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Train To Busan (2016) - Movie Review


Train To Busan is a South Korean zombie apocalypse film that has been getting a lot of buzz lately. And being a huge fan of zombies, I had to watch it asap. The movie is about a group of people that are caught amidst a zombie outbreak while traveling on a train. 

Now the movie has some similar zombie flick beats that one would expect, but along side with certain Korean cinema layer of flare, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. The movie starts out slow, with a typical build up of the main characters, and then shit hits the fan, after which it becomes a thrill ride. 

The train being the main setting of this film, I really liked how the movie used it for different sequences. There were tense and chaotic sequences, and there were quite and claustrophobic ones, giving a nice mix of all around thrill. The thing I loved most though was the fact it wasn't a plain old gore fest. There wasn't even that much violence for a zombie film owing to the fact that no one had guns or weapons with them, so they all made do with blunt items, which was a nice change. 

The zombies looked good for the most part. They had the World War Z feel to them, swarming up in speed and whatnot. The movements were sometimes quite freaky, and awesome. The CGI however, was shoddy when they fully used it, understandably so, given the budget. 

The characters and the acting was a mixed bag. Some characters were fine, while some were too exaggerated to the point of being silly. Sometimes the acting was pretty good, but there were times where it was awful. Something would happen and people would be standing like lifeless dolls, or an emotional scene would become too over-dramatic.

Which brings me to the biggest issue with the film. Drama for Drama's sake. There were moments in the film where it just felt like the director threw in those sequences to add extra drama, and it didn't work for me. It felt forced and the movie could have done without it, especially in the last act. That's not to say there weren't any good ones, because there sure were, feels inducing ones.

A good zombie movie overall, which I would definitely recommend to any fan of the genre. Not breathtaking or amazing like the buzz had me believe, but a good watch nonetheless.     

7/10
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