This movie doesn't make sense. It's a South Korean sci-fi movie based on a French graphic novel, so the idea of making sense is as foreign to the movie as the English spoken by the main character was to the South Korean director. The fact is that 80% of this movie is in English, and that is particularly good for the American Actors who can't speak any Korean.
Here's the premise, and it's a hard one to swallow: The world's scientific community decided they could fix global warming with a synthetic substance that they would introduce into the upper atmosphere. I know what you're thinking: we don't call it global warming any more, as climate change is more appropriate. Well, they are calling it global warming, and the fix is worse than the problem was. We are told that everything on the planet went extinct. And then we are told that some people survived and are on a train. There are so many problems with this setup that I cannot find a good way to list them all. The train is supposed to be a self-contained ecosystem, having survived riding on rails at high speed for 18 years, and the issues are so catastrophic that I think my lip is bleeding from biting it so much.
Chris Evans, Captain America and Johnny Storm to you, is the leader of a revolution aboard the unlikely train. Like a Hunger Games on rails, the elite people and aristocrats are in the front of the train, and the human detritus is in the back. What's odd is that there doesn't appear to be much of a middle class - the people who are actually taking care of animals, hydroponically gardening, or some other necessary task. Instead, the middle class is mostly just the guards who are cruel and seemingly incompetent stormtroopers.
Tilda Swanson plays the voice of the upper class. She is tapped for yelling at the low class when they do something bad or need to be taught a lesson. She is appropriately hideous in her role, and she actually does a very good job with it. The fact is, most everyone does a good job in the movie. Even Kang-ho Song, who spoke not a word of English, did a good job of delivering his lines, and It was entertaining enough as a result.
The movie has a great feel to it, and the art direction and camera work is excellent. Even the CG of the mythic train is very good. I want to like it more than I do. It raises too many questions during the revolution to actually enjoy most of it. Some decisions as to how to purpose the various cars doesn't make sense, missing parts of the ecosystem are glaring, even the mechanics of the fighting doesn't make a lot of sense.
Directing was good in most spots
Story was... questionable
Dialog was okay
Acting was very good
Cinematography was very good
2.75/5