Colossal
Neon | Release Date: April 7, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 12, 2017
About halfway into Colossal you may experience the novel vertigo that comes when you genuinely have no idea where a movie is taking you but understand you’re in competent creative hands. That sensation holds until you’re deposited, happy and a little worse for wear, at the end. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 12, 2017
From its weird little prologue to a nearly perfect ending, Colossal is a trip in multiple meanings of that word. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 7, 2017
This movie feels as if somebody woke from an intense nightmare, decoded it and realized it was rather unsubtly working through some of their unresolved issues, then brought it to Judd Apatow and said, "Here's your next comedy." Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 6, 2017
Damned if this wildly witty and surprisingly touching swing at movie madness and gender politics isn't on to something deep. Read full review
83
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonApr 6, 2017
Colossal has no patience for piety or punishment. Even when Gloria gets punched in the face, the film refuses to sob. Instead, it's oddly heroic. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattApr 5, 2017
Even if the script’s psychological reach ultimately falls short, Colossal is still a clever, comic, wildly surreal ride — right up until the last sucker-punch frame. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeApr 4, 2017
Monster movies aren’t generally known for their subtlety, but leave it to Nacho Vigalondo to make one that keeps surprising its audience until the very end. Read full review
83
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 22, 2017
Though Colossal does occasionally waver, most often due to its recurring tendency to hastily discard characters before their stories feel complete, it’s also a genuinely touching film that works phenomenally well for the most part, bolstered by the lingering sense of regret that hangs over the film’s funniest and most wrenching sequences alike. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 16, 2016
The movie presents its plot like a ridiculous gamble, and keeps pulling it off, somehow managing to justify its existence. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenMay 15, 2017
Made on a budget that would just about cover Kong’s left bicep, Colossal is cool, smart filmmaking, with plot developments that will be talked about for a long time to come. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 13, 2017
Colossal is a monstrously imaginative movie with a premise so bizarre it’s amazing it ever got made. But it’s a good thing it did. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 6, 2017
Vigalondo demonstrates that even the dumbest genres can be used to profound ends — not cheapening serious things but kicking them to the next metaphoric level. A woman finding her inner strength is inspiring. But a woman finding her inner giant monster who kicks butt — that’s just so cool. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 6, 2017
Colossal has such an easygoing, offhand vibe, and takes such pleasure in its characters’ foibles, that it camouflages its deep subject, which is rage. Read full review
80
SlateJeffrey BloomerApr 6, 2017
The 39-year-old Spanish director has made a bait-and-switch movie that won’t stop switching, a high-wire act he pulls off through sheer creative onslaught. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonSep 17, 2016
By the climax all concerns have gone out the window, as Vigalondo delivers an operatic finale that feels both earned and genuinely cathartic. For better and worse, you won't have seen a movie like Colossal before, and you won't again. And that, in itself, is a strong recommendation. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 12, 2017
Hathaway and Sudeikis totally nail their respective roles (kudos to the great Tim Blake Nelson, to boot), and while Colossal falls shy of perfection, so does real life. Read full review
76
TheWrapMichael NordineApr 6, 2017
Hathaway makes Gloria feel familiar and unique all at once. The same can be said of Colossal itself, which lives up to its title without losing sight of small-scale human drama. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 21, 2018
Colossal is 2/3 of a great movie and 1/3 of a mess. Writer/director Nacho Vigalondo is tremendous when it comes to setup and the majority of his narrative but he can’t stick the ending. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 20, 2017
The film is simply unlike anything else to play theatres this year – a feat it will likely keep for the foreseeable future. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 20, 2017
It doesn’t ascend to the sky. It’s not profound or great. But Vigalondo takes Colossal to all sorts of unexpected places and then brings it home, intact. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 13, 2017
As a 30-something coming-of-age story, Colossal is as relatable as they come, its deadpan depiction of lost sheep recalling the Charlize Theron movie “Young Adult.” Vigalondo doesn’t evince the same cynicism and anger as that film reveled in so bitterly, but he’s also not one for easy allegorical equivalencies. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittApr 6, 2017
Colossal is as refreshingly different a monster movie as it is a clever, timely take on bullying, domestic abuse and toxic masculinity. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 19, 2016
Vigalondo has a top-notch conceit that unfortunately loses its way when buckling under the weight of the middle third’s anything goes antics. Thankfully, however, the climax prevails in its thematic resonance, moral quandary, and righteous hope. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 16, 2016
In substance, it might be Vigalondo’s most ambitious film to date. And while there’s a sense at times of his uncertainty in fully committing to the ideas on the page, in the moments when the conceptual component of “Colossal” is fully embraced, the results are truly chilling. Read full review
73
The VergeTasha RobinsonFeb 7, 2017
Beyond the film’s strong look and feel, it’s memorable because the script is so bizarre and unexpected, so confident and daring about what it’s trying to do. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 6, 2017
Neither Hathaway nor the script makes any overt bids for the audience’s sympathy in Colossal, which may explain why they earn it so handily. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 13, 2017
This weird marriage of indie earnestness and matter-of-fact fantasy gives Colossal its moderately engaging distinction. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneApr 2, 2017
When the film's whirligig plotline goes off-rail in the heady final act, Oscar and Gloria's origin story bends over backward to justify a magical-realist conceit that was more fun without explanation. Read full review
60
CineVueTom DugginsSep 16, 2016
Colossal possesses some real depth in its acting and its description of human relationships, it's just a shame that when it sinks a few beers and gets up to do the monster mash: things get a little too silly. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 16, 2016
The cast's likability keeps us on board, watching the sometimes baffling behavior onscreen just like those on the streets of Seoul, who gape up at a monster in horror but can't make themselves flee to the suburbs. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 5, 2017
The effects are indie-comedy cheap, and the tale’s overarching morality’s a bit murky. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 7, 2017
That may enough to pique your curiosity. It did mine, for a while, until it didn’t. To paraphrase what Brahms once told a young composer, what’s original in the film isn’t very good, and what’s good in it isn’t very original. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonApr 3, 2017
Engaging ideas bubble up every so often in Colossal, a film that carries out magical thinking to its extreme. But the audacity of its conceit is inexorably tamed, becoming an all-too-familiar lesson on saying no. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveySep 22, 2016
Colossal takes diminishing advantage of an amusing premise, one that seems made for satirical treatment yet is executed with an increasingly awkward semi-seriousness the characters aren’t depthed (or likable) enough to ballast. Read full review
50
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 16, 2016
For all its originality, the film fails to leave much of an impression. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 16, 2016
This is the sort of film that is more frustrating than bad. Vigalondo had something really special here. He just didn’t quite pull it off. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 16, 2016
Given the bizarro conceit, there’s something surprisingly, and frustratingly, safe about the film. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedApr 11, 2017
To quote the late, great Dorothy Parker, “What fresh hell is this?” I’m talking about Colossal, a delirious, moronic mess that landed with a thud at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and now opens commercially, seven months later, with a head-scratching “Duh”. Read full review
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