After Seoul Station and The Last Train to Busan, Sang-Ho Yeon continues his dive into the world of zombie movies with Peninsula. Four years after the events of the previous opus, the filmmaker puts his characters back in hell. While zombies remain only in the peninsula, a group tries to return there to retrieve a truck full of money. Obviously, things are not going to go as planned.
Peninsula: a hideous visual approach
The quality of Last Train to Busan is well established. Sang-Ho Yeon's previous zombie movie was of complete mastery. An impressive precision of writing, for an intelligent footage, almost in closed doors, which played with the senses of the spectators. Faced with this success, the South Korean director has gained in means. And who says more budget, says overconfidence and loss of creativity… Sang-Ho Yeon was mistaken in a gruff blockbuster instead of staying in line with his previous work: a more modest horror film. 
Thus, the director changes his style and wants to offer his audience a big-budget blockbuster, as his Western colleagues like to do so much. But Sang-Ho Yeon crashes completely… Very few elements work in this suite. Everything that the director tries to undertake ends up falling flat, in a form of total disinterest. While Last Train to Busan shared a know-how at all times, whether in the staging or in the writing of its script, Peninsula is mistaken via a filthy aesthetic approach. Sang-Ho Yeon signs an incomprehensible glutublga of hideous digital effects. Armed with his larger budget, the artist dives headfirst into a wave of special effects out of a PS4 game. Peninsula bases its action sequences on an excessive use of digital effects not very successful thus bringing a design of a foolproof foolproof. Using the George Lucas method, the filmmaker makes Peninsula a proposal with detestable plastic. It is mediocre, in bad taste, insignificant, and above all of total disinterest. It's quite simple, the chases are closer to a bad Burnout than Mad Max, which the filmmaker wanted to refer to.
Wasted potential
The whole thing is not helped by a staging devoid of panache, and mastery. Peninsula is sorely lacking in fluidity, whether in its photography, in its movements or in its treatment of action. Sang-Ho Yeon has lost all his talent, and epileptically films moments of action that are sorely lacking in epic breath. Each time the filmmaker tries to initiate a few iconic moments, they fall irretrievably flat, like a wet firecracker. 
The film's full potential fails to express itself, and Sang-Ho Yeon constantly misses his flashes. Witness the first chase, which could have been a great moment of cinema, spoiled by sickening special effects, and a staging carried by a man with Parkinson's disease. Similarly, the idea of The Hunger Games in the cage with zombies is never developed, or even stylized. All of Sang-Ho Yeon's good proposals are diluted in a tidal wave of special effects that are never used properly.
Peninsula offers strong tributes
Well, for the graphic side, it will be necessary to iron. Unfortunately, the writing isn't exactly better. The basic idea, even if it lacks originality, had something potentially appealing. This group of mercenaries parachuted into the hell of zombies is a simplistic but still effective concept. The initial idea of an unpretentious B series, which could have won the hearts of the public by developing a style specific to this kind of film. But Sang-Ho Yeon prefers to play the stupid blockbuster card. 
The filmmaker does not hesitate to borrow from George Miller and John Carpenter to compose his new work. The references to Mad Max are obvious, as the last chase continues to pay tribute to him. But far from George Miller's life-size stunts, Peninsula suffers enormously from comparison. As for John Carpenter, he does not hesitate to borrow the starting pitch of New York 1997, where Kurt Russell was immersed in a post-apocalyptic city dominated by a horde of mercenaries and outlaws. Sang-Ho Yeon uses the same recipe by pitting his protagonists against a band of degenerate soldiers. A tribute and for the moment quite playful.
Dusty writing
Unfortunately, Sang-Ho Yeon signs a writing much too pushy. To stick with his blockbuster style the author makes crates. He gets lost in endless slow motion, a pathos music to the possible, to try to pass some emotional springs that do not work. The sensitivity never really takes, so Sang-Ho Yeon weighs it down, makes it last, with great strokes of violins and slow-motions. This is demonstrated by the rare deaths of the main characters, supported by long soulless shots, music to make the ears bleed and endless crying. Sang-Ho Yeon is too blue flower for the subject he portrays. A modus operandi that was not used in Last Train to Busan. 
And by force, Peninsula could almost be a parody of an American blockbuster, as Sang-Ho Yeon uses all the clichés of the genre, with an almost pathetic bombast. In the image of this final, endless climate, of a naivety dripping with good feelings, and of a non-existent strength. Useless pataquès that make Peninsula a terribly puffy film. There are still some pleasant moments. Especially the opening scene, relatively successful, which offers a mini-remake of Last Train to Busan, but in a boat. Also noteworthy are the performances of Dong-won Gang, Jung-hyun Lee and Re Lee who simply hold the film on their shoulders. Peninsula is ultimately not at all the same film as Last Train to Busan, and does not have the same goal at all. Exit the horror film with rhythmic concept, here it is a blockbuster all coming, (fortunately) sometimes quite entertaining, which is closer to World War Z than Romero's films. https://youtu.be/OB6VJxrIIFs
