Zombie-riddled 'Peninsula' derails in South Korean 'Train' sequel
“Train to Busan: Peninsula” - ★ ★ ½
The title “Train to Busan: Peninsula” doesn't pack much relevance here.
Nobody takes a train to anywhere in this frantically underwhelming sequel to Yeon Sang-ho's pulse-pounding zombie thriller “Train to Busan.”
The original 2016 horror tale bristled with suspense and terror as a hedge fund manager and his little daughter struggled to survive an outbreak of a zombie virus aboard a speeding South Korean commuter train.
Yeon found a fresh, urgent approach to the genre practically invented by the legendary George Romero in 1968's “Night of the Living Dead.”
The virus in “Train to Busan” turned people into twisted, bent, supernaturally propelled cannibals within seconds after being bitten. (Except for the main characters, who could stave off the infection by delivering lengthy, poignant goodbye speeches.)
The blinding infection rate and insane speed of the zombies make those from Zack Snyder's “Dawn of the Dead” remake and Marc Forster's “World War Z” look downright anemic.
In “Peninsula,” Yeon goes for a bigger, grander, faster experience filled with so many repetitious car chases, machine gun skirmishes and zombie attacks that the movie suffers a lethal case of monotony by overkill.
Four years after the outbreak, ex-Marine Captain Jung-seok (actor Gang Dong-won, smoldering with physical Bruce Lee confidence) works for a slimy South Korean gang boss who concocts a grand plan for him and three cohorts (one being his brother-in-law) to return to the zombie-infested Peninsula zone to retrieve millions of dollars left in an abandoned truck.
Sneak in at night when darkness blinds the zombies, grab the gold and get out.
“This is easy,” the boss says.
Spoiler alert! It isn't.
Stuck in the desperately dystopian Peninsula, Jung-seok comes across a Mad Maxless Thunderdome, a cruel, brutal society of survivors led by a suicidal Captain Seo (Koo Gyo-hwan), who make a betting sport out of tossing hapless humans into a zombie pit.
A way cool kid named Jooni (Lee Re), who can drive a getaway car better than Ansel Elgort ever could in “Baby Driver,” saves Jung-seok from becoming a zombie snack. Shock sets in when Jung-seok meets Jooni's no-nonsense, survivalist mother, Min-jung (Lee Jung-hyun, aka South Korean pop singer Ava).
He recognizes her as the stranded, terrified woman with a baby he abandoned during the breakout four years earlier.
But she doesn't remember him.
“Peninsula” brims with ripe potential, yet Yeon forgets what fueled his “Train to Busan,” a tightly edited trip into horror hell for empathetic characters who would sacrifice themselves for others.
“Peninsula” succumbs to action bloat, an overreliance on s-l-o-w-m-o-t-i-o-n shots, and cheesy emo moments augmented by syrupy orchestral swells.
Who knows?
With Yeon's knack for spectacular car chases and zillions of machine-gun firing minions incapable of hitting the hero, perhaps there's a James Bond movie in his future.
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Starring: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Re
Directed by: Yeon Sang-ho
Other: A Well Go USA release. In theaters. In Korean with subtitles. Not rated, but contains extreme violence. 116 minutes