While I do agree with many of the bad reviews blasting the poor editing and missed opportunities. I am still glad that this movie got made. What does parallel the first film are some great ideas lost in some cliché ones -Great ideas that perhaps were done fairly in the first, are done haphazardly in this sequel.
A few IMDb reviewers likened this remake to Aliens, and I think that is the best perspective to approach it. The movie builds off of the lore of the first film but it noticeably tries to be a different type of film as far as tension and pacing feels more action-like than thriller-like. I assume this was done purposefully as the premise is so contrastly different than most films in this genre: mercenaries are hired to hunt down the serial killer. -And oh how I love that premise: the Mercenaries (Including "Bubbles" (Andre Royo of The Wire fame) force the protagonist in the first film to help them find a girl captured by the killer. Only Arkin knows the way's to the killer's lair, as he is the only person who has ever escaped. *******Spoilers** Some other elements in the sequel I like are the zombie-like drugged-up victims that have gone insane. I also like the idea that some of his victims have Stockholm syndrome and assist him. Even the ending, opens itself up for a third film with a revenge-type plot involving Arkin! which further intrigues me. ********End- Spoilers** All these great ideas are just barely touched upon, which is a huge downer, but what I love about the last film and even this sequel, is that I can still tell that at its core, these movies are TRYING to NOT rehash the same crap clichés shoveled into us by the mouthfuls. You see effort in that regard and even if it fails on some levels, I highly encourage this type of behavior in my movies.
Hence the 7 out of 10.
In Summary: I feel in many ways, what lacked in proper execution this time around, made up for it by a dare I say BETTER premise than the first. As the first movie was pretty Saw generic like -I've never seen a movie where a bunch of mercenaries are hired to hunt down a serial killer. BOOM.
A few IMDb reviewers likened this remake to Aliens, and I think that is the best perspective to approach it. The movie builds off of the lore of the first film but it noticeably tries to be a different type of film as far as tension and pacing feels more action-like than thriller-like. I assume this was done purposefully as the premise is so contrastly different than most films in this genre: mercenaries are hired to hunt down the serial killer. -And oh how I love that premise: the Mercenaries (Including "Bubbles" (Andre Royo of The Wire fame) force the protagonist in the first film to help them find a girl captured by the killer. Only Arkin knows the way's to the killer's lair, as he is the only person who has ever escaped. *******Spoilers** Some other elements in the sequel I like are the zombie-like drugged-up victims that have gone insane. I also like the idea that some of his victims have Stockholm syndrome and assist him. Even the ending, opens itself up for a third film with a revenge-type plot involving Arkin! which further intrigues me. ********End- Spoilers** All these great ideas are just barely touched upon, which is a huge downer, but what I love about the last film and even this sequel, is that I can still tell that at its core, these movies are TRYING to NOT rehash the same crap clichés shoveled into us by the mouthfuls. You see effort in that regard and even if it fails on some levels, I highly encourage this type of behavior in my movies.
Hence the 7 out of 10.
In Summary: I feel in many ways, what lacked in proper execution this time around, made up for it by a dare I say BETTER premise than the first. As the first movie was pretty Saw generic like -I've never seen a movie where a bunch of mercenaries are hired to hunt down a serial killer. BOOM.