Cube 2: Hypercube

The original Cube (1997) is a rather good, thought-provoking film and also a remarkable achievement for Canadian science fiction. In Cube, a group of strangers awaken in a room within a mysterious cube affixed with several doors that lead to either gruesome death or more rooms, thus a complex maze awaits the characters and they must band together to survive. The entire film took place in identical rooms and was a bold premise for a full-length film. They were lucky to pull it off once, so why even bother making a sequel? The answer is simple: special effects are now officially cheap to make. Cube was almost void of any special effects, which actually made it a compelling film that relied on mental stimulation. Cube 2: Hypercube realised that the original movie was great but lacked the fancy visuals that all sci-fi films now incorporate into their scripts. This sequel has the exact same basic plot as its predecessor, but instead of giving us interesting personalities and the thrill of solving the purpose of the maze, we're given pointless special effects that appear to be created by a 17-year-old for an animation homework assignment. Cube 2: Hypercube is a very disappointing motion picture with boring plot twists because the script never really comes into play, considering all this film seems to be interested in is making a more eye-pleasing cube. If anything good is to come from this film, it's that it makes its predecessor seem even more original and suspenseful. The extras include a featurette on the special-effects of Cube 2, which is further proof that this film was based around computer graphics rather than substance. It is here we learn how the actors interacted with green screens and other outdated methods that were perfected over ten years ago. To make things worse, we're subjected to full-length commentary from not the director or the actors but the producer and the editor. Dreadful. Extras: production commentary; making of the special-effects; interview with director Andrzej Sekula; deleted scenes and more. (Lions Gate)