A gathering on new technology turns deadly in the opening of Colony, and for a while, director Yeon Sang-ho’s new outbreak film is exactly the tight, working machine it wants to be. A virus gets loose, the facility gets sealed, and Professor Kwon Se-jeong, played by Gianna Jun, is confined inside with a few survivors and a building full of things that used to be people. The premise does not need to be new to work. It just needs a quick pace, and for its first hour, Colony has plenty.
The Cast Holds the Center
Jun carries the film as Se-jeong, giving the character a hard, practical intelligence that keeps the group’s decisions grounded even when the story fails them. Ji Chang-wook plays Choi Hyun-seok, Koo Kyo-hwan is Seo Young-cheol, Kim Shin-rock plays Choi Hyun-hee, Shin Hyun-been is Kong Seol-hee, and Go Soo rounds out the group as Han Kyu-seong. The ensemble sells the fear and the strain of being confined. What they can sell is limited, since Yeon and writer Choi Gyu-seok never gave the characters much depth.
An Earlier Film, Louder
Dread Central compared Colony to Yeon’s earlier film about the walking dead, pushed further, and that’s a fair way to describe what Colony is chasing. The creature effects are strong, the set pieces are tight, and the changes the sick undergo are truly disturbing to watch. But going further does not add heart. Yeon’s earlier film worked because its characters mattered before the trouble started. Colony passes over that step and hopes the destruction covers for it.
Where It Works, and Where It Falls Short
- The action: constant, well made, never dull.
- The creature design: some of the most vivid body horror Yeon has put on screen.
- The character work: thin, rushed, and never given room to land.
- The ending: satisfying as spectacle, hollow as drama.
The Straits Times said the film is entertaining and simple to take in, and that’s fair. The Playlist noted a great deal of Colony still works, and that’s fair too. But simple to take in is not the same as lasting, and a great deal working is not the same as all of it working.
By the Numbers
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Length | 123 minutes |
| Metacritic | 54/100 |
| Critic approval | 78% |
| IMDb | 6.5/10 |
| Audience score | 8.105 out of 10, from 705 votes |
Colony knows how to stage a killing. It fails to make you care who lives through it. Yeon Sang-ho remains a skilled director of trouble, but trouble alone is not a film.
Score: 54 of 100
