Starts strong only to turn into a typical Hollywood blockbuster.

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2016)

Zombie movies aren't quite dead yet. Over the past several years zombies have snuck their way into pop culture, overtaking almost every form of entertainment and putting themselves in the for front as the most beloved "monster". There's zombie survival guides, magazines, TV shows, and, of course, movies. 'Train to Busan' is one of those movies. But, as of late, zombies are seeming to wane in popularity. It would seem that the zombie's novelty has started to wear down due to its incredible over-saturation. That being said, when they are done right they remain a rather fun gimmick. Unfortunately, this film is really nothing more than that.
It's a fun gimmicky movie that doesn't do too much else. But while it lasts, it's a blast. The film almost immediately gets started showing the slow beginnings of the outbreak. A couple burning buildings, some emergency vehicles darting around, and the occasional convulsing person. This type of first act isn't new or different by any means but it's the fact that we get into the action within ten minutes that makes this movie instantly enjoyable.
Despite the dumb family dynamic that the film introduces the opening forty-ish minutes is probably the most visceral action in a movie so far this year. This is largely thanks to the actual filmmaking. The camera-work is all extremely fluid and interesting. There is rarely a moment when I saw a shot and thought it looked bad. The director uses the camera to help build tension instead of just throwing in loud sounds and music.
It also helps when the makeup effects and performances are as well done as they are. Obviously, there is a fair amount of blood in this here movie and it's used sparring enough to help heighten a scene, instead just being the scene. And the actors that get the nice close ups as the zombies all do a wonderful job selling it. There are multiple wonderful moments when the zombies fling themselves down thrashing wildly.
The best moment is definitely when an army man throws himself off the train and breaks his arm. It just dangles behind his head as he gets up and takes off running. It's these wonderful little touches that make this film enjoyable over a 'World War Z' type of movie. But not everything works in this movie. The script is particularly messy. This feels far closer to a big budget Hollywood movie, except without the budget.
The most noticeable bad aspect of the film is the visual effects. Even though the majority of the film takes place on the actual train, there are plenty of times when we move off of said train and the run down world comes into focus. What we get are mostly unconvincing effects that hinder more than help. Fortunately, they are used sparring enough to not be a huge issue.
But, like I said earlier, this film's script is specifically poor. This mainly stems from the emotional manipulation that it has. It tries to offer characters that you like but it doesn't develop on them. They are people that have families and the film expects you to just like them for no reason. And since you are supposed to like them for no reason it tries hard to have tear jerking moments.
Every time it does, they are horribly predictable and nothing more than manipulative. It pauses the film to have the sappy music and the zoom ins as the characters pretend have emotional moments. Every time this happened, and it does far to often, I just wanted to punch the movie in face and yell, "GET ON WITH IT!" If you want to have these moments in your movie, that's fine, but you need to have well- written characters. Or just go non-stop balls to the wall action.
And that's where this movie fails. It tries desperately hard to be both action packed and emotional. When you try this hard to strike a balance, one aspect or another will suffer at any given time. Every time the film slows down to have characters talk, I just wanted to die. It affects the pacing in the worst way possible by making this a boring yet fun movie. It's definitely enjoyable to watch and it has a lot of great elements. If you like zombie movies or action oriented movies, you'll probably like this one, but for anyone else watch 'Dawn of the Dead' again.