Category: Reviews

Paranormal Activity 2, the sequel to Paranormal Activity, has been grabbing top spots across movie theatres in the world already – and this is just the opening weekend. Once again, Paramount has engaged in clever viral marketing tactics for the sequel that is bound to see this become a box office hit.

The original Paranormal Activity is a one-of-a-kind film that showed audiences can be spooked with mere whispers. Comparisons were made its soul predecessor, The Blair Witch Project, drawing on similarities such as mock documentary style adopted by both the films. However, I found Paranormal Activity to be scarier (the first time I watched it) because of how subtly it tried to convey the horror at points in the narrative – the slightest change of speech intonations, merest hint of a sinister smile. The Blair Witch Project on steroids, if you will.

That’s what I found fascinating – the use of understated actions and emotions to scare. The earnestness of the psychic the couple in the film seek help from, the genuine frustration of Katie as she tries not antagonize whatever is possessing her, and the macho-posturing of Micah Sloat trying to deal with demonic possession with the same strategy he would walk into a bar brawl – add quirks that make the characters come real. Yet, in typical Hollywood fashion, the studio executives at Paramount forced changes to ‘make the film popular with mass audiences’. Now, you may have a contrasting opinion (read a summary of changes in the last link), but I think changes were for the worse. The ‘Paramount cut’ set the stage for this sequel by changing the ending; it also changed the tone and that’s a relevant factor when watching the latest release. Compare the theatrical release ending and the original cut ending for yourself.

My rating of Paranormal Activity: 4.5 / 5 (the original cut)

What was originally a scary tragedy was turned into a scary run-of-the-mill horror film by that single twist at the end. Paranormal Activity 2 – which as technically a prequel, not a sequel – continues in the same vein. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing – banking on the name of its predecessor to masquerade as horror film that is ‘better than others’ for adopting a mock documentary look. While that is true, the similarity runs only skin-deep. Out of its 90-minute running time, half of it is totally worthless. A slow pace at the start is forgivable IF it builds up to something; that’s not the case in this movie as the ‘spooky occurrences’ can be shifted around anywhere in the storyline without anyone noticing. Paranormal Activity 2 scares by popping a “boo!” every now and then. For the amount of money you’re paying to watch this movie, you could hire someone to jump out of a corner in a scary outfit – and it would have the same effect.

What is dumbfounding is the ambivalence of the (wooden) characters in this movie is using the ‘security camera’ footage – sometimes, they routinely check the footage to validate their fears, and yet at as the movie creeps to the climax everyone just seems to ‘forget’ that the cameras are there to corroborate and investigate what’s happening in their little haunted mansion.

The half of the story that isn’t worthless will still scare you – just not for the same reasons as the first film. Rather than teasing your primordial sense of fear, it milks interchangeable jack-in-the-box “boo!” moments for all their worth. Last I heard, that was supposed to be refuge of lazy filmmakers a la the ones behind this year’s A Nightmare On Elm Street remake. To be fair, Oren Peli didn’t reprise his role as director for the sequel. If the reason Paramount execs wanted to change the original was to shed excess fat from script, then this one should have had a runtime little more than a TV special!

No, the simple answer is that the studio is greedy and Paranormal Activity 2 is a manifestation of their greed with only a hastily tacked on back-story to add to the canon. No doubt the fat cats cackling at the take from the box office and already planning a second sequel.

Still, it’s a film that will make you wonder whether the movie theatre turned up the air conditioning a notch when you watch it.

My rating of Paranormal Activity 2: 2.5 / 5

My rating of Resident Evil: Afterlife: 3.5/5
Directed by: Paul WS Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Wentworth Miller, Boris Kodjoe
Studio: Sony Pictures

I cannot recall any movie trailer in recent history that got me as vexed as the one for Resident Evil: Afterlife did. Let’s all watch the trailer first before I explain why. Better still, watch a literal interpretation of the Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer. (I promise it’s going to be unlike any trailer you’ve ever seen.)

The trailer made a good first impression on me since it uses The Outsider by A Perfect Circle as its soundtrack – a track that I can keep on loop the whole day on iTunes and yet not feel the urge to hit the skip button. But then, the trailer shows this:

Resident Evil: Afterlife is the first film after Avatar to be filmed using the same Fusion 3D camera system created by James Cameron, but saying that front-and-centre in the trailer seemed to be a lame way of invoking his name in the hopes of pulling people in. After all, if, say, Uwe Boll got his hands on a camera previously-owned by Alfred Hitchcock at an auction then that doesn’t necessarily mean that Boll(ock)’s next movie will be ‘pure gold’ instead of merely ‘comedy gold’ (in a bad way).

(I realize this joke will be lost on readers who don’t know how terrible Uwe Boll is. Let’s just say that it would be an understatement if he’s called the world’s worst filmmaker.)

Moving on, I expected to be disappointed by the performance of zombie actors in this movie due to a scene in the trailer where Milla Jovovich jumps off a building. There are many scenes where Ms Jovovich jumps of a building in this movie, so I have provided an image for clarification.

Just look at that zombie. Look, I do understand that zombies aren’t supposed to be intelligent as they are essentially re-animated corpses. Still, that zombie stepping straight onto the ledge far away from food, i.e., Ms Jovovich actually is an unpardonable level of stupidity. All that the zombie had to do is head straight for the food, rather than take a course slightly off-target while not even looking at the food, i.e., Ms Jovovich.

The villain of the movie – Albert Wesker, played by Shawn Roberts (I initially thought the role was played by a now-fat Val Kilmer) – prefers to sit wearing sunglasses in a blindingly white room, as is the taste of villains when it comes to mood lighting in most Hollywood films.

Inexplicably, the villain then proceeds to take of his sunglasses and throws them directly towards the camera the James Cameron / Vince Pace Fusion Camera System (also known, as the trailer tells us, as “the world’s most advanced 3D technology “).

After having watched the movie, I can confirm to y’all that this is not criticism being taken out of context, but there really was no reason for the villain to throw his sunglasses at the camera at that point in the plot. Unless, that is, the villain was aware that he was being filmed with The World’s Most Advanced 3D Technology™ – in which case he would have realized it would make for a spectacular-yet-pointless effect when viewed with 3D glasses.

Lest you think I’m out to molest a movie based on nothing other than it’s trailer, let me assure you that I have watched it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Avatar‘s 3D jiggery-pokery was rooted in magnificent vistas, while Paul WS Anderson uses it creatively throughout RE:A to give a perception of depth – blades of grass near a landing strip, stones on a beach, a keyboard on desk. You must watch this in movie in 3D if you have to since this is real 3D – not a shitty post-production conversion as is the wont of many ‘3D’ movies these days – and it’s 3D done well, in enclosed environments.

Don’t go in expecting a cerebral flick; this is a zombie genre film after all. I promise you won’t be disappointed – not even by the ham-acting of the zombies.

From the grandiose ending of this movie (stick around for a while after the credits roll to see Jill Valentine again), it can be inferred Umbrella Corporation does not seem to be running out the backing of its shareholders any time soon, despite the fact that it’s a postapocalyptic world and all its shareholders are probably zombies. Since it seems Umbrella Corp has limitless finances, expect many more Resident Evil films in the future.

Mrs Paul Anderson isn’t going to be out of a job any time by any estimates.