New York. Gloria is unable to find a job for over a year, and struggles with alcoholism, so her boyfriend Tim breaks up with her. Gloria moves back to her suburban place in New England, but stumbles upon Oscar, her childhood friend, who gives her a job at his bar. One day, Gloria spots news of a giant monster walking through Seoul, causing damage, and then disappearing. Surprisingly, Gloria finds out that however she enters a secluded playground at 8:05 am, the monster manifests and mimics her exact moves, until she exits the location. Oscar finds out about this, discovers that he can conjure up a giant robot, and threatens that he will also walk and stomp across the playground around that time, and thereby kill many people in Seoul, unless Gloria subordinates to him. Disgusted, Gloria finally leaves for Seoul. When Oscar again enters the playground, thereby creating the giant robot, Gloria makes a few steps, and her monster appears in front of Oscar, killing him.
Unlike what many others would have done, the director and screenwriter Nacho Vigalondo took the "Godzilla"-type attack of a monster on an Asian city not as as the main focus of his story, but actually the relationship between the main heroine, Gloria, and her shady friend, Oscar, who find out they can control two giant monsters at the other end of the world, "Avatar"-style, when they enter an American playground. The sole monster and the giant robot wreaking havoc in Seoul are practically reduced to just some 5 minutes of screen time, since "Colossal's" theme is of a different interest: to allegorically show the abuse of power, or—even worse—what happens when power is attributed to an immature, selfish, underdeveloped personality who uses it to blackmail people, in this case Oscar, who slowly turns into the main villain of the film. "Colossal" is bizarre and meandering in its plot points, creating several subplots which are ultimately not needed in this theme—for instance, Gloria's alcoholism or trouble finding a job are not connected to the main plot tangle, nor resolved in the end—yet Anne Hathaway delivered another great performance as Gloria. One of the most amusing scenes is when she figures out she can control the monster in Seoul, and then dances and thus makes the monster dance as well, or when she ocassionaly makes a daft comment ("It's like a Wes Anderson movie in here!" - "I wish the music was better"). Some ideas were left unexplored: for instance, wouldn't Gloria try to somehow make a fence around the playground, or shut it down in some other way to prevent some kids or a stray dog entering it and creating another monster in Seoul? Yet, overall, "Colossal" has a point, even if it is presented through some very outlandish fantasy premise.
Grade:++
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