Plot:
26 years after a horrible incident at the bottom of the sea by an oil rig, a new team is sent to get oil. After countless of attempts and drillings, they're still empty handed. They're ready to head back home when a man who once worked there returns, confident that there is oil there. But the thing that happened 26 years ago makes itself known when something giant and hungry reveals itself on the oil rig.
Our thoughts:
"The Host" meets "Alien" on an oil rig. I could end the review there, but I'm not that big of a douche. It's accurate though. This South Korean monster movie is obviously showing its inspirations on its sleeves, and those are the typical classic "Alien"-esque (rip-offs), lurking-in-the-dark, monster movies (aliens or underwater creatures) and the recently successful "The Host". "The Host" undoubtedly made a mark, not for being a horror movie of many scares, but brilliant high-pumped, fun entertainment and great characters, and that's something movies have tried to perfect for many decades, but it's not easy to succeed as well as "The Host" did. Ji-hoon Kim clearly wanted a shot at it.
In 1985, a man is working in the water under an oil rig to attach a pipe when suddenly a swarm of small, glowing creatures are unleashed around him. At first they're a vision of beauty, but they're all but friendly. In 2011, the oil rig has been abandoned for a long time, but a new team is ready to drill for oil. To little success, however, and they're ready to leave the rig after many failed attempts. But when a man hears of their failures, he decides to go there and give it a last shot. He worked there many years ago, and he seems to be able to get a final push out of the team, and they're willing to do their best. It doesn't take long until the creatures come back, but they're not showing much of a threat (though not nice creatures still). But when a huge creature reveals itself, the crew is in for a crazy hunt.
The monster is essentially living, breathing oil, and I don't know where to begin as far as enviromental aspects go, but I'm willing to bet its as shallow as any other random monster horror. It doesn't exactly try to prove otherwise. It just happens to be an oil monster to fit the story, and I don't think it's a horrible idea. I'm not as convinced about its origins, however. It would have been fine if they just kept the origins of it in the dark, but when they try to explain parts of it in a rehashed scene, it doesn't help much as I still don't know more than that the size of it is due to human experimentation. What the origins of the small creatures itself was, we just don't know. So to explain part of it becomes redundant and another attempt to put the movie next to "The Host", which also had a typical explanation but one that worked for what was to come.
The monster itself is yet again reminiscent of "The Host", although the CGI on the monster is actually better most of the time (though that could be because the movie is darker). The design, however, leaves less of an impression. They took the general idea of the monster in "The Host" and made it darker and meaner, but it lacks the creativity and reasoning behind it. Towards the end, when it has been burned many times over and has fallen from heights over and over again, it manages to look even more mean, but more like the licker at the end of the first "Resident Evil" Movie. I'm not entirely against the monster in "Sector 7", though, because I didn't know what kind of monster movie it would be, but was treated by a large beast (the best kind of monster).
"Sector 7" seems to try and copy what's cool in action movies, what's thrilling in adventure movies, and what's scary in horror movies, but it rarely succeeds. It's a by-the-number rip-off with somewhat decent characters that I don't mind following, an ending that seems to repeat itself over and over again (monster disappears/is wounded and comes back, again and again), a monster that reminds us of "The Host", the typical people-are-to-blame origins, a closing scene that proves no one learned a thing, and what have you. It's dumb and tires you out by repeating itself too much, and seems to go for action over horror. It's essentially pointless to seek out this movie, but if you expect the above then I think you're okay with it. |
