10 Underrated Science Fiction Movies You Must See
8. Colossal
Curious that a movie starring one of the best-known actresses currently working in film could be so widely ignored, yet 2017's Colossal suffered just that fate: in and out of cinemas with very little aplomb, reportedly taking barely $3 million at the box office, despite the presence of the typically bankable Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway.
Still, there's no denying that writer-director Nacho Vigalondo's film was always likely to be too weird for mainstream tastes. Hathaway stars as Gloria, a recently unemployed alcoholic forced to move back from New York to her sleepy home town. Bizarrely, her move coincides with the sudden arrival of a giant monster in Seoul.
Naturally, this news grabs everyone's attention - but no one is more alarmed than Gloria, who comes to the shocking realisation that she is in some way inadvertently controlling the monster and its movements.
Colossal is a very strange blend of grounded, lo-fi indie drama and giant monster movie. Ultimately, the human elements take precedence, and the fairly low budget means that the special effects aren't quite so great as we'd like.
Even so, in common with all the best science fiction, Vilagondo establishes clear rules behind the bizarre phenomena and explores them to interesting dramatic effect. And it's all very well acted, Hathaway doing fine work as ever, whilst Jason Sudeikis - an actor generally known for lighter roles - does surprisingly well with a more dramatic role.