As mentioned, it had potential to be good, but it was draggy, boring, and somewhat unrealistic with the way people handled being shot (it was the same in the first movie, but I dismissed it). Which brings me to acting.
The acting was ok; the multiple bullets in their chests proving no match as they continued on to do, what I would call, laborious tasks such as dragging another person's body, and shooting some more people while running wildly. So, I guess they're stronger than the average person?
Overall, I don't really have a doubt that this would've been clicked onto my 'dropped' section of the list had I not developed the no-dropping-rule for my list. I even had a text conversation during the movie, if that tells you anything. It didn't keep me entertained for more than 5 minutes at best, the plot turned sour and boring pretty quick, and it just became a hard task to finish out the movie.
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I give this movie a four star merely for its effort of a potentially good plot concept of bravery and freedom but the plot this time round seemed off key compared to the first one. I literally spent most of the film feeling like i had missed an explanation; especially when I caught myself realising that it was unnecessary explanation. This happened so often it took me like twice as long to complete the movie.
CHARACTERS:
I just did not find myself getting attached to any characters even those that felt like they were placed there as mains.
ACTING:
Most of the actors overacted so much it felt like the film was filled with first tie actors. I would advise that you use imagination to in vision the supposed emotions meant to be portrayed.
LIKED – the closest thing to make me like this movie was the authenticity of the first student’s head being blown off; probably the best acting of the whole movie.
DISLIKED – They teacher’s (Riki Takeuchi) speech at the beginning set up the bad acting to come, but at least some of the students had slightly better acting abilities than their older counterparts.
CONCLUSION:
You should watch this drama if you enjoy genres such as war – high school - child actors – bad acting – crying – friends – freedom - students – suicide – tragedy – gore – hope – institution – sequels.
I am just gratefully to get it out of the way and off my “to watch list”.
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Some background, the director of the first movie passed away before this movie started to film. So his son took over and was the director of this one.
Also the lead role actor Tatsuya Fujiwara was fresh off is Death Note kick, so I guess he felt like he didnt really need to try and actually act anymore because he'd made enough money.
If you want to watch this for the glory for the Battle Royal name, go right ahead. But the acting, and the change in direction might throw you off.
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We really didn't need this
It's pretty boring and kind of confusing. It starts of pretty well, but loses itself the further you go. I finished the movie feeling very bored and unsatisfied. My cousin who saw it with me enjoyed the war aspect of it, but didn't understand much either, he just liked the visual and the idea of a war between kids and adults (he is a tween boy fascinated with gore and zombies, so of course he enjoyed that).It had potential, but someone didn't pay attention to the details. They lost pretty much everything that made the first movie good and I understand now why it's yet another forgotten sequel.
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Not interested eventhough the beggining was on FIRE it quickly dropped...
Didn't want to start the second volume of this film because the first one was good to watch as a must-see but boring as a film itself but surprisingly, I decided as soon as I finished the first film to watch the next one. Maybe out of curiosity. To see what could be that new to the point they directed a second part to the film.Then, let me clarify, I dropped it at 1:25:35 out of the 2hours. The beggining, to be precise, the first fifty minutes were just incredible !! Even better than the whole first volume of the film ! But then it started being boring asf. The acting had no flavour to me from then on (sorry to the actors) and the plot was just non-existent at that point of the movie...
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The whole movie does rely on the emotional side more they tbh could do so much better! the most down set was that I couldn't get engrossed in the movie from the beginning :)
Makes it clear that the acting wasn't good either
Maybe, no certainly the movie would be better if the director didn't die and could still direct the movie...
It does shows the political side and the sorrowful life of the children's and people that how the countries in war lives tho as a movie this wasn't something I would rewatch
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This review may contain spoilers
BATTLE ROYALE 2: REQUIEM FINALLY ANSWERS ONE HARD-HITTING QUESTION: what if movies were bad?
Obvious spoilers ahead. I tried to avoid anything major in regards to character deaths or plot beats. However, I do mention a specific scene and what happens in it, as well as what happens in the first ~20 minutes. Read at your own risk...? Is that how that saying goes?———————
I first watched this movie roughly three months ago. I have not rewatched it a single time. Despite this, I find I have more to say about it than I did back then. The longer I think about this film, the longer my criticisms become. Because this film is just Remarkably bad. I really struggle to understand how this happened. This'll mostly just be a word vomit of criticism because I need to get this out.
At first glance, the plot doesn't seem that bad. In fact, it's almost compelling! A movie taking place after the first movie that has the protagonists of the last movie become terrorists that the government wants to hunt down could be interesting, but this film really fumbles it. I'm not usually one to judge logic in an unrealistic film (my favorite movies become incredibly stupid if you think about the logic for more than a few seconds) but Wow this was really stupid! Every character was really stupid and the plot was really stupid!! There's a rule they implement at the beginning that just... makes no sense. I imagine it's trying to say something about how governments needlessly kill their own people, including children, in war? But it's a sloppy way to deliver that message, and takes away any suspense or emotional weight that the character deaths could've otherwise had.
