'Colossal' is not the cute movie it's being advertised to be

Colossal is definitely not the movie that it's advertised to be. It's got a clever, original premise -- which I presume is why it's enjoyed mostly good reviews -- but the execution is all over the place and the tone grows from jarring to off-putting fairly quickly.

I was prepared to really like this movie. Unlike a lot of people, I've never had a particularly deep-seated revulsion for Anne Hathaway. I quite liked her Oscar-nominated performance in Rachel Getting Married and I thought she nearly stole The Dark Knight Rises with a surprisingly sexy performance as Catwoman. But I also see that she is not for everyone's tastes.

I get that she has that "lead in the high school play" vibe about her -- but I believe she is talented, and she may be the best part of this film, although her character is not really all that fully realized.

She is supposed to be an alcoholic burnout who returns to her hometown after being callously booted out by her obnoxious boyfriend. If you've seen the amusing trailer, you'll know she connects with what seems to be an affable old friend (played by a woefully miscast Jason Sudekis) and soon learns that her physical behavior in a certain space at a certain time of day channels the behavior of a giant monster terrorizing South Korea.

Anne Hathaway

This is all handled in a lowkey, manner-of-fact way that I appreciated. But eventually the plot takes some twists and turns which really took me out of the movie and made certain characters irredeemable to me.

This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if the film had a more acerbic, bleak sensibility from the beginning (like Young Adult, a movie which reportedly inspired it) but the shift here doesn't feel earned, so when the film enters darker territory (and some uncomfortable violence) I was turned off.

While I appreciate that this is a movie that has some really broad ideas in it, I also think it's a little too all over the map. I never felt emotionally invested in the characters, and for a movie that is at least ostensibly a comedy, I barely chuckled throughout.

Frankly, I am kind of shocked by the raves this movie has been receiving. It's well-made, and it definitely deserves kudos for trying to tell an ambitious story -- but if I am watching a movie and trying to understand what genre it is, it can't be all that effective.

I'm curious, also, whether this film will create any Hathaway converts. She has a way with neurotic, damaged characters, and perhaps some viewers can relate better to unresolved childhood grievances and angst than I did.

For me Colossal is an interesting misfire, a movie unsure of what is trying to do, but that somehow seems to wow a lot of people who see it.