Sector 7

Underwater monster features making a comeback… here's hoping. The well-produced Korean horror feature "Sector 7" won't win any awards as it's a formula that's well worn in its surprises, but its generic format will always entertain if done properly. On this occasion, it does that for most part. A small crew on an isolated oil rig in the region of sea, known as "Sector 7" fail to find oil, but instead discover a viral life form that infiltrated the rig through the drilling pipe transforming into a killing machine. However there's more to this creature with secrets being revealed. After a slow build-up setting up characters, dramas and the awaiting predicament it succumbs to its undemanding popcorn monster mayhem. You could say it gets better as it goes along. The tempo picks up, the violence is aggressively pitched, survival mode kicks in and special effects get extravagant treatment. On the latter, the quality of the CGI was a complete mixed bag. Sometimes acceptable, other times poorly conceived that it can take you out of the mood with its parading. However it was made for 3D. Watch as one climatic standoff is finished off with another and then another. This beast isn't easy to dispose off and it seems to come off in the thrill stakes with many spectacular encounters. The oil rig setting is an imaginative choice, blending special effects (screeching trail bikes) and set-designs to develop a confined, dank and remote atmosphere. Technically quite strong and a clean crisp look with a workable premise, but the script is dumb down and consists of some actions of annoyance. The performances won't set the world alight despite some eccentric and quirky support; however Ji-won Ha's harden-tomboy character really does hold it all together. Not perfect, still a fun and flashy monster throwback.

"There's a monster on the rig!"

It's hard to give a movie a 10 out of 10. And it's even harder to give a movie a 1 out of 10. Why? Because even the worst of films have a tiny little element to praise. 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' is something I consider to be one of the worst films I've ever seen (and I've watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus!)...yet that movie had good CGI (too much of it but still good in terms of visuals).

But here comes 'Sector 7', the first 3-D movie to be released in South Korea. I am Korean and I assure you that Americans are more likely to like this movie...because English subtitles will definitely hide the terrible dialogue in this movie.

"Monster....monster...." says Ha Ji Won when she first sees this glob of CG. Then Sung Kee Ahn grabs a gun. First of all there would be no guns on an oil mine in Korea and second of all this reaction is stupid. Why would anyone believe there'd be a monster on board? What's worse is the doctor on the ship speculates that the gooey substance the monster leaves behind is semen. What kind of doctor is this?!

We don't see the monster until we get tired of this movie. What I mean by that is we get boring exposition we don't care about. None of the characters are interesting; they are just typical monster food. I am of course talking about the girl who won't shut up, the playful boyfriend who will become overprotective when the situation gets serious, the seemingly wise old man who knows how to use a gun, an obnoxious retard who's blamed for all the damage the monster is responsible for.

We finally see the monster about half way into this movie. A good movie like 'Alien' will use this technique by creating suspense. There is no suspense here. When the monster is finally revealed you will wish you hadn't seen it. Not because it's scary but because the CG is faker than fake. I'm not just talking about the looks (which is terrible), I'm also talking about its mechanical movement. But I should've known better when the opening CG sequence was pathetic. The 1980's flashback in Sector 7 should give you an idea of how poor the special effects are in this movie.

And why was this movie in 3D? Yeah I know we get one scene where the monster's tail shoots right out of the screen but that was like 0.3 seconds and this is a movie that is longer than it needs to be.

This movie tries to be everything. It tries to be 'Alien' (we'll get to that later). It tries to be a comedy (the audience laughed once in throughout this movie). It tries to be dramatic. None of the deaths are satisfying, none of them evoke any sort of emotion (whether sadness or fear or relief).

The worst part of the movie is the climax. Here we have the main lead girl fighting with the monster head to head in a factory. Sound familiar? I don't mind a movie imitating a classic in order to create cheap thrills but this just fails to entertain the slightest bit. And besides all I'm doing is looking at my watch.

And don't make me mention the motorcycle scenes because they were so random and so stupidly tied into the end. Even in the trailers; what was the girl planning to do with the motorcycle? Just ram it into the giant monster?

This could've been a legit monster movie. The setting was pretty good; it's an oil mine in the middle of a vast ocean. And also there are some moral issues incorporated into the monster (not spoiling anything). But the hollow characters and the actors who take themselves too seriously ruin this film completely. The action sucks, the CGI sucks. One of the WORST movies I've seen in my life.

Do not let this movie effect your perception towards Korean movies. Even we know it's bad.

Bong Joon-ho's critical and commercial success 'The Host' set a gold standard for creature features in South Korea, but it isn't simply because of this genre predecessor that 'Sector 7' rode on a tidal wave of expectations prior to its release. Nonetheless, that wave crashed before it even reached shore- overwhelmingly negative critical reception and soon after audience reception all but ensured that 'Sector 7' never became the monster box-office hit it was supposed to be back in its home territory.

It's unfortunate that the bar was already set unrealistically high for the movie even before it opened. Indeed, director Kim Ji-hoon's followup to his well-received 2007 historical epic 'May 18' is really just a well-made B-monster movie, without the kind of smart scriptwriting needed for it to meet critic and audience expectations. Sure it doesn't have what it takes to be outstanding, but those looking for some good old straightforward thrills will find that 'Sector 7' delivers those just fine.

