Video summary
The reviewer provides a fresh look at the Korean zombie film "Colony," directed by the same creator behind the acclaimed "Train to Busan." Although the movie was released a few weeks prior, the author felt compelled to offer a quicker review following their glowing assessment of the new Resident Evil film. The narrator explicitly chooses not to use specific character names to avoid mispronouncing them and disrespecting the Korean language, opting instead for generic descriptors like "child," "man," or "woman." Having watched the R-rated, two-hour film with subtitles alongside his wife, he notes that while fatigue set in slightly toward the end, the overall concept remains compelling and distinct from traditional zombie narratives where infected individuals simply become super-soldiers.
The core of the story revolves around a company obsessed with ant colonies that accidentally releases a virus mimicking insect behavior into the public sphere. Initially, the infected act like infants, crawling on the ground and biting at legs, but they rapidly evolve once one member learns to understand their environment better. This collective intelligence allows the horde to stand upright, run, and eventually distinguish between two-dimensional cardboard cutouts and real three-dimensional humans. The reviewer praises this evolutionary progression as a major strength, noting that the lack of safety for anyone in the quarantine zone creates genuine tension. However, he also points out a narrative flaw where the film reveals halfway through that the hive can be controlled by a leader, turning the latter half into a repetitive game of "Simon Says" rather than building toward a grander climax.
From a production standpoint, the film is shot well with an epic and cinematic score, though the setting—a large business center rather than a traditional mall—is somewhat underutilized compared to the visual roughness seen in "Train to Busan." The movie excels in creative action sequences during the first hour, showcasing how heroes must adapt to the unique abilities of the infected. While the film is gory and features violent kills, the reviewer appreciates that it does not shy away from killing off beloved characters early on, which adds emotional weight even if it leaves few favorites by the midpoint. Ultimately, despite feeling slightly front-loaded with creative ideas and running a bit long due to the delayed reveal of the hive's control mechanism, the reviewer concludes that "Colony" is a good ride worth watching for its unique take on the genre.
Read the full video transcript
I know this movie came out a couple
weeks ago, but I wanted to get a quicker
review out for it. I just gave a glowing
review for the new Resident Evil film,
and here I am back again talking about
zombies in a capacity The Infected. Some
people get really hung up on words. I
know I don't. We have another Infection
Outbreak film from the director of the
brilliant Train to Busousan. It's called
Colony. I checked it out. Here are my
thoughts.
Now, before I get started, I want to
point out I'm going to use no names of
characters because I'm an idiot and I
will not pronounce them correctly. So,
instead of insulting the actors by
butchering their names and just the
Korean language in general, I'm going to
refrain. I will just simply find another
way to refer to them. Child, man, woman,
a profession, etc. I I can find creative
ways around it. This is a Korean film.
That means it is uh set in Korean. There
are subtitles if you want or there's
probably a terrible English dub. I
watched it with the subtitles on. I like
the purity. I like to feel like I'm a
little sophisticated from time to time.
You may have guessed I really enjoy
Train to Bus Sonic. I believe I called
it brilliant. It's one of my favorite
zombie films of all time. And so upon
hearing the director's back and he's
doing another film about infected folks
running a muck, biting people, causing
havoc. Yeah, I'm in day one. Well, I
actually wasn't in day one. I I missed
it originally. I saw a bunch of other
movies. It just it just didn't line up
for me. But I have seen it now. I
watched it with my wife. We we both
really enjoyed it. It is rated R for
violence, for the biting, for the blood,
the gore, etc. It's around 2 hours long.
I shave that back just a little. Maybe
maybe peel back a little. I was noticing
a fatigue start to set in on myself.
That uh that flame was starting to
flicker a little bit too much as the end
started around the corner. That said, I
really appreciate the concept behind
Colony. It is not your traditional
zombie film. It's not even your modern
zombie film where people get infected.
They do like parkour and [ __ ] off walls,
bite people, and then they become like
these super soldiers. No, this is more
of like an X-Men Days of Future Past
sentinel situation where they evolve,
they adapt, they learn, and they react.
What we have from a story department is
simple. a company's been working on a
lot of different weird [ __ ] in the lab.
A bitter, slightly unhinged ex worker
decided in his infinite
wisdom to put the final couple fixings
on his potion back at his home lab, go
to the office and release it on the
public kind of as a dry run to see how
things shook out before, you know,
bringing it into the world. This
company's really into ants. that's like
their thing, you know, a colony of ants.
