This movie was on Channel 4 last night (in U.K) and having really enjoyed Battle Royale, I decided to give the sequel a chance, even though I'd heard that Requiem wasn't anywhere near as good as the first movie. I have to say I actually quite enjoyed the movie.
Not to say that there weren't aspects of it that I didn't like. The attempt tocontinue the plot onwards from the first movie is what let it down. The first film was so great because in many ways it didn't rely on plot at all, it was simply taking an interesting, gritty look at human violence and survival, while giving plenty of great fighting scenes to keep the audience entertained. It's simplicity made it work. But with Requiem they tried to bring too much emotional investment into the mix along with a plot outline.
You almost expect them to take the mistake even further and make a third BR (thus the film trilogy that we see far too much of these days). It's a shame because if it wasn't for the silly plot then I would have been able to take the film a lot more seriously.
However looking at it as a stand alone movie in its own right that gives a dire warning about humanity's continuing lack of morality, it ain't half bad. The Saving Private Ryan style beach landing was really cool, and as mentioned earlier, the cinematography did the film a lot of justice.
In short the film would have been a lot better if it had had nothing to do with the plot of the original and taken its own storyline rather than a continuation of the original. But there you go, such is the way with so many sequels, and in the end, you can't deny that if you just want to watch a film with plenty of gore and entertaining battle scenes, then BR 2 fits the bill.
Not to say that there weren't aspects of it that I didn't like. The attempt tocontinue the plot onwards from the first movie is what let it down. The first film was so great because in many ways it didn't rely on plot at all, it was simply taking an interesting, gritty look at human violence and survival, while giving plenty of great fighting scenes to keep the audience entertained. It's simplicity made it work. But with Requiem they tried to bring too much emotional investment into the mix along with a plot outline.
You almost expect them to take the mistake even further and make a third BR (thus the film trilogy that we see far too much of these days). It's a shame because if it wasn't for the silly plot then I would have been able to take the film a lot more seriously.
However looking at it as a stand alone movie in its own right that gives a dire warning about humanity's continuing lack of morality, it ain't half bad. The Saving Private Ryan style beach landing was really cool, and as mentioned earlier, the cinematography did the film a lot of justice.
In short the film would have been a lot better if it had had nothing to do with the plot of the original and taken its own storyline rather than a continuation of the original. But there you go, such is the way with so many sequels, and in the end, you can't deny that if you just want to watch a film with plenty of gore and entertaining battle scenes, then BR 2 fits the bill.