In case you're wondering, the title of the movie refers to a continental shelf off Jeju Islands that was thought to hold massive oil and natural gas reserves. Its sovereignty was the focus of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan in the 1970s, with both nations eager to exploit it for its resources. The history behind the stretch of ocean may add a dose of reality for those who have lived long enough through the tenacious two-party negotiations, but any hopes that this may make for some intelligent social commentary in the movie- especially considering the energy crisis facing the world today- should quickly be set aside.

Instead, screenwriters Kim Hwi and JK Youn opt for a standard bare-bones character setup before unleashing the monster. The most developed character among the lot is Hae-jun (Ha Ji-won), a headstrong female engineer atop an offshore oil rig at loggerheads with her captain who believes their expedition is a fruitless one. Next to Hae-jun is that of her mentor Master (Ahn Sung-ki), who arrives on the rig after the order to vacate and convinces the captain it might be worthwhile to persevere. Other than Hae-jun and Master, the others are no more than prey - including Hae-jun's boyfriend Dong-su (Oh Ji-ho), best buddies Sang-gu and Jong-yun (Park Chul-min and Song Sae-byeok) and socially awkward Chi-sun.

It takes about half an hour before things start to go awry, and by that point, besides confirming the audience's suspicion that Master isn't as worthy as he seems to be, Ji-hoon is content to let the action take centre-stage. So one by one, these characters will find themselves hunted by the monster and eventually meet their demise, until of course just Dong-su, Master and Hae-joon are left standing. Ji-hoon reserves the film's single longest climactic sequence for them, substituting the narrow passageways beneath the rig where most of the earlier action takes place for the wide open expanse on the platform. Logic and reason are not required from the start of the unrelenting action up till the end- all Ji-hoon demands of his audience is to sit back and let the adrenaline kick in.

At least in this regard, Ji-hoon delivers where it counts, aided by no less than his lead actress Ji-won, who has been dubbed Korea's Angelina Jolie after performing all her own stunts in this film. Seeing Ji-won in the thick of the action, especially when she gets on a motorbike and zips along the platform with the beast fast behind her, is thrilling to say the least- though that very standout sequence is somewhat marred by some not-so-good CGI betraying the green screen against which it was shot. Nonetheless, she is more than convincing as a female action hero, and one only hopes that the writers had spent more time with her character to make it equally memorable.

Certainly, if even Hae-joon comes off one-dimensional, you can be sure that the monster will only fare worse. The purpose behind the monster's pursuit of its prey is never clearly defined, since it neither seems to devour them or bring them back to its nest where its embryos lay cocooned in some gooey mess. The latter's reference is also pointless, since the film makes no attempt to weave it into the story after only a brief scene. And even if it isn't meant to make much sense, the leap of logic the film demands from its audience when the monster is explained to be from the chemo-synthetic (read: deep-sea) ecosystem but spends so much of its time out of the water is just too glaring to ignore.

It doesn't help too that Ji-hoon reveals the monster in its entirety too early into the film, abandoning any attempt at building audience anticipation all too quickly. The decision to rely on a homegrown effects studio (as opposed to a foreign one like 'The Host' did) might be worth touting for their local audience, but you're likely to come off thinking that the CG work is nothing remarkable. The same can also be said of the 3D in the movie, which lends depth to certain scenes, but arguably not in the action-heavy ones that matter,

You'll understand why then the disappointment that 'Sector 7' was met with when it was released back in its home territory, since it lacks the smart scriptwriting and sharp direction needed for it to become another classic like 'The Host'. Instead, it is a perfectly generic creature feature, offering nothing more than B-grade movie thrills that would probably still satisfy an undemanding audience. But since it probably doesn't have to live up to such lofty expectations here, 'Sector 7' will do just fine as a no-frills action adventure- forgettable ultimately but thrilling and entertaining enough while it lasts.

I bought this for a dollar at a flea market because Ha Ji-won was amazing in the K-Drama "Secret Garden." The checkout lady was like, "Sector 7, that's a great film." I wonder what film she was actually thinking of? 95% of this movie is green-screen plus painful CGI. And the script is SO, SO full of clichés. Like, how many times are they going to play the "Monster is dead-nope, still alive!" card? I would avoid this film like the plague just based on the clichés alone! Ha Jiwon does more girl action hero shtick than actual acting, and the other characters are just there to be killed by the monster. And you can't convince me that oil rigs have a self-destruct!!!!! In the trailer, they even stole MU-TH-R's countdown voice from the movie Alien. How sad is that?

I was hoping for more of a Deep Star six, Deep Rising Leviathan or possibly a Deep Blue Sea horror flick on the sea but Sector 7 isn't all bad. The Korean sci/fi action horror hybrid film centers on a group of drillers who battle sea monsters aboard their rig. Their are some cool spfx and some bad CGI and green screen work. The movie looks like it was probably fun in 3D and there are some nice shots in it. The cinematography freshens up the generic storyline and although insipid it makes for some goofy fun. It reminded me of a section in the Resident Evil 4 game, those who have played it will know what I'm referring too and that's how the movie plays out. it feels like a big video game but overstays it's welcome slightly by taking to long to get started and stretching out the climax with unnecessary slow mo. All in all it's not a bad watch and worth it if your in for this type of movie.