Sucky Sucky Sucky..

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2002)

Ok, my two pennies (SPOILERS BELOW!!)

There are a number of things I just plain hated about this film and that just ruined it IMO:
1. The horses thing.. pretty lame, the story from the original was far better and it didn't need changing.
2. The relationship between Rachel/Aiden/Noah - In Ringu, it was kinda implied that Reiko and Ryuji were divorced and that Yoichi was their son (although there is some debate about whether Yoichi knew who his father was). In The Ring there was animosity between Noah and Rachel, but I preferred Ryuji and Reiko's close partnership, after he saw the video they did all their investigations as a strong team, one unit, there's no sniping, and no attempted connection between Ryuji and the kid, the barely even see each other. The Ring played on their relationship too much and had them arguing to make it more interesting, it shouldn't have been needed.
3. The kid. OMG I hated this kid. Kid's role was played up waaay too much, the pictures were lame, and it was an obvious attempt to make a creepy kid 6th Sense style. It touched on what might have been psychic abilities (which were important in Ringu 2) but it did not show his father having these powers which is where he is supposed to get it from.
4. Lack of spirituality. Japan is a very spiritual culture, and visions of the dead, and psychics are perhaps more fitting there, taking the film and putting it into a sceptical culture took all the mysticism out of it. Sadako (Samara)'s mother was supposed to have been a psychic, she was presented to the world be a Doctor who showed off her abilities. It was BECAUSE her mother was psychic that the kid was a little bit strange in the first place.. The Ring just made Samara seem like Carrie. Normal kid, she just got a little angry when she was killed and created the tape. Sadako however was killing people left right and centre before she even died, that was why the Dr (NOT her mother) chucked her down the well.. she also still looked creepy in flash backs.
5. This leads me to more the Samara look.. she just looked like a kid till the end scene, Sadako always looked freaky, that's how you knew she wasn't some ordinary kid. Even the last scene she looked stupid, she looked freaky as hell in the original. I suggest you look up some Ringu pictures so you can see Sadako's evil eye.. it as important that she look like a freak all the way through (and that she actually looked scary at the end).
6. The Voice.. OMG NO! SADAKO DOES NOT TALK! SADAKO DOES NOT TALK! SADAKO DOES NOT TALK! SADAKO DOES NOT TALK! SADAKO DOES NOT TALK!
Nononononononono! This film totally destroyed the mysticism of what Sadako was, Samara was just a kid, she looked normal, she talked, she even said "Mommy". Just NO.
7. This brings me on to the video and the phone calls.. fair enough, the video has to be changed to fit with the stupid horses story, but to me, it just didn't have the same impact as the other video, and it was too long.. It also failed to reproduce the truly terrifying sound from Ringu.. a sound I can't describe but that sent shivers up my spine. The following phone call is supposed to be just that sound NOT A VOICE. And certainly not the voice on a little girl. Also, after Aiden and Noah saw the video, the phone rang... we never knew if it was *the* call or not, but the very fact that only Reiko received a call in Ringu was significant, it lead her to realise that only in the cabin could the call be made.
8. The "Ring": As far as I could tell Ring in the Original referred to the telephone call, there was no talk of the well being the "ring" no kids drawing rings etc etc. I thought it was kinda silly.
9. Boooored. I found it pretty boring, not because I already know the story because I still enjoy watching Ringu, but because they crammed all the action and intrigue of Ringu into very small sections, and padded the film out with the damn kid, Rachel/Noah arguments and other trivial rubbish.
10. The bodies.. The bodies of Samara's victims we rarely seen (what certificate was this??) and when they were, it was too overdone, they were just supposed to look terrified... they were scared to death.
I'm sure there's more I hated about this movie, but there were the top ten.. It really, really sucked. Do yourselves a favour and watch Ringu, Ring 2 and Ring 0, then you'll understand the real story behind it. Now I'm going to watch Ringu again, I feel unclean.