A crazy man releases a virus that turns people into zombie ants that he can control. The building where the outbreak takes place is isolated by the authorities, and there is only one professor who can stop the virus from spreading: the sassy professor girl.
Colony is directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who has once again made another zombie movie after the huge success of the overrated Train to Busan. I’m not a huge fan of Train to Busan. In my eyes, it’s an overrated movie that doesn’t deserve all the praise it has received.
Sadly, most of the movies this director has made are either bad or mediocre, and it’s even sadder that, in 2026, he has made yet another zombie movie.
What’s even stranger is why the hell Gianna Jun, better known as Jun Ji-hyun, said yes to a script like this. I’m not sure what happened to her career, but I was a huge fan of hers after watching My Sassy Girl and many of her other movies. Then she seemed to lose her way after Blood: The Last Vampire. She has become such a boring actress who has lost her soul. She seems so desperate to be remembered as a serious actress, but why the hell does she star in movies like Colony, where she doesn’t allow herself to shine or show the world how much charisma she has? She is a strange actress, and it’s sad to see her in Colony, a movie she is far too good for. If people see her performance in Colony, they will scratch their heads and wonder why she is such a huge star in South Korea. She changed after changing her name to Gianna Jun while trying to break into the Western market with Blood: The Last Vampire.
I would rank Colony at the same level as Train to Busan because it has much cooler action scenes and looks far better, with pretty solid cinematography. The CGI, practical effects, and makeup are also top notch. I laughed at the stereotypical characters in Train to Busan, but they are in a different league compared to the empty, boring-as-hell characters in Colony. These characters don’t have any soul, except for the sister and the brother. Other than that, this is a soulless movie that depends entirely on its action scenes because the characters are a waste of life. You end up hoping that most of them die. To be honest, the zombies in Colony have far more personality than the characters whose hearts are actually beating. The only character I liked was the villain, played by the creepy-voiced Koo Kyo-hwan. I like him as an actor, and he gives the best performance in the movie, but the story and his motivation are laughable.
The concept is pretty stupid and absurd, but it works, especially in the scenes where the zombie ants gather together and transform into one giant zombie ant. What’s disappointing is that the movie eventually forgets about that idea, which was a letdown because I was expecting something really cool toward the end.
What you can take away from Colony is that the director once again shows how poorly written the characters in his movies are. The man doesn’t have much shame in that department. His characters are always terribly written in one way or another, but this time he has outdone himself with human characters who don’t have a single memorable personality, while the zombies feel like they have souls. That’s when someone should step up, tell him the truth, and stop kissing his zombie ass!