Ashfall

There are kots of highlights for the near apocalyptic action genre lovers, but the story and plot are mostly undeveloped and pretty unhinged most of the time. the cataclysmic phases made on vfx and cgi are merely fine, but the way the human story is told its extremely mediocre and a very big nuclear wasted anti climax of a volcanic meltdown.

good production, average acting, terrible story and geopolitical disaster, thinks the grumpy old man, but its still a recommend

Do you have horrible time management and feel overwhelmed with all the movies you could be watching? You're in luck, my friend! Ashfall is like watching 6 movies at once! What begins as a standard disaster movie, with separated spouses and buildings collapsing in San Andreas style, ends with thriller twists, buddy cop comedy and family dramas.

Wow, thanks Ashfall!

This disaster plus action movie is exciting from big disaster scene near the beginning to the very end. The effects are as good as any Western blockbuster and the battle sequences are exciting and well choreographed. The characters are funny and quite endearing. The story is more complex than expected with a good amount of humour and some political subplot involving nukes North South China and US. Good use of some big name Korean stars. Worth a watch.

So, after the Korean take on the zombie genre, we now get the big disaster popcorn movie. The basic plot is what you'd expect: Big Bad Thing happens, but Even Worse Thing will happen if the heroes and scientists can't save the day by a dangerous mission. Luckily, the movie still provides many of the factors that make Korean cinema so entertaining. There is almost effortlessly good character chemistry(an art big Hollywood flicks seems to have lost somewhere along the way). There are the big sentimental brush strokes. There is a brisk pace and some twists and turns, and the added factors of the US military, North Korea, and some marvelously sleazy Chinese add some complexity and real world problems apart from the volcano itself. The heroes are ragtag and humorously flawed(another fun factor Hollywood has done away with in the age of Dwayne Johnson chiseled supermen), and hurtle along as best they can without ever really being in control of the situation.

Now, being a popcorn flick it obviously won't reach the amazing heights that Korean arthouse cinema spoils us with. Most notably, there are some bits where the editing is a bit rough, and some transitions are so abrupt it's chuckle-worthy. And plot, as mentioned, does not stray too far from your usual disaster movie formula.

But those small flaws doesn't stop Ashfall from remaining entertaining throughout, and isn't that what a good action movie should do? Definitely worth a watch.

The goods: -CGI is decent most of the time. -Byung-Hun Lee is amazing as usual. -Destruction scene is great overall. -Character speaks better Mandarin than Hollywood movies. -Funny scenes are generally funny.

The bads: -Cramming in too many genres in one movie. -Trying to do too much at the same time, ended up doing nothing particularly good. -Editing is atrocious, there are at least 4 instances where it feels like it skipped 30 seconds or more of the movie for no reason. -Character makes illogical decisions. -Inconsistent tone. -STOP JOKING WHEN THE SCENE IS SUPPOSED TO BE SERIOUS. -Dong-seok Ma is criminally underused. -Physics makes little sense most of the time. -Inconsistent and forced character development. -Although given an urgency of time, but the pressure is not felt. Character has time to joke around. -Side characters are insignificant and can be discarded at any time. -Movie falls apart somewhere in act 2, and gets worse the longer it goes on.

Verdict: If you are not particularly critical about movies and love some korean blockbusters, go for it. Or else skip this and save some money. Not recommended overall.