The potential impact of Colossal’s creative premise is needlessly spoiled by the trailer.
It could’ve been a potent allegory for the different ways that power can change an individual’s life; she (Anne Hathaway) learns to take responsibility for her train-wreck of a life by assuming the Colossal responsibility of literally being able to destroy an entire city, while he (Jason Sudeikis) gets figuratively and literally drunk off that same Colossal responsibility, bringing out his morally-bankrupt nature. And yet, it fails to do so because of the bafflingly misguided execution on almost all counts.
One of my few redeeming takeaways from watching Colossal is the realization that my least favorite movies of any given year are rarely the objective worst, nor the least enjoyable, but rather those that miss their intended mark by the widest margin. Art-house fare rarely make the list because they just don’t waste as many resources, and rarely do they Colossally whiff like this.
And now, for the other worsts of 2017 (so far), in alphabetical order: Baywatch, Table 19, The Discovery, The Last Face, The Promise, and Transformers: The Last Knight.
Finally, since I feel guilty for ragging so heavily on such a small flick, I want to praise Neon’s – Colossal‘s distributor – decision to screen pre-show short-films either thematically related to, or by the same director as the subsequent feature presentation. Pixar’s been doing it to much success for years; it’s about time someone else in the industry followed suit!