound to happen.
What I liked the most here was that it developed the characters quite well. The first part which introduces the characters is a must and is the most common choice to start with disaster movies. In a sense, it might be a cliche, but for this case, it was not. As a result, it was not boring since their own stories were introduced one by one, and the overlapping of said people made sense in determining their respective connections with each other. I also liked that there were several perspectives shown here: the hotel workers/management, the guests, and their eventual life saviors/rescuers. At this point, the mood was still happy as it was Christmas Eve.
The pacing was rather expected but still entertaining. It was Christmas Eve, the busiest night at the Sky Tower. Of course, the priority was to serve the guests the best way possible, which lead to the negligence of the structural flaws that was fueled by an accident. The mood shift towards thrill and suspense was naturally executed. They were now facing a pandemonium with several dilemmas thrown here and there, again which is common in this type of movie.
My criticism here would be the overtly focus on the emotional aspect and its drama, which is already a norm in Korean disaster films. On most cases, the drama part would be good in tugging my heartstrings, but in here, I just found it to be too much and overshadows the story itself. The addition of what was an attempt to black comedy in the middle of a serious scene was just not properly timed. It rather made me confused as to what direction this movie wanted to go at that point. Furthermore, the ending was just adequate in terms of closing the story of the characters here, but it would have made more sense had it shown if were there any consequences on this disaster by the government to the hotel's owners since they were basically shrugged off (or maybe the film just wanted to show the loose punishment for the rich in Korean society, in this case, it was poorly done.)
On the other hand, the cinematography here was actually great for 2012. As I have already watched some of the newer Korean disaster movies with more sophisticated CGI, I had to adjust my lens to a 2012 perspective. The scenery and setting (the hotel itself), as much as it was fake, was still believable and was integrated with the plot quite successfully. You won't be able to easily spot the CGI at first glance, and the cinematic effects/music timing were also well done.
In the end, it was a decent movie with complete check points on what a disaster movie should be. It didn't show a new perspective in terms of the disaster aside from it happening on a Christmas Eve. But as most movies in this genre, when there is something wrong, there really is something bound to happen.
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