Before I move into reviews of 2026 movies, I have one more movie from last year to cover. Bugonia is Yorgos Lathimos sci-fi/black comedy based on the Korean movie “Save the Green Planet!” (2003). Will Tracy provides the screenplay, Robbie Ryan cinematography and Jerskin Fendrix, the music. The movie features a small cast with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons doing the heavy lifting. Aidan Delbis and Stavros Halkias provide support. The Korean original is a bit of a cult classic, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwang. This version has had a number of significant changes, obviously it is set in the US, two characters are gender swapped (one each way) and the ending is a little different.
The movie follows Teddy and Don as they abduct business woman Michelle, whom they suspect of being an alien. Teddy has an alien conspiracy theory where he believes “Andromedans” roam the Earth and are controlling the fates of humanity. He intends to torture the truth out of Michelle. Don meanwhile is mentally challenged and going along with Teddy, even though what they are doing goes against his nature. It seems however this may be more personal as Michelle’s company were involved in a botched drug trial that saw Teddy’s mother fall into a coma.
Frailty Meets They Live
Effectively this is “Frailty” (2001) meets “They Live” (1988), at least that is where it starts. Combining two good ideas isn’t the worst plan, but it’s not that original. Emma Stone is a good actress, so she largely sustains most of the movie. Jess Plemons is solid too. As a small cast movie you really do need good actors, and in that regard this succeeded. However as a small cast drama/thriller it is mid tier at best. The humour is okay, but in my view conflicts with the drama. Goofy awkwardness in a battle of wits doesn’t really work that well. Overall though the first two acts of the film are pretty good and the movie was verging on a 6.5 rating with me. But then the final act happened….
Spoilers from here on out. I’m not saying specifics of what happened, but to discuss the film further I am revealing the “Truth”. Yes, the movie doesn’t leave it ambiguous (Which it probably should have), so if you don’t want to know if Michelle is really an alien or not, skip to the conclusion. Suffice to say, my rating went down from a 6.5 to a 5 because of the final act and where it went. It is also an ending that you can pretty much predict long before it arrives and one very much just par for the course for science fiction from the last decade. Sadly.
Then There Was the Ending…. (SPOILERS)
After a reasonable start as a psychological thriller/black comedy, the film devolves into the worst of science fiction cliches. That includes both classic cliches and more modern ones. First of all we have the “Alien visitor that is the judge and jury of humanity” trope. Usually with this trope someone manages to prove humanity worth saving despite it’s flaws. In the “Doomer” era though, no such luck. The 2026 version of this trope is humans are an irredeemable scourge on this planet that need to be destroyed… Yeah, this is why AI’s giving humans what they want is how you get Skynet, but I digress. The trope is a cliché and while one could argue this is a subversion it is exactly what you’d expect it to be in the current year.
The second trope is “Humans were created by aliens”, which is an overused trope but perhaps not at full cliché level yet. “Prometheus” (2012) was the last time I saw it. The most overdone sci-fi trope of all though is the “Humans were the greatest evil after all” cliché. I recall this feeling worn out back when they used it in Matrix 3 in 2003. It’s a trope so tired that Futurama mocked it openly that same year, 22 years before this movie came out and ironically when “Save the Green Planet!” came out, the movie this was adapted from. That film also features this trope, but has a somewhat less preachy version of it.
Modern Year Nonsense
But the tropes alone are not enough in 2026. It has to have a modern day progressive message to it, throwing on extra layers of cliché. First of all accusing humans of not living in harmony with nature. Yet, this alien race that accidentally exterminated the dinosaurs and literally created humans supposedly only does benevolent things in balance with nature (Like exterminate entire species). It’s the kind of illogical premise that is all too prevalent in our media today. Instead of trying to guide humans or let them figure it out themselves, they start genetically modifying humans. When the aliens also become corrupt through the power they hold on Earth, they blame it on human influence.
