Badland Hunters (2024) || Movie Review.

Ma Dong-seok is fantastic and an amazing South Korean actor. He became one of my favorite actors when I saw ’Train to Busan (2016)’. I really enjoyed his performance in the movie. Ever since then, I started looking out for his movies, but the movie stream I use often hardly uploads his movies.

However, I came across this movie when I was browsing through Netflix just to see which movie I can watch for the weekend and I didn't think twice about it. It's been a while since I have watch any movie of Ma Dong-seok, though I look forward to watch ’The Round Up (2022)’. I heard he is a badass character there.

’Badland Hunters (2024)’is a South Korean dystopian action movie that was directed by Heo Myung-haeng (his directorial debut). The storyline revolves around the aftermaths of an earthquake in Seoul that turn the country into a lawless and inhospitable land where a hunter goes to rescue a teenage girl that was forcefully taken from his village by a mad scientist. The movie starred Ma Dong-seok, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Jun-young, and Roh Jeong-eui.

The movie starts by introducing us to Nam-San, a relentless wasteland hunter, who with his friend Choi Ji-wan hunt, scavenge for foods and other basic amenities their village needs to stay alive in the post-apocalyptic Seoul as other survivors are living a hard life, dying from dehydration and lack of food.

On the other hand, Dr. Yang Gi-su, a scientist who has been looking for every means possible to save his daughter from dying, was illegally experimenting with making humans immortal by creating a serum with teenager's pituitary gland and reptile DNA. This serum makes humans consume little food and water. Unfortunately the experiments began to fail when the teenagers used were dying. He needs more teenagers to fine tune the serum.

So trouble came to Nam-San’s village when Su-na, a beautiful teenage girl, was kidnapped by Dr Yang's minions. Nam-San and his friend Choi Ji-wan go to rescue her with the help of a rogue Lieutenant who had worked under Dr Yang prior to the earthquake incident. Will they be successful? Will they save Su-na?

My Review And Rating.

Badland Hunters is a combination of a lot of familiar elements for a post apocalyptic adventure. It is a combination of Mad Max Fury and Pandora. Its plot and storyline was written well and the narrative and directorial style make the movie a brutal action and a surprisingly funny film.

I enjoyed this movie, it was entertaining, funny, bloody, and gore at the same time. One thing I appreciate about this movie is that there was no nudity of any sort which is difficult to see in movies these days. Though I had problems with subtitles, I was still able to catch up.

From the storyline, one would think this is a standalone film with a missing plot, but it is not. When I started watching the movie I was kind of confused at the beginning because I was wondering what was the cause of the earthquake in Seoul in the first place. How did it happen that in the aftermath the whole of Seoul became a wasteland? Then I discovered that there was a sequel after this movie.

I love the scene arrangements, the cinematography was okay, the CGI and VFX was averagely okay. I wish the production team had invested more into the CGI and VFX to give the movie a superb outlook. The action stunts were absolutely amazing and thrilling to watch. It was bloody and brutal. The killings were also gore.

The main actor, Dong Seok, was an amazing actor. His performance was entertaining. His jokes aligned well and the script earned me some laughs while I was watching the movie. His stunts were well performed. He was a killing machine and an unstoppable force. For the supporting cast, they all did well except for so few that pissed me and reminded me that I was watching a Korean.

The villian on the other hand, was not really satisfactory to me because I felt his role / character should have been written well, his presence in the movie is more felt in the movie. Also, his character should have elicited stronger emotions from the audience. His role was subtle which shouldn't have been, regardless, he was a good villain who was selfish and ruthless.

Rating this movie, I will give it 7.9 out of 10 stars. It was an interesting, thrilling and entertaining movie. I enjoyed it and it was worth my time. If you have a watch. Mad Max Fury and Pandora, you would also enjoy this movie. I don't like Korean movies but Korean movies with Dong Seok in it, count me in.