1
Amy
Story (8/10)
There were no boring scenes throughout the movie, everything was there for a reason, whether it is for character establishment, development or emotional impact. There were some quite emotional and thought-provoking moments that made my eyes water. Although the story had a dark (and sometimes preachy) undertone, it made good use of comedy from time to time for relief so that it doesn't get too overloading.
A downside is that the story felt "episodic", like many mini stories combined, and they could have ended the movie after any one of those mini stories without it feeling off. This caused the build-up to the final boss fight to lose its momentum a bit, and the story almost fell apart in the middle (luckily it didn't).
Acting (8.5/10)
The acting wasn't the main focus of the movie, but the priest completely stole the show. He was 100% a priest, from his talking mannerisms, to his expressions... even his face looked like a priest.
Park Seo Joon, on the other hand, did not really outperform himself in this. He was good as usual, but his character wasn't that different from what I normally see from him, hence I don't have much to say about him. Woo Do Hwan was charismatic as the dark priest because he had devilish vibes and a devilish pretty face to go along with it. Everyone else in the story didn't have much screentime (there were some surprise cameos tho).
Messages (7.5/10)
This movie touched on some really interesting religious themes but failed to develop them properly (maybe because they didn't want to come off as preachy). I related so much to the ML's religious struggles, and I often asked the same question as he did. The movie didn't really answer his question, but I came up with my own answer after watching it, so I guess the movie was still spiritually enlightening in some way despite its lukewarm reflections. I think the movie was meant to be an action film and the religious aspect was just a bonus for the sake of storytelling and some slight character development, but it really could have been so much more than that.
Overall, a decent commercial movie that is thoroughly entertaining, with a good mix of action, comedy, tearjerking moments and mild horror. Would recommend to anyone who wants to see a suspenseful action movie that has horror elements but is not too terrifying or gruesome to watch. This one is pretty much entry level horror that most people can bear with, so if the reason you don't want to watch this is because it's a horror movie, you could definitely reconsider watching it.
There were no boring scenes throughout the movie, everything was there for a reason, whether it is for character establishment, development or emotional impact. There were some quite emotional and thought-provoking moments that made my eyes water. Although the story had a dark (and sometimes preachy) undertone, it made good use of comedy from time to time for relief so that it doesn't get too overloading.
A downside is that the story felt "episodic", like many mini stories combined, and they could have ended the movie after any one of those mini stories without it feeling off. This caused the build-up to the final boss fight to lose its momentum a bit, and the story almost fell apart in the middle (luckily it didn't).
Acting (8.5/10)
The acting wasn't the main focus of the movie, but the priest completely stole the show. He was 100% a priest, from his talking mannerisms, to his expressions... even his face looked like a priest.
Park Seo Joon, on the other hand, did not really outperform himself in this. He was good as usual, but his character wasn't that different from what I normally see from him, hence I don't have much to say about him. Woo Do Hwan was charismatic as the dark priest because he had devilish vibes and a devilish pretty face to go along with it. Everyone else in the story didn't have much screentime (there were some surprise cameos tho).
Messages (7.5/10)
This movie touched on some really interesting religious themes but failed to develop them properly (maybe because they didn't want to come off as preachy). I related so much to the ML's religious struggles, and I often asked the same question as he did. The movie didn't really answer his question, but I came up with my own answer after watching it, so I guess the movie was still spiritually enlightening in some way despite its lukewarm reflections. I think the movie was meant to be an action film and the religious aspect was just a bonus for the sake of storytelling and some slight character development, but it really could have been so much more than that.
Overall, a decent commercial movie that is thoroughly entertaining, with a good mix of action, comedy, tearjerking moments and mild horror. Would recommend to anyone who wants to see a suspenseful action movie that has horror elements but is not too terrifying or gruesome to watch. This one is pretty much entry level horror that most people can bear with, so if the reason you don't want to watch this is because it's a horror movie, you could definitely reconsider watching it.
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