Reviewed by Tobie Abad Being a fan of the original Ringu more than the American Remake, The Ring" and having seen and hated the original japanese sequel {Ring 2} and prequel {Ring 0} and even the expansions {Ring Virus, Ring: Kanzenban, the Korean television series} I had little desire to really see what direction the American sequel would take. Although part of me liked how certain visuals were done in the American version, I just hated how spoonfood-ey and how "look at me, I got bigger budget effects" felt the whole time through-out. From the predator-like Samara, to the suddenly The Shining inspired approach to water's persistent presence, the American Remake just went overboard with trying to be scary than telling a scary story. The sequel, well... what can I say? The story of the sequel picks up a few months after the events of the first movie. In hopes of escaping the horrible memories and haunting events that terrorized her during the first movie, Rachel Keller {Naomi Watts} and her son Aidan {David Dorfman} move from Seattle to a small more rural community. But when the discovery of a local teenage homicide links eeriely to the mention of an unmarked videotape, Rachel realises that the vengeful Samara is back and tries once again to dig deeper into her past to find a means to end her murdurous rage. With a few new tricks up her sleeve {best read as Samara having learned to steal some new moves from other films like Dark Water}, a few nice tributes to the original Ringu movie {like a hint of what Samara may truly be} and a more elaborate relationship between her and her mother {played by the incredibly talented Sissy Spacek} Samara is fleshed out more fully {in more ways than one} and Rachel is forced to break the laws of both society {with her constant breaking into other people's homes, ambulances, rooms, etc} and the real world {ah... can't elaborate. That would spoil things.} to bring her reign of terror to an end. Or does it? Frankly, it came to a point that I didn't really care. None one in the cast seemed to be that interested in being there. Though the movie touches on some ideas which were interesting to explore, and tries to give a different spin to the psychic boy's role in the story, it just seems to feel like a movie that's just dragging a dead horse around to make money out of it. The visuals were amazing and had a great touch to them. It was interesting at the first few times how many more interesting images the production staff were able to come up to represent the recurring image of a ring. But sadly, the approach eventually gets a bit over-used which then leads it to feel more like fluff than actual substance. On a pleasant note, the movie was better than the Japanese version of Ring 2 and can challenge the semi-coherence of Ring 0. Though it took a step back and tried to give Samara a more humane reason of vengeance {which frankly I hated. I was more happy with her cruel careless want to kill and destroy}, it did try to merge good plot concepts in the original Ringu movie with a better budget in hand. Is it worth watching? Only if you're not paying. And yes, a friend of mine said that. Links: The official movie site http://www.ring2-themovie.com/ Reviews on the Wraith Project are the opinions of those reviewers, and are not necessarily those of the Wraith Project themselves. If you disagree with this review, send in another one. If you still feel like strangling the reviewer, see an analyst. |
