Train to Busan 2: Peninsula (2020)

Peninsula was filmed on a budget almost twice as high as Train to Busan, and, unlike many sequels, retained the same director. It is therefore beyond me how Peninsula was not only lacklustre compared to TTB but utterly devoured by the predecessor. Actually, it isn't beyond me; while Peninsula is a sequel to TTB set a few years in the future, the elements of TTB that made it engrossing were sucked out and replaced with generic fluff, in much the same way that fast food chains might hollow out a perfectly good pizza crust and squeeze in some cheap, tasteless derivation of mozzarella. Here is a list of what made TTB fantastic and what Peninsula had in its place;

TTB:

Varied cast of characters defined (and unwrought) by their human imperfections, buoyed by a range of fantastic, occasionally despicable performances. You and I, and how we'd react to a sudden zombie apocalypse. Also, great character development for the main 'hero'.

Sense of high production value due to a cleverly used physical setting (train interior) and fantastic attention to detail with the zombies themselves. Behind the clips footage shows the efforts that the team undertook to paint up each individual zombie to seem rabid, horrible and ironically life-like.

Aside from their appearance, the zombies were excellent not only because of the frightening manner in which they twitched, scuttled and savaged their human brethren but because we saw that they too were normal, unsuspecting humans. There was great pathos in seeing members of the cast turn into these beasts, even moreso when the living had to fight against their own friends.

Novel concept (the train) that created a constant feeling of entrapment and claustrophobia, the notion that although one is on the move the threat is always breathing down their necks or clawing on the next set of doors.

Simple yet well-executed social allegory about class division, the pitfalls of Capitalist greed and the dangers of individual self-preservation towards the collective fight for survival.

Peninsula:

A varied cast of characters let down by being either too bland (the hero) or absurd to fully empathise with. The 'villains' in TTB are the sneering upper-class bigots that you might see in real life. The 'villains' in Peninsula, while not out of place in a post-apocalyptic film, were too cartoonish to see as realistic or despicable. And while Train To Busan kept me guessing until the end, Peninsula made it easy to see who death was hovering over.

A larger budget that was squandered on an over-reliance on CGI. While certain scenes of the destroyed Korea carried weight, the backgrounds and especially the car chases often felt nauseatingly cheap-looking.

'Weight' is a theme that can be considered more broadly when comparing the two films- both emotional and physical. In TTB, the human struggle was emphasised by the improvised weapons- baseball bats, sports gear and the fists of the survivors. These 'weapons' carried weight with them.The close-quarters combat was brutal and ugly, we were seeing ordinary people having to struggle and fight for their lives. By contrast in Peninsula, guns were used abundantly, mowing down hordes of zombies in great swathes- diminishing both the threat of the zombies and the desperation of the humans (though this was still present).

The zombies themselves lacked weight. From friends and family turned into cannibalistic beasts, they became rag-dolls that would be sent flying with a well-timed car impact, video game entities that could be thwarted and exploited en masse with a few (admittedly clever) tricks. It didn't help that they too were CGI much of the time.

Awful, and awfully abundant English dialogue that was sometimes as coherent as the zombie screeching.

Derives too heavily from pre-existing media like the Mad Max franchise.

Melodramatic like TTB yet lacking the first movie's well-deserved emotional punch. A lot of sentimental music and slow-motion crying scenes. All the meaning in Peninsula essentially boils down to basic moral waffle like 'Make sacrifice good', 'Family important' and 'Repent for mistakes good'.

...

Was Peninsula a terrible movie? No, in fact it was mildly entertaining overall and while I wanted to do something else, I managed to sit through it without skipping parts. It's a decent enough watch but lacks substance.

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Very different from the prequel! Enjoyable if you're willing to look over several plotholes

When I found out that "Train to Busan" has a sequel I honestly was very confused. However, seeing as "Peninsula" doesn't manage to live up to expectations from "Train to Busan", it's no wonder that I'd never heard about it before. However, if you think of this movie as a completely different story set in the same universe but four years later, it's quite decent.

