Battle Royale 2: If you thought the first film was controversial… Wow. Instead of merely being a bloodthirsty look at the fascist world of a potential pan-Asian distopia, this film also manages to mark out it’s territory as a strongly anti-American Government film- I can’t really go into detail about how much since it would spoil both this, AND the (classic) first film. Suffice it to say, I was surprised at the level of vitriol present in this film.
Sadly, even with this outrageous level of potentially powerful content, the film really fails to match the brilliance of the original in almost every way. The characterizations are weak, the relationships only poorly mapped out (both were strengths of the original) and the idea underpinning the whole story has none of the freshness of the original (even if it’s probably MORE daring.) Where this film works best is as a 10,000 bullet actioner, and even then it’s SO derivative that it’s not much to speak of…
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