And so, this movie is really going to be
all in on ants because this virus
emulates a bug's life. Not not the Pixar
classic. I mean, I mean the ants. So,
when people start getting infected,
they're very much in an infantile state,
crawling around on the ground, biting at
people's thigh meat and whatnot. But all
it takes is one member of the colony to
kind of understand the surroundings
better, make a judgment call, and then
all of the infected shoot up towards the
sky like they're the Borg downloading
some new information, and next thing you
know, they're up on their two legs
running around like humans do. At first,
they might be tricked by cardboard
cutouts of people, but after gnawing at
the boards for a while and not seeing
any blood, they quickly realize, "Oh,
ding. We can't eat that. That's a
two-dimensional person. Those don't
count. We got to move on to
three-dimensional." And so, quickly and
surely, they
level up over the course of this 2-hour
film. Another I'll say mostly pro, but
it kind of leads to a con, is no one's
really safe. We have our group of
survivors who are held up in this
quarantine slashwreck situation.
Remember that? Remember those movies?
There was the good one and then there
was the American version where people
are stuck inside of a little apartment
complex. The government won't let them
out because the contagion will get
released. It's the same exact plot as
that except for no shitty shaky cam.
Anyway, we have our rag tag misfits
here. There's the smart scientist types.
There's the brave older guy who can run
fast. He's like an Olympic medalist or
some [ __ ] There's the little kids.
There's the bully group. Yeah, you have
kind of your triedand-trude formula. And
so within that group, you're obviously
going to have favorites. Where this
movie separates itself from the pack is
it's not afraid to kill off the people
you like pretty early on, which leads to
some fun aha sad moments. But by the
time you're halfway through this movie,
there's really no one else that you like
except for maybe one person. everybody
else, you're kind of going, "H, wish
that person would die already." The
other thing they probably could have
pushed a little further into the movie
towards the end is that we do have the
big reveal about the halfway through
point again where this hive can kind of
be controlled by a leader. And so this
becomes kind of the last evolutionary
trait for them. And then the rest of the
movie, it's basically just, you know,
point over there and then watch the
horde run after people, then redirect
him over this way. You know, it's a lot
of Simon says stuff. While it is still
entertaining and there's plenty of
action and and cool moments, it maybe
would have been wiser to leave that for
the final act of the film. That way,
you're getting people really hyped up
like, "Oh [ __ ] this is nuts. He he can
control them." I think that's also the
reason the film felt a little longer
than it should have because there was no
more grand reveals later. From a
production standpoint, everything's
working in this one. It's shot very
well. I think Train to Busousan is a
prettier looking film, but Train to
Busousan definitely has some rough spots
with the CG. You're pretty much isolated
to the mall area and only a few slices
of the mall. It's just not the most
interesting to look at. It's It's a
pretty film, but also kind of meh as far
as where we're at environment-wise. I
don't feel like they utilize the mall
setting as well as they could have. It's
actually not a mall. It's like a giant
business center with a mall area and a
coffee shop and all sorts of stuff. I'm
saying mall, but it's not a mall. It's a
fancy ass building. But anyway, back to
the positives. The score for this kicks
ass. Really cinematic, really epic at
times. Again, it is gory. There's some
great violent kills. There are a lot of
creative moments in this movie,
especially again in the first hour where
we get to play with the different things
the infected can do and how the heroes
have to kind of get out of the
situations. So, overall, I'm definitely
more positive on this one than I am
negative. I think it is worth a watch.
Not an incredible film for me by any
means. Again, a little longer than it
should be, frontloaded with the creative
stuff, but it's got some good
foreshadowing. You kind of know where
it's going to go by the time it winds
out. That doesn't mean it doesn't
execute it well. It does. It's a good
ride. I recommend it. All right. Let me
know if you checked out Colony a while
back. It's It's been a minute since it's
been released. I probably could have
spoiled more, but eh, when I like a
movie, I encourage people to see it
without me giving away the entire game.
Let me know in the comments below.
Please think of subbing to the show.
Adam does movies. That way, you can uh
check out my Resident Evil review if you
haven't yet. There are tons of movie
reviews here, though. I'm reviewing
movies almost on a daily basis or I'm
going into more of a recap video or a
rec crap video where I go from front to
back spoiling the whole movie if it
sucks. Those are always a fun time. I'm
also doing live tapings of some of my
reviews. I did not live tape this one. I
wanted to with Resident Evil, but then I
realized there was an embargo on
Resident Evil, so I would have uh
screwed myself from going to any
premieres down the road. So, I pulled
the plug before I hit go live. All
right, that's all I got. Thank you for
watching the video and I hope to see you
next time. Take care.
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