But it doesn’t end there. Visually, the aliens are pretty much a “United colors of Benetton” advert, but with one obviously missing demographic: White Men. It was at that moment I realized why they gender swapped the two characters (The alien was originally a male and kidnapper’s sidekick was female). So it’s not hard to see what this version of the story is trying to say. White men are the cause of all the worlds problems. More than anything else, this is itself a tired cliché that audiences have been hammered with for the last decade. I also have to wonder why the aliens all looks like specific human demographics, when all modern humans are meant to be mutants evolved from apes, not the beings directly created by Andromededans. The answer is obvious.
Conclusion
The original movie had a similar ending, but was a lot less preachy in its execution. As a result it avoided most of those cliches and managed to keep a more consistent tone, while still managing to have something to say. So it shows it wasn’t so much what happened in final act that ruins this movie, but how it was executed. This is a movie of two halves, a reasonable psychological thriller with black comedy elements that turns into a goofy, lecturing cliché-fest for the landing. Ultimately it takes the original Korean story and forces it painfully through a modern western lens, something that adds nothing and takes everything.
The absolute highest I can rate this movie is a 5/10. I don’t feel I totally wasted 2 hours watching this movie, but I can’t in good faith recommend anyone goes out of their way to do likewise. What I do recommend is watching “Frailty” (2001) and “They Live” (1988). Far better movies with more interesting things to say. I also recommend “Save the Green Planet!” (2003), though not as strongly. My final note here is to say how sad I find it that modern science fiction is no longer able to find the good in humanity. Instead it always seems to be angrily lecturing us. Classic sci-fi had it’s warnings and lectures, but usually managed to have optimism too. Not that all sci-fi has to be positive, but the negativity has become so predictable in recent years.
Bonus Level: Save The Green Planet (2003) – Spoilers
I think it is worth giving a brief comparison here between “Bugonia” (2025) and the movie it is a remake of. “Save the Green Planet” is written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan. It is a bit of a cult movie, not terribly well known (Most people don’t realize Bugonia is a remake). The plot is basically the same. However, there are key difference that make it easily superior. First of all there seems to be more depth to that film. There are more characters and more interactions (For example it’s not one clueless cop, but two competent ones). However the key events largely play out the same, with the except of the role of the kidnappers sidekick. In the Korean movie, this character is the kidnappers girlfriend and she makes it to nearly the end of the movie. Humanity and the aliens involvement are the same, as is the final twist with the kidnapped CEO.
However, the extra layers do add a lot. There is more context to most of it and there is no “Modern lens”. The kidnapper is treated more sympathetically. The failings of humanity are the failings of humanity. It isn’t painting like it’s just western culture (I mean, it’s a Korean film, so that wouldn’t make sense). It’s definitely not hinting that white men are the problem and there’s no hinting at the kidnappers as “Incels” because of the girlfriend sidekick (The chemical castration bit is entirely original to Bugonia). The aliens look and outfits resembles an alien civilization, not non-caucasica Earth tribes. Also in the last few moments the aliens expose themselves as just as brutal and there is no attempt to excuse it. In Bugonia, Emma Stone’s character does, blaming humans. Finally, the aliens blow up the planet instead of just wiping out humans.
Conclusion II – Electric Boogaloo
There is more gore to the Korean film too and a bit of action to the finale. Overall, while it still suffers from a few sci-fi cliches, it is presented in enough of an original way for it not to really matter that much. The Koreans seem almost as adept as the Japanese at blending genres and they do it far more effectively than their American counterparts. The movie definitely is not for everybody. It is worthy of a 6/10. If you like Korean cinema or just want to see a better version of “Bugonia”, give it a shot.
At the time Save The Green Planet came out, I wouldn’t have found the “Humanity bad” conclusion as grating, but the thing is right now the world is suffering largely due to elements of society hating itself. I’ve said it before, but when Skynet comes to wipe us out, it won’t be because it, as a computer has judged humanity as bad. Rather it will be because it wants to give humans what they desire and right now more around 50% of people seem to want to see us wiped out for the good of the planet. One of the most important tropes in sci-fi stems from seeking the good in humanity. We seem to have forgotten how to do that. That is true of real life as well as our fiction.
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