The original Crimson Rivers is a great thriller, and I loved it. The sequel on the other hand, is a little difficult to appreciate.
With only Jean Reno returning from the original film, it's a telling sign that the movie will loose some of its artistic merit and give you a nagging feeling that it was made just for the money.
A screenplay written by Luc Besson might sound like a great starting place. Now, I prefer that sequels stay as different as possible to their predecessors while attaining some consistency with character and other technical details, but still, telling a different story. And Besson did that. Unfortunately, he managed to write an entirely different movie with no connection whatsoever to The Crimson Rivers that would make you consider it a sequel.
The story itself is a mess. It combines a "DaVinci code" type of semi-religious conspiracy with some urban action scenes, some of the gritty and gory murders that made the original movie so memorable, and, not kidding, Indiana Jones styled treasure hunting.
The director's weird composition doesn't help the cause, nor does the jumpy editing. The cinematography is a nightmare. With some sort of filter used for the lenses, whenever there are indoor sequences with light coming out of the windows, they get blurred so badly that you feel your glasses got smudged. The camera goes all over the place. All this combined with a convoluted script make this a movie which is extremely difficult to follow.
The characters themselves are thin. There are no introductions to any of the investigators, nor do they have time to interact. They're just thrown in, starting to figure out clues, running to places and solving puzzles right on the spot. Now, it's understandable that you don't want to waste time on pleasantries and go straight for the plot right away, but this pacing is TOO fast. You can't even think for yourself what's going one when the Marie character already tells the answer.
Jean Reno once again plays Niemans, and he does pretty much the same performance he did with the original. Some continuity is made by making him wear a black leather jacket, which is a nice touch, though quite irrelevant, except for maybe giving the movie an even darker tone and helping viewers with short attention spans to identify him quickly. (again, irrelevant, since they can't follow any of the plot). Benoit Magimel, on the other hand, just doesn't have a chance. No matter how much he tries, he can't shake off the notion that he is a replacement for Vincent Cassel. Christopher Lee is perfect, and he nails his character, but, it's nothing he hasn't done before. Didn't know he could speak both French and German, though.
Colin Towns' score, particularly the dissonant horror-like action cues, is not that anonymous as I hoped, though considering Bruno Coulais' surprisingly effective work for the first movie, you kinda miss him here.
The action scenes are exciting, if you manage to make anything out of them. Unfortunately for Besson and the producers, you can't really expect that the hooded monks actually have supernatural powers when the first movie was set in a non-fantastic scenario. While it is eventually revealed (in a very lame way, honestly) that they are enhanced by amphetamines, the plot is supposed to be made exciting by the mystery of their powers.
But at the end you can start seeing some of the flaws in the script making this entire conspiracy rather dumb. The supermarket scene, while quite entertaining, can loose all of the thrill once you notice that monks in hoods are walking freely and suspiciously (read: insultingly obvious) on the aisles and kill a guy in plain sight of everyone. And no one saw it coming?
The conclusion to the story is quite frustrating. All of these killings and conspiracies were just to find an old rare book, but it doesn't matter what it contains, since a mechanism floods the entire place and destroys the book, and killing everyone except, not surprisingly, Reno and Magimel. So basically, all of the plot was for nothing.
Either way, you might think this movie could have been better, but considering that The Crimson Rivers is perfect the way it is, there was absolutely no need for a sequel. At least, maybe one where we knew something else about Niemans, other than he named a dog after his partner. This is the ending line of the movie, by the way, and it could have stolen a chuckle if the movie had let some room for humor earlier!
As a sequel, it's terrible. As a standalone film, it's quite flawed. In the end, this movie should be moved up to the ranks of the Hall of Unnecessary Sequels. It's somewhat decent entertainment, but not even by taking out any references to The Crimson Rivers could you really think highly of it.
And people think everything European is high art?
With only Jean Reno returning from the original film, it's a telling sign that the movie will loose some of its artistic merit and give you a nagging feeling that it was made just for the money.
A screenplay written by Luc Besson might sound like a great starting place. Now, I prefer that sequels stay as different as possible to their predecessors while attaining some consistency with character and other technical details, but still, telling a different story. And Besson did that. Unfortunately, he managed to write an entirely different movie with no connection whatsoever to The Crimson Rivers that would make you consider it a sequel.
The story itself is a mess. It combines a "DaVinci code" type of semi-religious conspiracy with some urban action scenes, some of the gritty and gory murders that made the original movie so memorable, and, not kidding, Indiana Jones styled treasure hunting.
The director's weird composition doesn't help the cause, nor does the jumpy editing. The cinematography is a nightmare. With some sort of filter used for the lenses, whenever there are indoor sequences with light coming out of the windows, they get blurred so badly that you feel your glasses got smudged. The camera goes all over the place. All this combined with a convoluted script make this a movie which is extremely difficult to follow.
The characters themselves are thin. There are no introductions to any of the investigators, nor do they have time to interact. They're just thrown in, starting to figure out clues, running to places and solving puzzles right on the spot. Now, it's understandable that you don't want to waste time on pleasantries and go straight for the plot right away, but this pacing is TOO fast. You can't even think for yourself what's going one when the Marie character already tells the answer.
Jean Reno once again plays Niemans, and he does pretty much the same performance he did with the original. Some continuity is made by making him wear a black leather jacket, which is a nice touch, though quite irrelevant, except for maybe giving the movie an even darker tone and helping viewers with short attention spans to identify him quickly. (again, irrelevant, since they can't follow any of the plot). Benoit Magimel, on the other hand, just doesn't have a chance. No matter how much he tries, he can't shake off the notion that he is a replacement for Vincent Cassel. Christopher Lee is perfect, and he nails his character, but, it's nothing he hasn't done before. Didn't know he could speak both French and German, though.
Colin Towns' score, particularly the dissonant horror-like action cues, is not that anonymous as I hoped, though considering Bruno Coulais' surprisingly effective work for the first movie, you kinda miss him here.
The action scenes are exciting, if you manage to make anything out of them. Unfortunately for Besson and the producers, you can't really expect that the hooded monks actually have supernatural powers when the first movie was set in a non-fantastic scenario. While it is eventually revealed (in a very lame way, honestly) that they are enhanced by amphetamines, the plot is supposed to be made exciting by the mystery of their powers.
But at the end you can start seeing some of the flaws in the script making this entire conspiracy rather dumb. The supermarket scene, while quite entertaining, can loose all of the thrill once you notice that monks in hoods are walking freely and suspiciously (read: insultingly obvious) on the aisles and kill a guy in plain sight of everyone. And no one saw it coming?
The conclusion to the story is quite frustrating. All of these killings and conspiracies were just to find an old rare book, but it doesn't matter what it contains, since a mechanism floods the entire place and destroys the book, and killing everyone except, not surprisingly, Reno and Magimel. So basically, all of the plot was for nothing.
Either way, you might think this movie could have been better, but considering that The Crimson Rivers is perfect the way it is, there was absolutely no need for a sequel. At least, maybe one where we knew something else about Niemans, other than he named a dog after his partner. This is the ending line of the movie, by the way, and it could have stolen a chuckle if the movie had let some room for humor earlier!
As a sequel, it's terrible. As a standalone film, it's quite flawed. In the end, this movie should be moved up to the ranks of the Hall of Unnecessary Sequels. It's somewhat decent entertainment, but not even by taking out any references to The Crimson Rivers could you really think highly of it.
And people think everything European is high art?