We follow people aboard a train that experiences hell on earth after a zombie outbreak. And they are not safe on the hype-train!
Train to Busan was one of the movies in 2016 that people talked most and positively about. The movie is directed by a director who is unknown to me. He’s made some animation movies. And after the success with Train to Busan, he made an animation movie based on the universe in Train to Busan. His latest movie was Psychokinesis (2018), a movie I’m gonna review soon.
Why Train to Busan was such a big success, I don’t know. The movie is very predictable. It’s nowhere near 28 Days Later because it’s easy to see which movie Train to Busan has drawn its inspiration from.
The biggest problem with Train to Busan is that it cannot be more predictable. I knew very well which characters would die. The characters are poorly written, you just find stereotypical characters in this movie.
A father and his daughter who has never been there for her. A pregnant woman with her husband who hasn’t given his unborn child a name. And a loud man who only thinks of himself. What an exciting and rich character gallery we have here!
What saves the movie is the energy we witness in the first hour. As mentioned, the zombies in Train to Busan are the same as the virus-infected people in 28 Days Later. The coolest thing about Train to Busan is when the zombies climb and run on top of each other, it’s fun and intense!
But Train to Busan is not a scary movie. It’s so easy to read what will happen in the next scene which disappointed me greatly. And when the characters don’t feel like ordinary people, then the characters can go to hell and be raped by Satan, because I don’t care when we follow these cartoon characters! Just go to hell and take the hype-train with you!
Train to Busan has the energy, but it doesn’t have much graphic violence. The characters are weak, and where are the big surprises? The movie is worth watching, but by all means, lower your expectations! The movie tries to be emotional, but it misses the mark with its empty and caricatured characters. So when something dramatic and emotional happens, I was cold as ice. For me to care emotionally about movie characters, the characters have to give me something so I feel that they deserve my cold tears and sympathy. It’s something that the characters in Train to Busan never deserve.