Not bad for a horror movie

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2003)

Scary movies have had something of a renaissance over the past few years. After the devil-baby prime time of the early 1970s, the genre fell into horrible self-parody, high school squeal reflex actions, sex-and-death associations for post-pubescents, the franchising of countless sequels, and quick pocket change for many a B movie queen.
But just when the self-parody-parody set in (e.g. "Scary Movie"), so came a few experiments that worked: The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, etc. The Ring, owing to its Japanese origins free from the American massacre of the American massacre film, qualifies among them. While it falls short on a lot of levels, many criticisms stem from my improved expectations from scary movies of late.
To its credit, the movie delivers the scares. There's enough to keep your interest throughout the film, and for the most part the movie rides the right side of the scary-silly line. There's a lot of good and convincing acting. There's a good plot with the right amount of the unexplained to keep you guessing -- a nice change from most American movies where subtlety comes with a sledgehammer.
But therein also lies some of its flaws. In the end there are clearly too many questions and inconsistencies left behind. For every question that might be best left unanswered for effect (***spoiler*** : for example, how was Samara conceived, and what made her evil), there were multiple inconsistencies in the plotlines that left the movie feeling incomplete. Other areas were spelled out that either detracted from the plot or added nothing (***spoiler***: Did you really have to show Samara crawling out the the TV? ***non-spoiler***: And what did it add that Aidan turned out to be the son of Rachel and Noah in some kind of Darth Vader-lite plotline?).
As for plotline, to its credit, many parts worked. However, some did not. There were a few scenes where I had a far greater urge to laugh (and did) at a ridiculous situation than be frightened by it. And while unravelling the mystery makes for a good story, the 40,000-ft view of this movie is little more than a fatalistic episode of Scooby Doo.
Sorry, but contrary to some opinions here, the child actor (David Dorfman) who played Aidan was stiff, annoying, and wholly unconvincing. It made me realize how much of a joke "Sixth Sense" could have been without Mr. Osment. By the end I was hoping for some kind of mythical man-month math, wanting Aidan to watch 7 copies of the tape so they could eliminate his character in a single day. But the performances by Naomi Watts and particularly Brian Cox are solid.
Some scenes interestingly struck me as something lifted completely out of Japanese comic books or anime -- like the scene where Noah is first walking up to Rachel's apartment in the rain in his hooded coat, his wet hair flying about.
The fact that I wrote this much about it says something. Despite all its flaws, it's a good movie (7/10). But the gaping holes and questions at the end are too much to call it a classic by any means.