2/5 stars

If South Korean director Na Hong-jin had wanted to give his latest movie an even snappier title, it might be Run. Through long stretches of this two-and-a-half-hour action extravaganza, humans and aliens race down small-town streets, through forests and along highways, as if daring the viewer to – sorry – hope when and where this is all going to end.

Except that it does not.

By introducing a slew of new threads in the final reel, Na seems to be shaping Hope as the first of a franchise. But the director has a lot of convincing to do to make it happen, as this first instalment is a high-octane, low-on-substance spectacle weighed down by a half-baked premise and bad CGI.

Reuniting with Na after their collaboration on the 2016 horror hit The Wailing, Hwang Jung-min plays Bum-seok, the police chief of a remote Korean town who is called to investigate the mysterious mutilation of a cow.