On the one hand, there are a lot of plotholes, seeing as cars still have gas, food trucks randomly standing on the streets (and the food apparently still being edible, which is even more of a surprise), infected being at places where I have no idea how they even got there and supposedly no one is thinking about a cure for the virus or a permanent solution for the peninsula even four years later which is just plain illogical. Frankly, the writing is a disappointment if you're here for logic. On the other hand, if you're here for action and cars, go for it. Also, I personally liked the connection between the male and the female lead. It's a cliché, but hey, I mentioned that logic is not the most important here. The ending was a very positive surprise for me. Honestly, I don't know if I had liked the movie if it was different.

I was considerably surprised to see that the cast had changed completely. However, it quickly becomes clear why that's the case as well. Still, even though everything changed a lot, the actors were good and brought their characters to life. Opinions may differ on this one, but I could connect with the characters quite well and felt sorry for them, whenever something negative happened. I must say that I love the family our male protagonist meets, especially the older sister. And thank goodness there was no romance anywhere. It wouldn't have fit at all.

Also, once again, I loved the music. I can't even say more to it than that it was great and the scenes on screen.

About the rewatch value I got to say that I probably will rewatch it - one day. Probably in a few years. I did enjoy the movie, but there are significant weaknesses that just left me questioning.

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Una secuela que no tiene precuela

Cuando anunciaban una segunda parte de Train To Busan, me emocione mucho, hasta creí que Gong Yoo iba a aparecer de zombie, pero nada que ver con Peninsula.

Peninsula es una nueva historia, con nuevos personajes, más que una precuela, es una película paralela a Train To Busan, y eso me decepciono mucho, pues la vendieron mal, y creo que por eso a muchas personas no les ha gustado esta película; contrario a mí, a quien si me gustó.
Obviamente no es mejor que la primera, pero la historia de esta da un giro y enseña muchas cosas más, como el valor del amor, amistad, y sobretodo el valor de la familia.
Gang Dong Won, excelente, cada vez amo más a este actor.
Los zombies, interesantes como siempre.

En todo caso, si la quieren ver, adelante, los ánimo, pero no se ilusionen con que van a ver un nuevo tren.
Saben, hubiera sido genial que la hija- personaje sobreviviente de Gong Yoo hubiera liderado esta película.

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Badass girls & Karma!

Actually I've never intended to write any reviews, because I'm too lazy. But the score and reviews are so bad, this movie didn't deserve it! So here comes my first ever review:

First of all, the only common things of Train to Busan and Peninsula are how the zombies are defined and that it's in Korea, so I'd recommend you to watch it as a seperate movie instead as part 2 of Train to Busan.

I really liked the acting of the actors and even more the action! The zombies were cool, it has good horror moments & a lot of "car race fights" that really hooked me up! Unfortunatly I couldn't watch the movie in Korean in 4D in my country, 4D was only for the dubbed version available. So if you have the opportunity, then watch it in 4D, I think it's worth it!


The moral of the movie is karma, so (almost) everyone gets what they deserve. I really highly recommend it, especially if you like zombies or car races!


Btw the women in this movie are deadass queens, just slaying everything! For me they were the highlight of it!

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Don't have HIGH expectations...

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was interesting enough to watch if you enjoyed Train to Busan. The movie didn't really leave me on the edge of my seat, it just made me shake my fist at the screen because of how many times I had to yell MOVE YOUR A**. What is with characters in zombie movies having the option of fight, flight, or freeze and choosing freeze? Make it make sense.

PROS: Fast and Furious Joon-i Drift (BEST part of the movie tbh, MVP), happy ending, cool zombies, and we got an idea of how the outbreak was affecting the rest of the world.

CONS: Characters' slow response times, lack of observing surroundings, and death by stupidity(read previous). There's a lot of staring at things that are about to happen(in like MAX 15 seconds) and characters taking like a whole MINUTE AND A HALF to take action. JANE.

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Satisfaying to Watch

Despite reading bad reviews and comments, i proceed to watch it.

