IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN BATTLE ROYALE ONE DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW. SPOILERS LIKE MAD.
(2003)
Battle Royale was such an amazing movie and novel and a squeal was no doubt what every fan was looking forward to... or dreading. When I first watched BR 1 and then found out there was a second? I leaped at the chance to watch it.
Sadly it was so.... nothing compared to it.
The books ending was so beautiful and well done that the start of BR2 makes no sense and ruins it. And also Shuya becoming a terrorist? hmm it seems abit taboo and but hurty. I didn't like the new game. In the book and first movie it was about how Japan was going into melt down and the youth of that generation was out of control and something needed to be done to stop it.
Thus the BR act.
But this time the 42 unlucky kids are not so much as 'randomly picked' as 'Hey these kids are shit and in a shit kids school.. no one will miss them if they die, they are just in the way anyway' attitude.
The set up to the game is rough and like a bull in a china shop compared to the well structured and paced opening scene of the first. Also it seems BR2 is so far clutching at the coattails of it's older brother so far. They have a 'touching class scene' where everyone signs a rugby ball, not that unseemlier from the photo of Noriko, Shuya and Nobu in the first.
Second when they are in the game intro room they have a similar 'Nobu Shuya' moment but with kids no one could care about as so far they all have the personalty of a bag of bricks.
The new teacher is also annoying as fuck, least Kitano was lonely and you felt something for him the whole way through but god, this? Also Kitano's kid has joined in the fun of BR2 cus you can sign up for it online... hm.
So this time it's not 42 students have to off each other in a three day time frame but 42 students are paired up [Boy 1 is with Girl 1 for example] and have to take on Shuya and his terrorist gang. The random factor of weapons chosen is out as they want these no good kids to do their war for them.
If your partner dies then you die via the collar system or if they are 500 meters away [I believe?] they also die. They still have the thing with if you are in a forbidden zone when your not meant to be, you also get your head exploded.. and the three day time frame remains.
The action starts right away and they are shipped to the island where Shuya and co are and they manage to blow up a dingy full of students already... so there goes alot with no care what so ever. Least in the first one you got a small glimpse into most the students ways of dying or something but no, not this one.
So int he first 3 mins of the game we go from 40 to 28...
The 'Tag Team' element is new and must such for people as you need your partner to not be a douchebag, selfish or useless so that part is new and a .. little interesting but I feel it's too little to keep this movie ins the 'fresh' or 'good' mind set.
Like is your doing well at the game and your partner decides to be a div and run away from you... yeah your dead too. I'm not sure if this was a try at a clever and new spin on the plot or a way of knocking down alot of cast as not to pay them as much or to avoid needing to write so much in..
Don't get me wrong there are some touching bits of the movie where bonds of friendship are there bust as I said before, almost everyone personality is that of a bag of bricks. hard to feel for anyone really.
The cheerful announcements of the dead are also once again used to tell everyone who has died but it seems a pointless thing since they are pretty much all bundled together with the same mission but hey what do I know?
There is also a diabetic girl running low on insulin so sucks to be her partner.
So with 14 people left and me with hour and thirty mins left to endure. Kitano's kid leads the charge, more people die and they rush Shuya's hobo tower to try and end it while there are still some of them left.
They rush camp Shuya and get surrounded and as contemplation of peace comes up someone opens their big mouth and more shooting and pointless death. Kitano's girl is fully up for revenge on Shuya even though in the first movie it seemed like she hated her father. She is badass and often leads the charge and won't give up which puts everyone else up shit creek.
And Shuya looks like a gay jedi these days.
Alot of collars then start to make noises and Shuya who this can only bring up bad memories for gets his gang to use their EMP device and stops the collars from blowing up saving the doomed partners of people who just got fucked up and also losing the signal to everyone the government and teacher who's popping pills like mad for some reason send in the real troops to sort things out.
Annnnnd half way through it becomes more of a war story then anything else and I've already lost interest by that point but I carry on anyway. My point is it's just not the first movie and there isn't enough ties to the first to save it.
Our main hero always pulls a face and looks really bug eyed, I think the casting could maybe have been abit better but then again I know shit all about who is big in Japan and who isn't.. but the bug eyes took away any drama there could have been cus that's all you can focus on haha
So..
Gore: 3/5
Story: 1.5/5
Casting: 2/5
Over all enjoyment: 1/5
XJigsawX
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