Cube 2 - Hypercube
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Movie Reviews of Cube 2 - Hypercube
Movie Review: Nihilism at its Finest
Summary: 4 Stars
Cube 2: Hypercube is actually a sequel to the highly successful if little known sci-fi exercise in hopeless existentialism, Cube. The premise is that a bunch of complete strangers wake up in a series of interconnected cubes. There are ladders and doors in all six panels of the room. Traps await the unwary, but the real danger is, as Sartre famously quoted in No Exit, "other people."
What made Cube more than two hours of torture was the mathematical puzzle that powered the environment. Because the cube was a three-dimensional environment, it came with certain rules that could be puzzled out. Hypercube adds a fourth dimension, time, and that changes the rules significantly.
The poor saps stuck in the cube this go round include: Rebecca Young (Greer Kent) who went missing into the Cube, Simon Grady (Geraint Wyn Davies) the private investigator hired to find her, Sasha the blind girl with a mysterious past (Grace Lynn Kung), Max Reisler (Matthew Ferguson) the gaming geek, Jerry Whitehall (Neil Crone) the architectural designer, Juila Sewell (Lindsey Connell) the hot attorney, the irritating Alzheimer's afflicted Mrs. Paley (Barbara Gordon), and finally Kate Filmore (Kari Matchett) a psychologist with a dark past and our protagonist.
Like the first movie, Hypercube dumps our mysterious characters right into the grand guignol. Unlike Cube, Hypercube explains how they got there. All of the characters have a past to an organization known as Izon. This nefarious organization doesn't take kindly to failure, and all our characters are flawed in some way. Without hope, our characters revert to their basest natures. For Max and Julia, it's lust. For Simon, it's violence. For Sasha and Kate, it's deception.
Unfortunately, there are long stretches of talking wherein Jerry explains how hypercubes (also known as a tesseract) work. Because it exists in more than three dimensions, just about anything is possible, including parallel realities. Which means there's no reasonable chance for our protagonists to escape, except for the distinct possibility that in another reality, they already DID escape. Once the parallel world concept is introduced, Hypercube really comes into its own. Remember, there's no food in the cube...
The special effects are minimal and the traps are less inventive than the first. Hypercube is more concerned about the possibilities of alternate dimensions than it is about killing people off, relying instead on the inevitable backstabbing. Although there is a tantalizing series of clues as to the true nature of the hypercube, it's a bit of a feint - figuring it out doesn't help the characters escape or give them much of an advantage. This is a refreshing twist for jaded moviegoers and a depressing downer for those who are looking for a satisfying conclusion.
To the director's credit, Hypercube is relentless in its cynicism. If Cube was existentialist, its sequel is nihilistic.
Movie Review: A Rather Different Spin On The Original Cube Concept
Summary: 4 Stars
"Hypercube" launches with the same basic premise as "Cube" - strangers awakening in different chambers that interconnect inside this vast, cryptic structure. And while it's not on a level with its masterpiece predecessor, it's also not (in my opinion) anywhere close to being as bad as its reputation seems to have placed it. In fact, it's a very good movie in its own right.
I believe the problem lies mostly with the 'explanation' stages of this one compared to the last. Without going into spoilers, the original "Cube" didn't, in my estimation, give a single definitive answer, but left the door open. And in doing so, I felt it suggested something darkly grand, almost infathomable, way outside the realm of previous human experience or, indeed, previously imagined scenarios. It was so strange and so baffling that it was easy to see why the individual characters had trouble putting their theories into words, and it was a 100% successful attempt at implying new concepts that the human mind is hard pressed to fully grasp. "Cube 2 - Hypercube", on the other hand, is much more forthcoming with explaining the nature of events, and while the revelations may have been much more impressive if this installment had come First, they seem so much less grand and so much more familar than what "Cube" hinted at, and rather contrary to what "Cube" hinted at. For this reason, I think you might be better off viewing "Hypercube" as a remake that just decides to try out different routes than the original, than as a direct sequel. Because on its own, "Hypercube" is a better movie than it is when viewed as a sequel to "Cube". There are also too many similarities in the behavior patterns of the characters to the first one; enough deviation for a remake but not believable in a sequel that many of the characters would fall neatly into the slots held by some of the previous players.
On to the brighter side: though "Hypercube"'s endstages are less than "Cube"'s, in the main run of the movie great imagination is on display, throwing new and radically different angles into the mix. For one thing, this Cube 'does' things that the one in the first didn't. And the special effects capture all this innovative new territory with great gusto. Some good twists on character interactions as well, although in other places, as said, a bit too close to the first one. The bottom line is that this is a very entertaining, very engaging and very well-done movie that shouldn't be missed just because it's off the track from the first one. Actually, maybe it's better going off track. With the open-to-interpretation ending of "Cube" perhaps the filmakers decided there was really nothing left to say with a linear followup, and opted to try out a different spin on the concept. Happening in some adjacent reality to the first one, even? After all, things are really, Really wide open to interpretation in the Cube concept.