On that topic, the pacing in this film is terrible. Honestly, it's difficult to talk about the pacing because I have never seen a film with pacing this terrible. I'm genuinely at a loss for words and I do not understand how you can mess up while directing THIS terribly. Nothing happens in the first 30 minutes, then there's a headache inducing action scene that should hold emotional weight but just doesn't. This continues to happen the entire movie, with long strings of really boring scenes that try to build characters (but fail) and then bursts of jarring, confusing and most importantly, meaningless action. Even when important things Are happening, it feels like nothing is happening.
While on the topic of characters, the characters are so poorly fleshed out that when they inevitably die, you feel nothing. This is especially upsetting when it comes to the one character that had potential, AKA the daughter of Kitano's character in the first movie. The beginning of the movie is spent focused on her and trying to build her up, but after that, they sideline her and focus on... some classmate of hers that has an incredibly boring backstory and motivation. Okay. They try to give her more weight later on but once again, it falls flat. Another character they squander is actually the protagonist of the original movie, Nanahara. I won't go into too much detail as to not spoil anything too hard, but Nanahara goes from a sweet and compelling character in the first movie to a washed-up failure of a revolutionary in the sequel. I've never seen a sequel ruin a character quite like this film does with him, he is completely unlikeable and as per usual for this movie, stupid.
Now, as much as I cannot stand this movie, I do appreciate the attempt at commentary. Note the use of the word "attempt", because while on the surface I agree with the messaging on the United States, imperialism, nuclear warfare and resistance, it is handled just as poorly as every other aspect of the film. The first Battle Royale's commentary is incredibly tactful and effective, whereas this one simply Tells you "THIS IS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES!!! DO YOU GET IT!!!!" while barely showing how. I will not give a terribly handled movie props for having a message I agree with. I would've given it its flowers had they handled it even marginally better, but they didn't.
Even my favorite part of the movie, that being Takeuchi Riki's insane performance, shouldn't have been part of it. It was incredibly entertaining and funny but that doesn't fit what the movie is trying to be at all. I'm glad he was part of it though, because its a glimmer of "so-bad-its-kino" comedy in an otherwise unbearably stupid and boring film.
The movie isn't all bad though! There's a scene where Takeshi Kitano asks his teenage daughter if he should kill himself that's probably supposed to be emotional but instead comes off incredibly humorous. It's also not relevant at all to the story! 10/10, no notes. it's beautiful.
If you want a movie like Battle Royale with compelling characters and good directing, don't watch this. If you like war movies and want hard-hitting anti-US government, imperialism and war commentary, still don't watch this! There are so many movies that handle these topics with more tact and grace that you could watch instead. there's no reason to watch this unless you're a Kinji Fukasaku completionist, and even then this shouldn't count because he only directed One scene in it before his death. It's sloppy, terribly paced and drawn out. Not worth your time in the slightest. Kenta Fukasaku got what he wished for with outrage for the sequel, but probably not for the reason he wanted. Instead of generating outrage for the messaging, he generated outrage for how boring it was! So maybe he should've been a little more specific with his wishes...
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This review may contain spoilers
Excited young people on the warpath.
At the turn of the century, a new game was started by the Japanese government called Battle Royale. The game involved a class being selected each year to go to a deserted island and fight to survive. The game was for the class to kill each other until only one was left.3 years have passed since Class 9B played Battle Royale and Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara) has gone and become a terrorist. Shuya wants revenge on the adults and decides to start a war against the elders and the government of Japan. He has gathered friends who also played and survived Battle Royale. They blow up 2 skyscrapers (similar to the tragedy of September 11, 2001) and hide on an island off Japan. The Japanese government does not like the deed and decides to start a new game, Battle Royale 2. The game is about a class of 40 young people having 73 hours to find and kill Shuya Nanahara or the metal bands around their necks will explode.
When you look at Battle Royale 2, you see a lot of similarities to the first movie. It makes me a little disappointed because it would be a little more fun if they could vary. But that's also the only negative thing about the film. The rest of the film is like the first, very good. Great feeling and very good acting performance. Kinji Fukasaku (director) just finished filming Battle Royale 2 before he died of cancer. His son Kenta Fukasaku then took over the rest of the work to complete the film. In my own opinion, I consider Battle Royale 2 to be an outstanding movie. Maybe not as good as the first one, but not far behind. The film has the same violent elements as the first, but Kinji has managed a better plot in Battle Royale 2 than in the first and that means a lot to the film.
Something that really needs to be mentioned is the music. The music in Battle Royale 2 is wonderful. You get a feeling of sadness and anger when the different songs are played during the film. But there is also powerful music in some scenes. Such as when a group of trained soldiers appear on the island to try to kill Shuya. Firefights erupt and beautiful dramatic music pours out of the speakers. That makes me really shudder. Those of you who liked Battle Royale will like the second one. Usually when you think that a sequel is coming, you immediately get a negative attitude towards the film.
A funny scene in this movie is when Shuya and the rebels send out a speech to the world declaring war on all adults and minutes later a missile hits the island and damages some buildings. In the next scene, you find out that it is a large country in the West (the World Police) that did not like the speech and decided to do what they did best, bomb.
I recommend the movie to anyone who enjoyed the first one.
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