Meh is the best descriptor

Rating: 5/10 (13 September 2019)

It failed to capture the most effective part of the first movie: the chemistry of the ensemble. A large portion of that may be due to the film spending a large amount of its time keeping the characters separated, for no real reason other than them choosing to not be together. I suppose it also wanted to show each individual character's torment, but it is certainly possible to do that while also having them interacting (and growing) with the others.
Another downside is that during these individual (drawn out) moments, there's a heavy focus on revisiting the character's past, which attempts to flesh out each one more, but is more of just rehashing what we learnt in the first film. Ultimately the effect is sacrificing the development of the characters, which never really happens except for a couple throw away moments in the epilogue section, in favor of giving a drop more depth to what has already been established about the character.
When the cast finally comes together as a full ensemble in the last third of the movie, it still feels more like individual performances happening simultaneously, rather than a group naturally interacting. However, the film is still too afraid to have them stick together for too long. This is mostly to tie up the loose ends of various character relationships, though is fails to really make the most of those moments and use them to their fullest advantage, both from a character arc perspective, but also from a build suspense/horror perspective. Instead, it is more interested in spectacle. I do have to admit that the CGI does look incredible.