Movie Review: After reading many reviews, mine is simple
Summary: 4 Stars
I have noticed two people watch the Cube films for different reasons. Some like special effects, others character development. If you like psychological horror and films like Blue Velvet or Pi, I would see the first Cube and not the second. If you like trippy special effects and a movie where you don't really have to care about the characters but enjoy the guy from Forever Night finally getting that frenzied vampire feeding his morality would never give on that show, then watch and enjoy.I came into Hypercube knowing that it wasn't going to be as good as the first. I really can't even watch the end of Cube without freaking out. The rooms are black, the actors [draw] you into a small, paranoid world. Hypercube is white, like the 180 degree cousin to the first. I didn't as much as jump or care when the characters were dying. Well, because everytime one died, another one of them came back. Still, the ideas were interesting. Cube was more of a character film, Hypercube is more of an idea film. But can an idea go on for two hours. I guess it can!
I did like a lot of things about it. I liked the wacko old lady. I liked the rooms and the way everything was starting to implode and I liked the floaty sex scene (never mind I saw in on Sci-Fi and didn't get to see any nudity, darn.) What I didn't like was lack of character motivations. Were Quinten from Cube and Simon from Hypercube both traps? And I swear the blind girl said one of the same lines that the math knowledgable girl in the first one said, that she doesn't really do anything. That is what bugged me. The lead woman was a lot like the bleeding heart liberal woman in the first one. Two psychos who seem ok at first and then go crazy eights bonkers. A person with a disability, well two, if you count Granny. Two young cynical designer guys. Two characters who have cameos, say their piece and die quick, the govt guy in Hypercube and the jail guy in the first one. See what I am getting at? They are about the same yet different.
So overall, go see Hypercube if you are young and like special effects. If you like psychological terror, like see the first, but if you are like me, see both and compare. You will get scared by one and amazed by the other!
Movie Review: people know jack
Summary: 4 Stars
Straight to video sequels that come years after the original are almost never a good sign, but in the case of Cube 2 it just meant the geeks were taking the time to work out all the story's kinks and build a new arena. The result: A hypercube--wherein you take a normal cube and add a theoretical 4th dimension. So impossible to physically create that a place called the "mercury room" is created to somehow transport people there. The story once again revolves around a group of people bumping into each other and trying to discover why they're all there, but this time to a greater end. And how cool is this "hypercube?" Well, since it can't exist in physical space, it can be composed of a virtually infinite number of rooms, all taking place at different times and with different time signatures. So you can go through the door in one room only to run into a character from the past or future in the next one. Or a person in one room could be moving (and thus aging) extremely fast while someone following from the last is left in their dust. Rooms pass through each other and inflict their time on anyone left in their path. So in theory someone could either be aged to death or regressed back to infancy. This makes for some tense scenes and emotional breakdowns between the characters. The only area where Cube 2 lacks is special effects and that may have been easily corrected if the creators ideas didn't go beyond their means. I also have to admit the direction could have been better (and even may have hurt the effects) had a more geeky director had been tapped. Otherwise, though, overall Cube 2 is on par with the original, making up for it's weaknesses in some excellent concept. And this time it's the Cube that implodes in the end, not the story.Movie Review: great science fiction, but only for math/physics geeks
Summary: 4 Stars
hmmm, 1,000 words. I guess I'll save my 10,000 word analysis and review for my web site.
A few basic comments though - I don't think this movie is self-explanatory, at the level of mathematical theory. Which means, if you don't sometimes find yourself lying awake at night teasing your brain with multi-dimensional geometries, you probably simply won't enjoy it.
This is not about being smart or dumb - it's about your interests and pre-existing inclinations. I can think of subjects for films that would leave me wondering what the point is - ones where I don't have enough background or interest in the topic.
As a "sequel" this is dangerous. Whereas CUBE 1 was a nice mechanical device presented in a thriller, CUBE^2 is a deviously complex theoretical construct presented as science fiction.
I saw a copy of the used dvd for sale at my local video rent-all, and decided to rent the tape first in case this was as awful as most sequels. Watched it twice that night. Bought the dvd. Have watched it about six times in a week... very unusual for me...
The film is chock full of presaging and detail. It is flawed, of course. I can think of twelve hours of scenes I would have like to have seen in it, and I bet the creators had to delete ten times that many ideas. It heavily rewards repeated viewing, but, even more so, stimulates curiosity, creativity and confusion for many more hours than it takes to watch it.
So my recommendation? If you read Flatland more than twice, if you occasionally dig out Einsteins little book just for beach reading, you'll probably enjoy the mental gymnastics of this film. If not, you'll probably think it is stupid.