Major spoilers ahead, you've been warned.
Now, I believe there are two kinds of people: those, who only wish to see the fight and do not care about anything else, and those, who will see the movie regardless, because they are fans of the franchises. Neither will be negatively affected by total spoiling, so let me break it down to you: if you thought Batman vs. Superman was bad in terms of actual duel length, this is downright pathetic. There is about a minute of the actual fight and, as it's expected, Sadako totally dominates Kayako, not that it has any solid effect, though, you can't physically kill spirits.
Besides this keynote, the movie does have a couple of strong points - decent actors and premise. Compared to Alien vs Predator, you won't see as much artificial "bs" here, the monsters mostly stick to their roots, and the actors at least try, in their common Japanese manner.
However, this is as far as the positive stuff goes. Because then you get entirely predictable plot, almost to the point of Godzilla's shameless "Let them fight" line, a lot of boring and unnecessary scenes. Why really bother with the boys? The store girl? What point did the teacher play, besides laying it out for you? Why go through that priestess, if it's entirely pointless? A good 10-20 mins of runtime could've been spared and devoted to the good stuff if the "stepping stones" were reduced.
And the worst part of the movie - is the teasing of what it could be. You have two curses conveniently next to each other, you have actually managed to pull off the idea of internet-spreading the Cursed Video, you have two brilliant spirit hunters and even a teacher with weird backstory and uncanny interest in Sadako. There is SO MUCH to work with here, they should've just spent some 5-10 mins writing the two spirits tearing each other apart. I mean, come on, we see how Sadako oneshots Kayako with her Medusa Eye, among other things, but we don't see any action from Kayako, although it can definitely pack a punch. Yes, both of them would respawn, have respawned and it's about as meaningful as Superman smashing Zod into a building or vice versa, but... this is what the people want to see. Silly as it is, there is no further purpose. Canonizing the loss of one side, expectedly Kayako, would be a waste.
Instead... we get an incredibly aimless plot. The teacher dies just like that, without really adding anything to the story or waiting for his due time. The spirit hunters die almost even sillier, despite shoving quite the psychic potential. Both of their plans backfire right away, without any explanation. It's not only weird to think a curse to devour a curse, and not to merge into a stronger one(as one would expect an experienced spiritist to know), but it's also shown that the well is deep and it can seal things. So why spend all that time preparing, if the seal is going to be broken like a pencil? Not even some extended attempts to break it, not even some stupid action from the protagonist. And the main spirit hunter dies just laughably. His last word "Good!", thinking that the backup plan worked, only to see the, ahem, backlash just oneshot him. Yes, he seems to try and protect his peers, but that's a couple of lines of script to fix, not something rational or necessary.
And that's what we are left with. The entire cast is dead, the curses are merged and the Cursed Tape is spreading over the internet. So there is nobody to ever fight it again, there is no more "Versus"(unless they put this new "Sayako" against some Freddy Krueger or Insidious' Red Demon or even that Paranormal Activity Demon), there is just an April Fool's joke that became a joke of a movie...
But, like I said, there are people, who will still watch it, and there isn't anything I have to say to stop you. It's not a complete abomination of a movie, so, by all means, indulge yourself, if you have nothing better to do.
Now, I believe there are two kinds of people: those, who only wish to see the fight and do not care about anything else, and those, who will see the movie regardless, because they are fans of the franchises. Neither will be negatively affected by total spoiling, so let me break it down to you: if you thought Batman vs. Superman was bad in terms of actual duel length, this is downright pathetic. There is about a minute of the actual fight and, as it's expected, Sadako totally dominates Kayako, not that it has any solid effect, though, you can't physically kill spirits.
Besides this keynote, the movie does have a couple of strong points - decent actors and premise. Compared to Alien vs Predator, you won't see as much artificial "bs" here, the monsters mostly stick to their roots, and the actors at least try, in their common Japanese manner.
However, this is as far as the positive stuff goes. Because then you get entirely predictable plot, almost to the point of Godzilla's shameless "Let them fight" line, a lot of boring and unnecessary scenes. Why really bother with the boys? The store girl? What point did the teacher play, besides laying it out for you? Why go through that priestess, if it's entirely pointless? A good 10-20 mins of runtime could've been spared and devoted to the good stuff if the "stepping stones" were reduced.
And the worst part of the movie - is the teasing of what it could be. You have two curses conveniently next to each other, you have actually managed to pull off the idea of internet-spreading the Cursed Video, you have two brilliant spirit hunters and even a teacher with weird backstory and uncanny interest in Sadako. There is SO MUCH to work with here, they should've just spent some 5-10 mins writing the two spirits tearing each other apart. I mean, come on, we see how Sadako oneshots Kayako with her Medusa Eye, among other things, but we don't see any action from Kayako, although it can definitely pack a punch. Yes, both of them would respawn, have respawned and it's about as meaningful as Superman smashing Zod into a building or vice versa, but... this is what the people want to see. Silly as it is, there is no further purpose. Canonizing the loss of one side, expectedly Kayako, would be a waste.
Instead... we get an incredibly aimless plot. The teacher dies just like that, without really adding anything to the story or waiting for his due time. The spirit hunters die almost even sillier, despite shoving quite the psychic potential. Both of their plans backfire right away, without any explanation. It's not only weird to think a curse to devour a curse, and not to merge into a stronger one(as one would expect an experienced spiritist to know), but it's also shown that the well is deep and it can seal things. So why spend all that time preparing, if the seal is going to be broken like a pencil? Not even some extended attempts to break it, not even some stupid action from the protagonist. And the main spirit hunter dies just laughably. His last word "Good!", thinking that the backup plan worked, only to see the, ahem, backlash just oneshot him. Yes, he seems to try and protect his peers, but that's a couple of lines of script to fix, not something rational or necessary.
And that's what we are left with. The entire cast is dead, the curses are merged and the Cursed Tape is spreading over the internet. So there is nobody to ever fight it again, there is no more "Versus"(unless they put this new "Sayako" against some Freddy Krueger or Insidious' Red Demon or even that Paranormal Activity Demon), there is just an April Fool's joke that became a joke of a movie...
But, like I said, there are people, who will still watch it, and there isn't anything I have to say to stop you. It's not a complete abomination of a movie, so, by all means, indulge yourself, if you have nothing better to do.