Andrew Draper’s review published on Letterboxd:
"aggressively shitty" — James Betsalel
I can't improve on that phrase. There is something insulting about how little this film delivers in the way of entertainment value. It's not just that it's not the promised exponential improvement (Cube squared, as the title card reads), it's a profound drop from the first.
In Witch Hunt the characters had seemingly little to do (attend a birthday party together, play a board game) and there was no budget for them to do anything but sit around holding wine glasses, and yet it was extremely watchable. Cube 2 has more money and the characters are constantly quarreling, swapping exposition, and trying to stay alive, and yet it was incredibly boring. The narrative promises puzzles and mystery, but I assure you that element of the film goes nowhere. And in spite of being directed by the man who shot Pulp Fiction, it looks atrocious. I don't simply mean that there is no mind behind the camera exploiting blocking and camera position to enhance a sense of drama. Even if you broke down the film to a series of still images, few to none of the stills would be at all appealing.
A horror film, under favorable circumstances, can feel like an ice pick stuck into your lizard brain. This film has zero psychological impact. A terrible horror film in particular, so a truly perverse choice for an extra credit film for Hooptober.
