She's back!
 Jul 1st, 2009
Advantages:
Some jumpy moments
Disadvantages:
Extremely dull
Recommendable:
No
Detailed rating:
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Characters / Performances
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  Great_reviewer07
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Member since:10.01.2009
Reviews:303
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Review rated by 11 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Following on from the events in the first film, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) have now moved to a small town in order to start their life over again after the horrific events that occurred to them previously. Rachel has now got a job at a local newspaper in order to spend more time with her son however when a teenager dies in very extraordinary circumstances, Rachel feels that his death is all too familiar. That’s right, Samara’s back and this time she’s got her claws into Aidan…
I enjoyed the first film although it was rather slow, this film however is terrible. There seems to be nothing redeemable about it. The director has tried to break away from very simple but effective premise of the first film, that being of course that after you’ve watched the video tape you’ll be dead in exactly seven days. This film has been made more complicated than that. It hardly uses the video aspect of it at all which is what made it stand out from other horror movies. This time it’s all about the evil and demonic presence of Samara. As she never got to have a proper childhood she wants to become Aidan in order to have a normal and happy childhood.
The plot is completely contrived, the beauty of the first
film was that although it was of course unbelievable it still remained scary, this film however loses all it’s credibility in which it obtained from the reception of the first film. I think this was a Japenese horror remake too far. In order for a sequel to work it needs to have a decent storyline, this film didn’t have that at all. I think it would have been wise for the team behind it to wait around for a bit longer and wait for a better screenplay because although this is a remake it doesn’t have to follow the original film word for word.
The Ring Two, not only loses all it’s previous credibility but it also completely loses it’s eerie atmosphere that was present throughout the first film, this film seems to the complete opposite of what the first film was; the first film was scary… this film isn’t, the first film was atmospheric… this film isn’t, the acting was good in the first film… and yep you guessed it, it’s dire in this film! I don’t understand what happened because although the first film wasn’t exactly magnificent there was still something about it that enabled it to stand out from the crowd, this film will hopefully be forgotten about therefore making it unable to tarnish the good reputation that the first film harbours. The film actually starts off promisingly, using the same style and format from the previous film. It begins with two teenagers, one of whom has watched the tape, in order for him to survive he must convince his girlfriend to watch it, therefore shifting the impending death onto her (what a nice lad) he tries and unfortunately for him he fails therefore dying a horrible death. Even the camera movements mimic the first film in that you barely get to see the boys face, you see a shot of it which lasts no more than 2 seconds. This keeps the viewers attention and makes them excited about what’s to come. The beginning was much more tense than the first film when you discover that the boy’s life depends on his girlfriend watching the tape.
I think the downfall of this film is simply because it tried to break away from the sole reason that the first one was so successful, whatever made them do that I have no idea but it completely butchered what could have and what should have been a good follow up movie given the successfulness of the Japenese movie and that the director Hideo Nakata is the same director of the Japenese versions. Why this movie failed so miserably on all levels is simply beyond me. The film does get going quite quickly, with Rachel discovering that Samara is back very early on in the film, everything from then on just goes downhill. There are moments which are reminiscent of the first film, at one point, Rachel and Aidan get attacked in their car by a group of Deer, this reminded me greatly of the horse scene from the first film. You can tell that in a way they are trying to replicate the first film yet as I said unfortunately they failed disastrously.
There are lots more jumpy moments in this film which I was glad to see, one moment that really made me jump was involving the Deer, there were a few other moments which made me jump but sadly there was nothing memorable. The acting looks like it’s got worse since the first film, Naomi Watts, once again shows her character in a likeable light yet maybe it’s just my interpretation but she seemed sort of detached from the whole movie, almost like she didn’t want to be there. If the end result is anything to go by I don’t blame her! It’s her son Aidan’s performance that really bothers me, David Dorfman is a very cold character, he really gets on my nerves throughout the film. He’s still calling his Mother Rachel even though she asks him to call her Mum. The way he simply ignores everything that everyone says to him becomes very irritating, of course this isn’t the actors fault this is down to the script but I just found his performance on a whole to be very disappointing… again!
I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone, it’s incredibly slow, has no real plot whatsoever, is very contrived and basically just a complete mess of a film. Even when I thought I had found something redeemable it fell flat. There’s just nothing good about this film at all, apart from the fact that it’s over and I don’t ever have to watch it again! The DVD is currently available from play.com for £2.99, I wouldn’t even pay that to watch it again.
The special features include:
Deleted and alternative scenes
'Rings' short film
'The Haunting Of The Ring Two' featurette
'HBO First Look: The Making Of The Ring Two' featurette
'Samara: From Eye To Icon' featurette
'Imagination In Focus' featurette
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03.10.2009 19:19
Fab review, well written and informative :)
01.07.2009 18:28
I saw this at the cinema and it was total pants. Brown ones at that....