Train to Busan was not just a monster hit in its native land but amassed an international following as well, along with critical acclaim across the board, making a sequel inevitable. Throwing another group of characters on a train would be silly, so director Yeon made the decision to create an entirely new story set in the first movie’s universe–thus the awkward U.S. title Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. But the title isn’t the only thing that’s contrived about Peninsula. While the movie contains glimmers of what made the original seem so fresh, the sequel relies much more heavily on blatantly lifting aspects of other zombie and action movies as it tries half-heartedly to expand the world of the first film. Where Train to Busan seemed like the distinctive work of a new genre voice, Peninsula plays more like a film made by a committee that picked the things it liked best about other movies. In a prologue, South Korean Marine captain Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won), his elder sister (Jang So-yeon), her husband Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon), and his nephew Dong-hwan escape by car–passing another family begging for help on the side of the road–in order to board the last ship out of South Korea before it is quarantined. But when an infected man also makes it aboard the ship, another outbreak is soon unleashed and both Jung-seok’s sister and nephew are dead. The team is smuggled into the abandoned metropolis and finds the truck, but they are ambushed by Unit 631, a violent militia led by the psychotic Sergeant Hwang (Kim Min-jae) and unstable Captain Seo (Koo Kyo-hwan). From there things go to hell real fast. Train to Busan was the pleasing thriller that let us to get to know a small group of characters in a contained, literally rocketing narrative that was a metaphor for Korean society itself. By contrast Peninsula offers up a bigger world and a larger set of characters while having little to say about either. We never access the empathy we felt for the father and daughter of the first film, whose singular quest felt both tragic and triumphant. Here it’s just a loose series of escapes and battles involving one-note characters, from the tormented yet nearly super-powered hero to the maniacal military leader who does his best to channel Captain Rhodes from Day of the Dead. With a less than captivating story and cast to watch, you’ll instead start ticking off the many other films that Peninsula borrows from, including but not limited to the aforementioned Day of the Dead, its sequel Land of the Dead (a stratified society), World War Z (international scope), Escape from New York (mission into a sealed-off, destroyed city), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (combat in a gladiatorial arena), Mad Max: Fury Road (a climactic chase that takes up the entire third act), and more. But what is more disappointing is director Yeon borrows from his own previous film, trying desperately during Peninsula’s climax to wring the same kind of poignant response from the death of a character that he achieved effortlessly in the finale of Train to Busan. But he doesn’t earn it here, and the movie quickly plunges from overtly hollow sentimentality to exploitative emotional porn. On a technical level, Peninsula is pretty impressive. The early scenes of Jung-seok and his party entering the abandoned city have an eerie, painterly feel, and despite some darker scenes, director Yeon and cinematographer Lee Hyung-deok pull off a number of hauntingly beautiful shots. The way light is used to distract and deflect the zombies (who can’t see at night, when most of the film takes place) also makes for some striking sequences. Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula opens in limited theatrical release on Friday, Aug. 21.
