An unfortunate let-down

Rating: 5/10 (17 October 2002)

***Spoilers Ahoy!***
Fill in the blanks:
Our film begins when _________ mysteriously dies as a result of having accidentally stumbled onto a _________ with strange supernatural powers. It turns out that when the characters see the ________, a female voice then tells them that they have ______ days to live, after which a creepy little girl shows up to usher in their untimely deaths. The only real way to solve the mystery is to have the main character subject him/herself to the ________, thus putting them in harm's way and the ____ day countdown begins. At the very last minute, our hero discovers that the cause of all the commotion is because the creepy girl was murdered by ________ and just wants her soul set free.
Is this the plot line for 'Feardotcom' or for 'The Ring?' Unfortunately, it's both. 'The Ring' is by far the better of the two films, with superior acting, pacing, effects, and script. It also tacks on a pretty interesting twist to the "little girl done wrong" story, which I presume is what will ultimately set this film apart from its cinematic doppelganger. However the backbone of 'The Ring' is so strikingly similar to 'Feardotcom', that I ultimately felt like I had already seen this flick before, and it sucked. Very, very disappointing.
I also felt that the film-makers chose their path too early on. Four teenagers die in the opening sequence (almost entirely off-screen) as a result of having seen "the tape" (as it comes to be known). After some sleuthing, our main character Naomi Watts discovers the tape, watches it, and begins the countdown to her demise lest she solve the mystery. At this point, we can assume that either she will succeed and live (very probable), or will fail and die, leaving the peripheral characters to pick up the slack (not very probable-this IS American cinema after all). And that's just it. We know that if anyone is going to die on screen, it has to be Naomi Watts first, and I just didn't believe that was going to happen. Now, there is the now-obligatory twist at the end, so the audience doesn't go home completely unsatisfied, but the explanation is sketchy and it's too little, way too late. 4/10.