It is a very good, an amazing action movie. I didnt find any boring scene or plot that made me pause while watching. It's more to action movie on how the left survivor survive after four years.

The plot make sense, i couldnt understand if people want something different from this movie because the storyline is what exactly accurate with the situation. The actor and actress deliver their acting well and i would rewatch again if i have time.

If you are in between either to watch it or not, please do it.

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One of the Worst Sequels Ever!!!

I felt like this movie rode the coattails of Train to Busan, just to fall off before it even started. The beginning was okay, even though there were some illogical moments. Then we go four years into the future when they return to Korea for some random gangster to collect all the US cash left behind. Throw in the stereotypical crazy people left behind and a random family who have been surviving on nearly impossible driving skills and no contact with the outside world (nearly impossible in this day in age, let alone the future) and you have a baseless plot, weak set up, and overall crappy movie.

I was soooo looking forward to this movie and it let me down to the ultimate power. It was unbearably long and the plot was muddled. Also, the main character had no motivation. He really was a hollow individual- they did little to no development of him as a person so he wasn't really likeable. Only good thing I can say about this movie is that the effects and graphics were good. They also had some cool looking scenes. Other than that, it was a flop.

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Michael Bay wannabes..

I had to check if it was the same director and scriptwriter. Unfortunately, yes.

The film was like a B-rated American action/horror movie with too many plot holes, overuse of CG, forgettable characters, and the male lead with no significant role throughout. Previews had most the of the plot and interesting scenes. So much expectations and big lump of crap disappointment. Story would've made more sense if it had the family of widow and her daughters as the main focus. Too much budget that they didn't know what to do with, Korea has taken three steps forward with the first film, and five steps back with the sequel. The director is still too inexperienced and overambitious. Best part of the film was the zombie extras and their performance.

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Train to Busan 2 ? não mesmo.

já tinha escutado opiniões e criticas de quem tinha visto no hype do primeiro filme invasão zumbi, que por sinal já sabia que esse não entregaria nada então já estava ciente que seria uma bomba e não e que foi mesmo?! acho que esse filme peca em tudo, parece tudo forçado e você não liga ou se importa com nenhum personagem mesmo eles tentando pegar bater no emocional, não gostei nenhum pouco de nada algumas ideias são boas porém e tão mal executada que torna tudo ruim

NÃO recomendo para ninguém, continuem só com o primeiro mesmo Train to Busan que não promete e entrega

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I was waiting for Peninsula to be released and now I finally got to watch it. Let's just set this straight that nothing can beat Train To Busan in all its glory.
Those children were really good actresses and played their roles perfectly. They are probably the future of Korean TV. Everyone who played a role in the movie was a good actor. For some reason I really liked Koo Gyo Hwan's role and I don't know why I guess it was because he was strange. Watching the movie for the near 2 hours I really came to realise what they have been through stuck in South Korea during the zombie apocalypse. You can't watch this movie as a standalone well you could if you wanted to but Train To Busan comes first.
The makeup for the Zombies was good but I preferred it before but I guess that's just me being biased. All around it was a good movie to watch and the next time I watch Train To Busan I will also watch this again after it.
I hope this helped even though it probably didn't. Please give this movie a try!.

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Not comparable to the prequel

Seriously, this should've just been its own zombie movie, not Train to Busan 2. I loved the first one after watching it for the first time this year — it not only had the right amount of tension and stress, but also made me love all the characters and go through the heartbreak of losing them.

This one had none of the same heart in it. It essentially felt like an action flick. And if that's what you're a fan of, then you'll love all the drag racing and the shootouts. But I'm not really a fan of mindless action, and even though there were some scenes where they tried to be tragic, I hadn't connected with the characters at all, and crying scenes felt dragged out.

Ultimately, it was just too formulaic — there was no deep-dive into the human condition (though there were some dystopian vibes), and zombies were relegated to the background the same way a general would wield an army, as a weapon. It was still a nice watch; after all, I LOVE the Train to Busan zombies — but all this movie did was hit home how good the first one was.

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