Movie Review - Happy Death Day 2U

MegaSoulhero Ugh. I just saw Happy Death Day 2U. The sequel to Happy Death Day. If you saw my review of that, you know that I’m wasn’t a fan of it. In fact, I absolutely despised it. In fact, I gave it a zero. So I was really not looking forward to this one. At least this time I didn’t have to pay to watch it since it was a free screening. Also, before watching the movie, I tweeted saying that I didn’t like the first one and then the director of both movies replied to my tweet. At least he took my criticism in a mature way. Unlike a certain female director who disrespected a novel by forcing in diversity. Anyway, let’s get to talking about Happy Death Day 2U.

Without spoiling anything, after an accident caused by an invention, Tree gets sent back to the day that the first movie took place on and she is still stuck in a loop. This time, however, things are different. She pretty much got sent to another version of this day and she needs to find a way to get back to the other dimension and to stop the loop from happening. Right there, that is already something this movie does right. They actually tell us how the loop was created. And it’s actually something that makes sense kinda. In fact, this entire movie is a MAJOR improvement over the original. I’m actually quite surprised by that. Jessica Rothe gives an amazing performance as Tree in this movie. She’s has a lot of funny moments and the moments where her character is supposed to show fear feels very genuine. They also made the character somewhat likeable. There were actually a couple of moments involving her that were pretty tear-jerking and I couldn’t help but smile. Those were just really well-done scenes. Not only is Tree a better character, but so are the side characters. Tree’s boyfriend Carter was completely useless in the first film and didn’t really add anything at all, but he actually does quite a lot in this movie. He’s actually very helpful and tries to help Tree with her situation. There’s also Ryan who has a MUCH larger role in this than in the first one. Even though he can be annoying at times, he’s still very useful to the plot.

The jokes in this movie are also pretty funny. My favorite scene is a montage of Tree’s deaths. Kinda similar to the montage in the first movie, but this one is actually funny because of the ways she dies and how happy she looks while doing it. This movie also has some really great cinematography and great effects. It also feels a lot more intense. The climax actually had me getting worried for the characters. In the first film, they established that these deaths that Tree is experiencing are actually causing serious harm to her, but it was only brought up once and they seemed to have forgotten about. Here, however, they do bring it up again. There’s a chance that she could end up permanently dying, which makes the stakes a lot higher. There are quite a lot of moments that legitimately make me question how they’re gonna do a certain thing. I guess you can say the movie isn’t too predictable. There’s just so much drama, so much maturity, so many things to like in this overall okay film.

Yeah, I know I’ve been praising this film so far, but I still wouldn’t say it’s great or even that good. While the first movie was basically a horror comedy, this one just feels like a comedy. It kind of moves away from the horror aspect. There is still a killer in the movie, but he’s not the main focus and is pretty much just a side plot. While I did laugh quite a lot, there were also some jokes that didn’t work for me. Like there’s a slow-motion scene in the beginning that goes on for too long and really didn’t need to be slow-motion. It was clearly played for laughs considering the music that was playing while it was happening. Why did they make that a comedic scene? The movie often goes for the joke when it has the chance. Even the last line of the movie (before the credits) was kinda random. It was apparently only supposed to be funny because he said the “s” word. It just didn’t work. I pretty much hated the beginning of the movie. It felt very rushed and I was confused for the most part. But that’s NOTHING compared to how rushed the VERY ending of the movie was. They really didn’t waste any time getting to those credits. Also, there’s a post credits scene that supposedly sets up another sequel. I really don’t know how they can make another sequel work. I felt like this was enough for them to end the franchise. There doesn’t need to be a third one.

Happy Death Day 2U isn’t great, but it improves upon the original in nearly every way. Considering how much I hated the first one, I’m very surprised that I actually kinda liked this one. It’s a very character-driven movie, but not exactly a horror film. Which might disappoint some. Despite only think it’s okay, this is my second favorite movie of the year so far. Because there has not really been a movie this year that I really thought was great other than How to Train Your Dragon 3. It’s still kinda early. So hopefully there will be a lot more great films coming out.

Score: 6/10

Comments

I also wasn’t a fan of the first film. I thought it was mediocre at best. I’m seeing this on Thursday. I’m hoping that it can be good. - nicolasb5194