Okja review

I was really looking forward Bong Joon Ho, director of The Host and Snowpiercer's newest movie Okja that I paid for a netflix subcription. The host was a great satire movie about the ineffectiveness of government in dealing with emergencies wrapped up in a family monster movie and I loved it. The reviews for Okja were all glowing and I went into the movie with great expectations.

However, Okja had a huge problem for me because it felt like a satire movie about evil corporations, genetic modified foods and greenies that was way too self aware about itself. This self awareness manifests itself in things like the way certain characters talk, as if they are proclaiming 'Hey, I am here to make fun and parody this instead of being an actual character in a story'. This is made worse by the hanzawa Naoki level of overacting.

Parody movies like Robocop, Starship Troopers and The Host work because the satire is buried under a decent story and doesn't take it over. These movies don't try to constantly remind you of that they are making fun of current issues. Okja feels like a well intentioned movie wanting to deal with many issues but forgot that movies should be entertaining first before being educational.

If you want the best movie about a kid and an animal from 2017, I recommend you play The Last Guardian. Very meh from me and I don't get why people are so enamored with it.