More a remake than a sequel; disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (17 September 2009)

Rather than picking up where the last one ended, Evil Dead 2 takes elements from the first movie and creates a new story that doesn't quite jibe with the old one. So it's more of a remake of the first than a sequel. But at the same time, it doesn't really stand up on its own and I can't help but think that someone who watched it without having seen the first would be lost; a lot of the references and inside jokes would go over his head.
I found this movie pointless and don't understand why they bothered making it (other than the obvious financial motive, and to lay a foundation for the third movie of the series). As a remake, it didn't better or even equal the first or add anything original. It seemed like more of an excuse to mess around with special effects than anything, as there wasn't much in the way of story or character development. You could say it was ahead of its time, since like most current horror movies, it comes off like a long MTV video, with lots of gore and special effects, fast (too fast, IMO), jump cut editing, with the story taking a back seat.
Bruce Campbell didn't bother me in the first one, but in this he was awful. His acting was self-conscious and he was trying too hard. I felt like I was watching a performance by a clown who thinks he's being funny but isn't.
The comedic elements were less subtle than in the first. While I laughed at a couple of scenes (like the one with the meat cleaver), ultimately I was neither frightened by this movie nor amused by its attempts at slapstick. Bruce Campbell is no Buster Keaton or Jim Carrey, and Evil Dead 2 fails both as a comedy and a horror flick.
The last 30 minutes were an improvement over the first hour, but only because by then it had turned into a prelude for the action-adventure-oriented third movie, with Campbell being a bit more credible as an action hero. (On a side note: Who came up with the rule that time travel always has to be depicted in movies as a tunnel or vortex?)
The puzzling thing is that if they had chopped off the first 7 minutes of this movie, it easily could've been made into a real sequel rather than a remake and it would've been much better.
Die-hard fans of the other Evil Deads or of Bruce Campbell might like this but I can't recommend it to anyone else. I sat drumming my fingers through most of it, wondering why they were wasting my time rehashing this material. This was one of those rare movies where I was tempted to fast-forward through parts. AFAIC, it wouldn't have made any difference if the producers had gone from the first Evil Dead straight to Army of Darkness and skipped this one.