Like everyone says, let's give this film credit for trying to do something unusual with the way it splits across genres to do something interesting on a character level, which at the same time is represented by a kaiju destroying large parts of Seoul. Essentially the plot boils down to a girl who has inner demons, and these are linked to a formative point in childhood, but continue to manifest themselves in her inability to stop drinking, her inability to shake off bad influences, and her inability to learn lessons for the next time she is confronted by choices. Through a very specific situation, this leads her to be responsible for a monster appearing in Seoul at a certain time each day.
For the majority of the film the mystery over the connection does tend to drive the film, which is a problem because if this is what you are looking for then the resolution seems almost pat and too tidy to fully satisfy on this front. At the same time then, it is the character element that needed more work because ideally the viewer would have taken the monster stuff as a distraction from the characters, not the other way round (as it mostly seemed). The characters do still link to the plot, and they are not weak per se, but I didn't feel Gloria's struggle as much as I needed to in order to completely engage and feel for her in a way that would make the plot work.
It is disappointing to realize this, because you can certainly see what attracted Hathaway to the character and the idea, but it doesn't get the depth or viewer empathy that it needed to pull it off. So, kudos for the idea and for presenting something that feels fresh and different, but in the end the writing doesn't do enough where it counts to make it something that stands on its content, not just its concept.
For the majority of the film the mystery over the connection does tend to drive the film, which is a problem because if this is what you are looking for then the resolution seems almost pat and too tidy to fully satisfy on this front. At the same time then, it is the character element that needed more work because ideally the viewer would have taken the monster stuff as a distraction from the characters, not the other way round (as it mostly seemed). The characters do still link to the plot, and they are not weak per se, but I didn't feel Gloria's struggle as much as I needed to in order to completely engage and feel for her in a way that would make the plot work.
It is disappointing to realize this, because you can certainly see what attracted Hathaway to the character and the idea, but it doesn't get the depth or viewer empathy that it needed to pull it off. So, kudos for the idea and for presenting something that feels fresh and different, but in the end the writing doesn't do enough where it counts to make it something that stands on its content, not just its concept.