More gruesome but not as clever

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2003)

Mild spoilers will appear throughout!
I'm a big fan of the original movie, and took the day off from work to see the premiere of its sequel. After the first premonition scene and the first real death (which reminded me of Val Lewton's in the first) I was optimistic about this version. After the promising start, though, things go downhill - the deaths are rushed but become the sole focus of the rest of the movie. The characters are completely flat. Plot is negligible. I never really got a feel for the sequence like I did in the original, and continuity between the two films was lousy. Granted, the first film botched up the "switched seats" order, but that film had a sense to it that I found lacking in the sequel. Consider: in the first film, Alex was without a pulse before being revived, yet he didn't end the cycle. Why would the same circumstance work for Kimberly? And what was Eugene's tie-in to Val Lewton again? Did it make any sense at all? Why did Rory see the hook vision? OK, and I felt really cheated that Alex from the original was killed by a stupid brick.
I enjoyed all the little tricks in the first movie - all the hidden 180's, the altered set and posters in the airport, the clever character names and in-jokes. The sequel suffers from the departure of the original writing team, I think - they had a lot more fun with their film. The only thing that came close in this one was the magnetic refrigerator letters, but that was a bit too obvious for my tastes.
As far as the deaths, I give them a mixed review. The deaths in the hospital weren't nearly gory enough, the elevator incident looked extremely fake, the slice-and-dice was cool but the body fell wrong. I liked the first, the last, the pile-up, and the second impalement.
In the first, I liked the fact that our character didn't die the way it LOOKED like he might - but it seemed like overkill when they used the same type of misdirection later, in the dentist's office and with the leaking gasoline. There wasn't a single death that made me jump like Terry's in the first, in any case.
I enjoyed the movie and it had its redeeming moments. The ending and Rory's speech to Kimberly after he handed her his keys, plus Tony Todd's disappointingly brief appearance, were all pluses. Overall, though, I prefer the original. If you haven't seen the DVD version with the director's commentary, watch it and see how much truly clever stuff you missed. The first film left me wondering about fate and inevitability: the second film made me wonder, after each death, only "OK, who's next and how?"