Sector 7

I was hoping for more of a Deep Star six, Deep Rising Leviathan or possibly a Deep Blue Sea horror flick on the sea but Sector 7 isn't all bad. The Korean sci/fi action horror hybrid film centers on a group of drillers who battle sea monsters aboard their rig. Their are some cool spfx and some bad CGI and green screen work. The movie looks like it was probably fun in 3D and there are some nice shots in it. The cinematography freshens up the generic storyline and although insipid it makes for some goofy fun. It reminded me of a section in the Resident Evil 4 game, those who have played it will know what I'm referring too and that's how the movie plays out. it feels like a big video game but overstays it's welcome slightly by taking to long to get started and stretching out the climax with unnecessary slow mo. All in all it's not a bad watch and worth it if your in for this type of movie.

Seriously. That's pretty much the film that we have on hand. A crew isolated out in the middle of nowhere (aka an oil rig), are attempting to do a job, when they encounter a strange, brutal creature.

Unlike 'Alien,' there's very few characters to care about. There's a gaggle of idiots (one pretty much the Jar Jar Binks of comedy relief) that you just know are fodder for the creature.

Most of this films feels like it was shot against a green-screen, as we see lots of process-shots, and even some fake motorcycle-riding (yes, motorcycles on an oil rig, they are THAT bored!).

This was also a 3D horror film, so we have lots of images of swooping cameras, characters moving in and out of the frame, and stuff coming' right at ya! Personally, give me 'Alien' or 'The Host' any day, and leave 'Sector 7' to sink into the abyss.

It's hard to give a movie a 10 out of 10. And it's even harder to give a movie a 1 out of 10. Why? Because even the worst of films have a tiny little element to praise. 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' is something I consider to be one of the worst films I've ever seen (and I've watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus!)...yet that movie had good CGI (too much of it but still good in terms of visuals).

But here comes 'Sector 7', the first 3-D movie to be released in South Korea. I am Korean and I assure you that Americans are more likely to like this movie...because English subtitles will definitely hide the terrible dialogue in this movie.

"Monster....monster...." says Ha Ji Won when she first sees this glob of CG. Then Sung Kee Ahn grabs a gun. First of all there would be no guns on an oil mine in Korea and second of all this reaction is stupid. Why would anyone believe there'd be a monster on board? What's worse is the doctor on the ship speculates that the gooey substance the monster leaves behind is semen. What kind of doctor is this?!

We don't see the monster until we get tired of this movie. What I mean by that is we get boring exposition we don't care about. None of the characters are interesting; they are just typical monster food. I am of course talking about the girl who won't shut up, the playful boyfriend who will become overprotective when the situation gets serious, the seemingly wise old man who knows how to use a gun, an obnoxious retard who's blamed for all the damage the monster is responsible for.

We finally see the monster about half way into this movie. A good movie like 'Alien' will use this technique by creating suspense. There is no suspense here. When the monster is finally revealed you will wish you hadn't seen it. Not because it's scary but because the CG is faker than fake. I'm not just talking about the looks (which is terrible), I'm also talking about its mechanical movement. But I should've known better when the opening CG sequence was pathetic. The 1980's flashback in Sector 7 should give you an idea of how poor the special effects are in this movie.

And why was this movie in 3D? Yeah I know we get one scene where the monster's tail shoots right out of the screen but that was like 0.3 seconds and this is a movie that is longer than it needs to be.

This movie tries to be everything. It tries to be 'Alien' (we'll get to that later). It tries to be a comedy (the audience laughed once in throughout this movie). It tries to be dramatic. None of the deaths are satisfying, none of them evoke any sort of emotion (whether sadness or fear or relief).

The worst part of the movie is the climax. Here we have the main lead girl fighting with the monster head to head in a factory. Sound familiar? I don't mind a movie imitating a classic in order to create cheap thrills but this just fails to entertain the slightest bit. And besides all I'm doing is looking at my watch.

And don't make me mention the motorcycle scenes because they were so random and so stupidly tied into the end. Even in the trailers; what was the girl planning to do with the motorcycle? Just ram it into the giant monster?

This could've been a legit monster movie. The setting was pretty good; it's an oil mine in the middle of a vast ocean. And also there are some moral issues incorporated into the monster (not spoiling anything). But the hollow characters and the actors who take themselves too seriously ruin this film completely. The action sucks, the CGI sucks. One of the WORST movies I've seen in my life.

Do not let this movie effect your perception towards Korean movies. Even we know it's bad.

I bought this for a dollar at a flea market because Ha Ji-won was amazing in the K-Drama "Secret Garden." The checkout lady was like, "Sector 7, that's a great film." I wonder what film she was actually thinking of? 95% of this movie is green-screen plus painful CGI. And the script is SO, SO full of clichés. Like, how many times are they going to play the "Monster is dead-nope, still alive!" card? I would avoid this film like the plague just based on the clichés alone! Ha Jiwon does more girl action hero shtick than actual acting, and the other characters are just there to be killed by the monster. And you can't convince me that oil rigs have a self-destruct!!!!! In the trailer, they even stole MU-TH-R's countdown voice from the movie Alien. How sad is that?

SECTOR 7 is a adrenaline-fuelled monster flick from South Korea, but it's nowhere near in the same class as the quirky masterpiece that is THE HOST, so if you're looking for similarities between the two you'll be disappointed. Instead this is the kind of foreign production that happily copies Hollywood classics, in this case the likes of ALIEN, ALIENS, and JAWS.

The film is set on an oil rig where the light crew are terrorised by a hulking undersea beastie. While I appreciate that the filmmakers are happy to show off the monster here - and quite extensively - which makes a pleasing contrast to the kind of teasing behaviour exhibited in many a Hollywood movie - the CGI effects are only acceptable, really, and hardly the stuff of greatness (as in THE HOST).

What is a shame is that a lot of the shooting style is so cheesy. Many of the action sequences were shot on a green screen, so they look pretty poor, especially the motorbike bits. Plus this was a 3D film so there's all of the screen-flying fakery to go with it. The plot is very predictable, but the cast all do their jobs well, particularly lead actress Ha Ji-won (PHONE, TIDAL WAVE), and there's plentiful action - particularly in the second half - to enjoy. If you can stomach the cheesiness and are happy to forego realism, that is.