Being a fan of the first movie, and considering its strong concept I expected the sequel to be good as well.
But it was terrible.
This rant will contain spoilers!
Story:
They start out OK with another class being picked for the program and I expected the same set up of class mates being forced to kill each other to live, and the different responses to that choice. But this movie just goes downhill fast.
Instead of having to kill each other they must fight the survivors of the first Battle Royale, who are now the leaders of a terrorist group that blew up half a city. The terrorists have made themselves a sitting duck by retreating to an Island.
The classmates also have their explosive collars linked together so that if one dies his partner blows up. Original maybe but it only lead to many extra deaths and is completely devoid of logic as the Government actually wants the terrorists dead and the mission to succeed. It first start with a rip off Saving Private Ryan beach landing scene where half of the class dies already, and they are being picked off 1 by 1 by snipers and booby traps. Some make it into the terrorist lair but are heavily outnumbered by these superhumanly skilled terrorists. But when the terrorists see they are still children, another class from Battle Royale, they spare their lives.
Cause actually the terrorists are the good guys here! They fight a justified war against the mean "adults" which is completely idiotic as they are on the verge of becoming adults themselves. Lets say they mean the evil government and "that country" instead. "that country"? yes that is the USA. Apart from a good start where the teacher writes down a number of countries which are all connected by that they were attacked by America at one point in history, this all goes haywire with terrorists being glorified and "that country" being the one to pressure the Japanese government to attack the heroic terrorists.
Considering the terrorists killed many innocent children and only targeted innocent civilians with their earlier terrorist attack, it seems a bit strange for them to be the "good guys" especially with the retarded reasons they give. But it is enough to win the Battle royale class over! They switch sides and get their collars removed......
Seeing the betrayal, the Government goes for plan B, send in the military! A bit strange to send in the class first knowing they had no chance of success, but who cares about things such as logic right?
And so this movie sinks to a new low, masses and masses of infantry storm the terrorists. Getting completely massacred along the way, but due to sheer number overwhelm the terrorists. Each terrorist who got a little screen time, gets a dramatic death scene, saying some last touching words, heroically taking some infantrymen with him/her, as the carnage around this freezes. Yes freezes, as in infantry overrunning the lines, terrorist gets shot, 3 minute death scene, and the remaining terrorists fall back with the infantry still at the same distance as before the 3 minute death scene.
Many heroic deaths and many many dead marines later, some flee by an underground passageway, while our last heroes fight on with their last ammo. Even wounded and with almost no ammo, they hurl themselves at the oncoming marines and the screen becomes white.
Then "that country" decides they gave the government enough time and bombard the Island. Hmm why did they not do that earlier? why did the government not use that tactic instead of sending that many infantry to their deaths against the super trained terrorist heroes?
Well at least that Osama wannabe is dead I thought, but wait this movie is not over! The next scene sees our heroic terrorist survivors happy together in Afghanistan! Because thats where the children smile? (their way of saying how great taliban Afghanistan must be?) And what do we see there!? its our terrorist leader and his friend! Somehow they survived attacking armed marines with no more ammo and being wounded, AND survived the whole Bombardment to boot!
What did they do? just FLY to the chosen land? How come the government did not trace their steps? whoops I almost forgot this is fantasy pixie land where everythings possible.....
But in the end they were defeated right? they had to flee? No says our terrorist leader, as long as you believe in it, you can make it happen or something along these lines. Well I'm so happy because I really want you to win against the "adults" or whoever your fighting against! No actually I want them all to die. I want my time and money back, I want to form a terrorist organization myself to take revenge for this movie ruining the memory of the first Battle Royale.
Oh and the teacher goes insane, tells them he wanted to play rugby with them in full rugby gear, and then lets his collar go off as apparently he can not live with the fact this movie was such a waste of time.
TERRIBLE.
But it was terrible.
This rant will contain spoilers!
Story:
They start out OK with another class being picked for the program and I expected the same set up of class mates being forced to kill each other to live, and the different responses to that choice. But this movie just goes downhill fast.
Instead of having to kill each other they must fight the survivors of the first Battle Royale, who are now the leaders of a terrorist group that blew up half a city. The terrorists have made themselves a sitting duck by retreating to an Island.
The classmates also have their explosive collars linked together so that if one dies his partner blows up. Original maybe but it only lead to many extra deaths and is completely devoid of logic as the Government actually wants the terrorists dead and the mission to succeed. It first start with a rip off Saving Private Ryan beach landing scene where half of the class dies already, and they are being picked off 1 by 1 by snipers and booby traps. Some make it into the terrorist lair but are heavily outnumbered by these superhumanly skilled terrorists. But when the terrorists see they are still children, another class from Battle Royale, they spare their lives.
Cause actually the terrorists are the good guys here! They fight a justified war against the mean "adults" which is completely idiotic as they are on the verge of becoming adults themselves. Lets say they mean the evil government and "that country" instead. "that country"? yes that is the USA. Apart from a good start where the teacher writes down a number of countries which are all connected by that they were attacked by America at one point in history, this all goes haywire with terrorists being glorified and "that country" being the one to pressure the Japanese government to attack the heroic terrorists.
Considering the terrorists killed many innocent children and only targeted innocent civilians with their earlier terrorist attack, it seems a bit strange for them to be the "good guys" especially with the retarded reasons they give. But it is enough to win the Battle royale class over! They switch sides and get their collars removed......
Seeing the betrayal, the Government goes for plan B, send in the military! A bit strange to send in the class first knowing they had no chance of success, but who cares about things such as logic right?
And so this movie sinks to a new low, masses and masses of infantry storm the terrorists. Getting completely massacred along the way, but due to sheer number overwhelm the terrorists. Each terrorist who got a little screen time, gets a dramatic death scene, saying some last touching words, heroically taking some infantrymen with him/her, as the carnage around this freezes. Yes freezes, as in infantry overrunning the lines, terrorist gets shot, 3 minute death scene, and the remaining terrorists fall back with the infantry still at the same distance as before the 3 minute death scene.
Many heroic deaths and many many dead marines later, some flee by an underground passageway, while our last heroes fight on with their last ammo. Even wounded and with almost no ammo, they hurl themselves at the oncoming marines and the screen becomes white.
Then "that country" decides they gave the government enough time and bombard the Island. Hmm why did they not do that earlier? why did the government not use that tactic instead of sending that many infantry to their deaths against the super trained terrorist heroes?
Well at least that Osama wannabe is dead I thought, but wait this movie is not over! The next scene sees our heroic terrorist survivors happy together in Afghanistan! Because thats where the children smile? (their way of saying how great taliban Afghanistan must be?) And what do we see there!? its our terrorist leader and his friend! Somehow they survived attacking armed marines with no more ammo and being wounded, AND survived the whole Bombardment to boot!
What did they do? just FLY to the chosen land? How come the government did not trace their steps? whoops I almost forgot this is fantasy pixie land where everythings possible.....
But in the end they were defeated right? they had to flee? No says our terrorist leader, as long as you believe in it, you can make it happen or something along these lines. Well I'm so happy because I really want you to win against the "adults" or whoever your fighting against! No actually I want them all to die. I want my time and money back, I want to form a terrorist organization myself to take revenge for this movie ruining the memory of the first Battle Royale.
Oh and the teacher goes insane, tells them he wanted to play rugby with them in full rugby gear, and then lets his collar go off as apparently he can not live with the fact this movie was such a waste of time.
TERRIBLE.