One thing leads to another. One night last week I watched Kill Bill – both parts. Watching that, and particularly the performance of Chiaki Kuriyama, led me to re-watch Battle Royale which she was in, and which led to Tarantino casting her in Kill Bill. It really is a remarkable film: Lord of the Flies with explosions and guns. I was as impressed with it as I was the first time I saw it, so much so that I made the mistake of re-watching Battle Royale II.
I had forgotten how inferior the sequel was. The plot premise is even sillier than the first one, so much so that it is just about impossible to ‘willingly withhold disbelief’ as my old English teacher always used to urge us to do. On top of that the acting is not so good and in a couple of cases barely even two-dimensional.
Is there any franchise with a greater drop-off than Battle Royale?
The sequel was dreadful but then most sequels are. That said Mad Max II was a big improvement over the first film… then again MMIII was pretty lousy
Long time since I saw them, but I can’t remember MM2 being a patch on the original, but it could just be the circumstances of when I watched it. The sequel would have had a much bigger budget but I think the first was made on a much less commercial basis.
Same goes for Rambo I suppose. And Dawn of the Dead.
There is a good argument that Aliens in better then Alien, and people say the same about the Godfather II – though I haven’t seen any of them.
Some films just cry out for a sequel to *not* be made though – Fight Club, the Usual Suspects for example – and I think Battle Royale is one of those.
Give thanks there was no Thelma and Louise II!