The Great Flood Review: I kept seeing people call this movie the Korean Matrix. That phrase was splashed right across the thumbnail, so obviously, I was curious. I’m a sucker for disaster films, and the trailer alone was enough to pull me in. Massive floods, people trapped in buildings, a mysterious sci-fi angle, it promised something big.
I watched it with genuine excitement. And honestly? For a good chunk of the runtime, that excitement was completely justified. But then… things got complicated. Let’s break it down the way I experienced it, not the way press notes would want me to.
My Rating: 3.0/5
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Movie Title | The Great Flood |
| Original Language | Korean |
| Available Languages | Korean, Hindi, English & multiple dubbed versions |
| Genre | Science Fiction, Disaster, Survival |
| Director | Kim Byung-woo |
| Main Cast | Kim Da-mi, Park Hae-soo |
| Runtime | Approx. 140 minutes |
| Platform | Netflix |
| Country | South Korea |
The Setup That Hooks You Immediately
The story starts small and terrifyingly personal.
A woman is at home with her child. Normal day. Normal life. Then the kid asks her to step outside the room, and that’s when everything changes. Water. Everywhere. Not just outside the building, but inside it. Floor by floor, the water keeps rising. First floor. Second floor. Third floor. No rescue teams. No helicopters. No government is coming to save anyone.
Soon, the movie makes it brutally clear: this isn’t a local disaster. The entire Earth is underwater. That’s the moment I leaned forward.
The question hits you instantly: Why did this happen? The movie knows that curiosity is its biggest weapon, and it uses it well. I kept guessing. Some failed experiment? A quantum machine gone wrong? Climate collapse mixed with tech arrogance?
The answer does come, inside the film, and I won’t spoil it. But the mystery itself keeps the first half moving at a strong pace.
The First Half Is the Soul of The Great Flood
If I had to be blunt, the first half is where this movie truly lives. It’s survival cinema done right. The panic feels real. People aren’t heroic, they’re desperate. Everyone is trying to save themselves, and you know most of them won’t make it. Governments fail. Systems collapse. Humanity shrinks down to raw instinct.
Some of the choices characters are forced to make genuinely shook me. These aren’t dramatic for the sake of drama; they’re ugly, painful, human decisions that feel terrifyingly believable if something like this ever happened. Emotionally, this part works. Big time.
Visually, This The Great Flood Movie Goes Hard
No exaggeration — the VFX scale here is impressive. Underwater sequences, flooded cities, massive waves crashing through buildings, interiors exploding under pressure, rockets, space stations, outer space visuals, yes, all of that is actually in the movie.
And it mostly looks good. Whatever budget they had, they didn’t waste it. The film is visually striking from start to finish. Even when the story stumbles later, your eyes stay engaged. There’s real effort here, not lazy CGI slapped together.
Performances & Emotional Core in The Great Flood
The acting surprised me in a good way. The lead performances are solid, especially the emotional bond between the mother and child. That relationship becomes the emotional spine of the film. There are moments, especially near the end of the first half, that genuinely hit hard.
The kind that makes your chest feel heavy for a second. This The Great Flood movie isn’t just noise and destruction. It wants you to care, and for a while, you actually do.
Where Things Start Slipping: The Second Half
The moment the film fully shifts gears into hardcore science fiction, it loses balance. And I don’t mean slowly. I mean instantly.
One moment you’re watching a grounded survival story, and the next, you’re thrown headfirst into dense sci-fi concepts with barely any hand-holding. The film suddenly assumes you’ll just “get it” because it sounds intelligent.
That’s where frustration kicks in. Instead of explaining what’s happening, even briefly, The Great Flood movie tries to look smarter than it needs to be. The narration becomes complex. The ideas stack on top of each other. If you’re not deeply familiar with certain sci-fi concepts, you’ll feel lost.
This is where the “Matrix” comparisons start making sense, not because it reaches that level, but because it wants to.
Also Read: David Review: A Beautiful Animated Bible Story That Left Me Wanting More
The Ending Didn’t Sit Right With Me
I’m not a fan of lazy open endings, and this one left me cold. The Great Flood movie clearly feels like it should have three phases: beginning, middle, and end. But the ending feels unfinished. Instead of resolving things, it dumps the responsibility on the audience: “You decide what happens next.”
Personally? I hate that. It reminded me of House of Dynamite, which pulled the same move. Compare that with something like 2012. That movie knew how to land its ending. This one doesn’t. When the credits rolled, my first thought wasn’t “wow.” It was “wait… that’s it?”
What Worked vs What Didn’t in The Great Flood
| What Worked | What Didn’t |
|---|---|
| Powerful survival-focused first half | Abrupt shift into confusing sci-fi |
| Strong emotional moments | Overly complex narration later |
| Impressive VFX and scale | Weak, unsatisfying ending |
| Solid performances | Tries too hard to look “smart” |
| Genuine tension early on | Doesn’t fully commit to one genre |
Final Verdict: Should You Watch The Great Flood?
If you like:
- Survival + sci-fi movies
- Korean cinema
- Big disaster visuals
- One-time watch Netflix films
Then yes, give it a shot. Just lower your expectations a bit. This The Great Flood movie doesn’t fully succeed as a pure survival film, and it doesn’t fully land as a sci-fi epic either. It gets stuck in between. That’s its biggest weakness.
Still, it’s not a bad watch.
⭐ Rating: 6/10
It’s family-friendly, has no uncomfortable scenes, and is available in multiple languages on Netflix. Not unforgettable, but not a waste of time either. If nothing else, the first half alone is worth watching. And hey, you might even enjoy the ending more than I did.