Rings - Movie Review
Rings is directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez and (I guess) is the sequel to the original remake, The Ring (2002). People end up watching a cursed videotape and afterwards get a phone call from an entity that simply tells the person who watched the tape, "seven days". When the seventh day comes around, you're dead and the cycle continues.
And that's basically the premise for Rings, except this time the tape is going digital. It's going viral, people... Spooky.
Look, you already know there's potential for this movie to suck hard. But I'll be honest though, it's actually not as bad as you might think. Don't get me wrong, it's still not good. It's not good at all. What I'm saying is that it could've been a lot worse.
Before I go off on the negatives, some quick positives: there's some very solid camera work and color schemes all throughout this film just like the 2002 movie displayed. In addition to playing off that camera work, there's some creepy imagery that the whole Ring franchise is remembered for. There's new information that's presented to enhance the mythology of Samara (the demon). However, all those homages to its superior original is also this movie's enemy.
The film keeps reminding its audience of how effectively disturbing the first Ring movie was that it can't really find an identity on its own. At times, this movie wants to be Final Destination lite to a Samara's origins, mystery movie. It also doesn't help that a majority of this movie is devoted to slow, boring exposition and dialogue that will in no way make you feel any investment in its (dull) characters or plot. Speaking of the actors, they're either fine or just half-assing it. Nobody really stands out in this ensemble, they're not terrible but nothing noteworthy either.
One of the glaring issues that bugged me the most while watching the movie, in regards to its storytelling, was its lack of not enforcing its own established "rules" and then not explaining said rules. *Minor spoiler ahead but let's face it, you're not going to see this movie anyway.* For example, everyone knows Samara kills the person who watched the tape after 7 days. But in this movie, she's just going around killing people after like 5. Why is she collecting early all of a sudden? It's never explained or even really brought back up again later.
Final Take
When it comes down to it, Rings will most likely go down as one of the most unnecessary sequels in recent memory. Aside from some chilling visuals, this movie is a slow burn and not in a good way. It's a boring and dragged out horror sequel that thought it could become relevant in today's modern era. The Ring had it right: sometimes less is more.
I'm going to give Rings a solid "D" on the movie grading scale. Sad thing is that this movie is probably going to make a big enough profit and warrant another Ring installment... All I can say is that everyone should download a spam blocker for their computer in the near future.
As always, thanks so much for reading and make sure to stay posted to Frank’s Takes for more reviews. Until next time, keep it 100.
-Frank
