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Film: Cube 2: Hypercube
Year: 2002
Director: Andrzej Sekula
Writer: Sean Hood, Ernie Barbarash and Lauren McLaughlin
Starring: Kari Matchett, Geraint Wyn Davies and Grace Lynn Kung
Review:
This was a movie that I sought out originally after I saw its predecessor and really enjoyed it. I’m pretty I saw it just the one time and thought it was okay, but it paled in comparison. This was a bonus watch for an October movie challenge that I’m doing, so I decided to give it another viewing there. The synopsis here is eight strangers awaken with no memory, in a puzzling cube-shaped room where the laws of physics do not always apply.
We start this movie with a bunch of people in beds and the camera is moving over them. They’re wrapped in plastic of sorts and we hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights above them. It then goes to an extreme close-up of an eyeball. There are visions of a lab flashing by and we see an ID for Becky Young (Greer Kent) who works for a company called Izon. This will play back in. She’s in a cube-like place where the rules of gravity can be different from room to room.
After we get the opening credits showing us the schematics of something, we meet Colonel Thomas H. Maguire (Bruce Gray). He is looking for numbers and is frustrated when he cannot find them. He is in a panic that it isn’t fair, seeming to refer to the previous cube. We are also hearing distorted screams in the background.
We then meet our lead, Kate Filmore (Kari Matchett). Later she reveals she’s a psychoanalyst for her profession. She goes to check on a guy, Simon Grady (Geraint Wyn Davies). He is lying in wait and pulls a knife on her. He has it to her throat and different doors to his cube they’re in keep opening and closing. The guy who looks in is Max Reisler (Matthew Ferguson). This is getting under the skin of Simon and he doesn’t understand how he’s able to do this. Kate gets away and we see that once the doors close to a room, it might be the same when you open it again. Kate then meets Sasha (Grace Lynn Kung). She’s a blind, younger woman who is terrified.
They then meet Jerry Whitehall (Neil Crone). He’s doing what he can to keep track of where he’s been. It appears that he’s in his 3rd different room during this time and he’s using his watch to mark them off. These three go into a new room where they find Max trying to prevent Col Maguire from killing himself. Simon also finds his way into this room and helps. Kate and Max are willing to keep his secret of what he was doing for now.
None of these people know each other, but the more we learn, the more they’re connected. Max is a coder and Col Maguire was his contact. Jerry built the doors that we see, but he didn’t know what it was for. They meet others as well. There’s a senile old woman of Mrs. Paley (Barbara Gordon), who recognizes Col Maguire and a Dr. Phil Rosenzweig (Andrew Scorer). He’s dead, but she knows he did some great theoretical work which explains a bit of where they are. Unlike the first cube, this is a hypercube where time, space and the laws of physics don’t necessarily make sense. As I said, they all are hiding a secret as to what they know or why they could be there.
That’s where I want to leave my recap for this movie. After this second viewing, I can say that I like them trying to take what they did in the previous film and just building on it. That first one was interesting as it had a smaller budget, but was able to do quite a bit more. The next step since that movie had an intriguing sci-fi angle was again, to go bigger. That is not to say that it necessarily worked for me though.
What I did pick up on was that the events from the previous movie happened. Col Maguire is saying things about how this one isn’t fair and from what I remember; someone else acknowledges the same thing. I do like that there are rumors and some evidence about the original cube. It isn’t like they focus on it too much either. There seems to be a famous hacker who was trying to expose it as well, at least I think that was the angle there.
Something that doesn’t work for me is that I think the movie is trying to take on too much. I think the theories they are looking at are interesting, but they just don’t translate to the screen like they would want them to. Part of this is that with the theory of relativity and time doesn’t move linear, but here that is how it is being showcased. They do their best to also try to show this and I appreciate that. There are some parts of this though they just feels like they are in over their head and can’t really grasp it enough to present it to the audience.
This is in part to the effects. They really go CGI and it doesn’t look good to me. You can tell it is early 2000s computer effects and they just really don’t hold up. I like what they’re trying to do with some of this though. The movie is also a bit tamer. The first one there is this worry that if they don’t use the calculations correctly, the room will have traps. We don’t get much of this here so the stakes don’t feel as high because of it. I like that they ramping up the concepts and theories, but sequels really need to raise the stakes as well and I don’t feel that. There are some practical effects, especially the look of bodies that they been dead for some time. Those worked and I will give credit to the cinematography. They do really well at making it feel like gravity is being played with as well as some of the effects playing with speeding up or slowing down time.
Moving over to another aspect would be the acting of the movie. For the most part, it isn’t great. I do like Matchett and how she plays her character. With the background that she gives about herself, it makes a lot of sense how she handles those around her. Davies is okay, but I think he falls into an issue with some others of overacting. Kung doesn’t really add a lot and her reveal didn’t really spark much of a reaction. Ferguson was fine and I did like Crone. Gordon does well at this senile older woman and her overacting with this makes sense. Lindsey Connell shows up later and she’s quite attractive as Julia. She doesn’t add a lot with this though. Gray overacts and I’m glad he doesn’t have a big part. Aside from that, the rest are just fine with their small roles in support.
Now with that said, this movie is better than I remember it being, but it still isn’t that good. I think that they explore some interesting ideas and concepts. It is just too hard to flesh them out on the screen. The acting is hit or miss for me, but I’m mostly positive. The movie keeps my interest with the science behind it as that is one of my interests. The little practical effects we get are good, but the CGI doesn’t hold up. The soundtrack really doesn’t stand out. It also doesn’t hurt the movie. Overall this falls short of what the original did. I would rate this as average. There are just too many up and down things for me to go higher than that.
My Rating: 5 out of 10