I was expecting something that actually never happened the entire film....

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2016)

Sure, we can't get inside the theater without not knowing that we're gonna get stapled to our seat watching same old brainless protagonist going to provoke some ominous spirit with occasional jump scare, same old classic horror story plot yadda yadda yadda. Unfortunately, when a horror movie became so predicted, it became boring. How can you get scared if whenever they show this kind of scene: the protagonist takes something from the mirror- cabinet at the bathroom then closes it, BAM! you're gonna see some stuff on the reflection, right?
But James Wan, he actually SUCCEEDED in breaking some of those stereotypes of horror movies' tricks in The Conjuring (2013)  instead of showing just mere flashing figures of Bathsheeba the camera just literally closing in on that thing crawling above the kids' wardrobe during that one scene in the bedroom, with equally decent sound mixing& editing as a supporting element, It instantly became the sole reason why I fell in love with his works.
This sequel though, doesn't feel like it's his. I don't feel his touch a.k.a some element of surprises in this film, like at all. It was just all too..predictable. I mean there was this one scene during Annabelle (2014) , which shows a harmless ghost of a girl running towards the main character with the door closing up, then proceeds to slam that door open but not as a small girl anymore but instead an evil entity with a true intention to kill THAT IS an element of surprise I was looking for in this sequel. The use of a close up of certain housewares stuff , which could potentially become harmful for people and felt some sort of life- threatening like this sewing machine in Annabelle (2014), didn't make any appearances at all as well. This is unfortunate because it may be able to add up something to help to create that eerie ambiance they were trying so hard to achieve.
I heard that he turned to direct Fast series in hope of finding fresh new ideas for his horror movies but JAMES... this feels like an apple being left out to rot under a hot sun....isn't FRESH at all
I lost it during the crooked man's first appearance, which felt so damn cheesy and give out this Babadook (2014) kind of vibe (which is not a good sign for me), and fine, I get it, turned out it was totally practical (not CG) with a real actor posing as the crooked man then why the hell it felt so out of place?
Valak, being the main attraction in this movie clearly is good at nothing but growl (and Jesus, in need of a dentist appointment with those bleeding gums). They could've dug deeper about his origin, M O T I V E S, (she clearly wanted to kill Janet but is that all?), and probably some P O T E N T I A L (to scare the audienceshaha)
Too many questions left unanswered in my head the moment I stepped out of the cinema, including : "Has James Wan ran out of brilliant horror movies' ideas already or was he just trying to be.experimental? hmmm"