Meh
Summary
Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton give their best, but this movie suffered from too much sisterly drama, plot holes, and not enough thrills.
Plot: Continuing exactly from where the previous film left off, Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) is forced, along with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), to face off against a new group of rich Satanic-worshipping hunters for the leadership role amongst the families.
Review: I really enjoyed Ready or Not. The movie came out of nowhere to me and had sharp humour and thrills galore, plus Samara Weaving was terrific in the lead role. I guess she’s what people today would call “fire” in the role. Therefore, I was excited to see the sequel, with the original directors and writers returning, as well as my longtime crush, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the eternally fresh-faced Elijah Wood joining the cast.
I read that the writers actually were writing a different movie about combative sisters and decided to shoehorn that story into a Ready or Not movie when they found out the original’s directors were doing a sequel. Does it work? Well…err…not really, and here’s why.
What the original filmmakers didn’t seem to get is what made Weaving’s Grace so memorable. It wasn’t just that she was a plucky survivor battling it out with a bunch of douchebag rich people; it was that she did it alone. She was against the family and refused to say die, no matter how ridiculous or extreme the circumstances got. Throwing in her sister makes it less special; now it’s the pair of them. They could have made Newton at least an athletic badass to justify why she’s needed, but she’s basically a younger, poutier version of Weaving’s character. Trying to force the originally intended story into this format doesn’t work.
None of this is more evident than the almost constant fighting between Newton and Weaving when they’re not running from or fighting the villains. It becomes really old, really fast and is especially ridiculous when you consider there are more pressing matters – like the four groups of people who want them both dead. It crescendos throughout the flick, but you know everything will turn out all right and miraculously, all this bad blood will dissipate into a loving relationship by the end. Which it does. So, meh.
There were also plot holes galore. I understood the whole “High Chair of the Council” theory and the desire to attain that status, but it seemed some parts of the story were fast and loose with logic. Like, why does Grace just get to walk at the end, or why is killing other family members wrong, but killing your own family members is okay? I also don’t get why Grace is even being recycled in another game or why her victory in the first movie even triggered a High Council battle royale in this one; you know what? Just don’t think of the plot of the movie. Again, it was just shoehorned in.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many memorable deaths in the movie. There is a gruesome demise by washing machine (!!!!!) which was kind of cool and a death with a katana, but otherwise just…internal combustion. Lots and lots of internal combustion. It’s cool when used once, but over and over again? Not as entertaining.
As for the characters, Weaving and Newton do try, and Newton in particular has been in far more annoying roles than this one (*cough* Cassie Lang *cough*). Sarah Michelle Gellar tries to lend some gravity in the role as the lead female villain, and Shawn Hatosy does his level best to unsettle as her psychotic twin brother. David Cronenberg had a small role, which was nice. The most noticeable flaw was Varun Saranga as the comedy relief brother – all of his humour fell flat to me. Only Elijah Wood’s poker-faced and proper Satanic lawyer came across as memorable. Particularly unmemorable was the movie’s soundtrack.
Do I recommend this movie? I guess it would have its fans, especially die-hard hardcore Ready or Not fans who dress as Samara Weaving’s character. Maybe people who like sisters bickering and arguing a lot. Me, though? I’ll pass on giving this another watch unless they somehow do an awesome part three.