Rings (2017)
With Hollywood throwing out sequels and reboots and remakes at every turn lately, it seems not even the Ring franchise is safe from revitalization from left field. Naturally, being a long time fan of the franchise, from the Japanese original Ringu to the terrible sequel The Ring 2, I decided to check out the newest movie Hollywood popped out. This will just be a quick look as I've only seen it the once in theaters and might do a full review once it comes out on DVD and I can watch it a few more times, but let's get into it, shall we?
Right off the bat, my first problem with the movie is in the title, itself. Rings. There's already a Rings. It was a short film in 2005 that came as an extra for the re-release of the first movie. The short explored what happened and the signs people saw as they went through the week after seeing the cursed tape. It was nothing major and a lot of people never saw it, but it was a decent smaller addition to the lore of the tapes. So they've already used this name once and, unless it's a reboot, which this isn't, you can't just use the same name twice in the same franchise like the first one never happened. The only lean I can give is that the premise, the start of the new movie, is based on the idea of the 2005 short. Except instead of a group of high school/college-aged students studying and blogging about the visions during the week, it's a shady college professor creating an intricate group of his students to study the week after watching. But it's only used as a setup and doesn't go into much detail regarding the concept. All it is, is a means to an end to get the main character involved.
Which leads me to another major gripe with this movie. There are two writers. One thing I've noticed, in my relatively recent introduction into the deeper world of movies, is that the more writers you have on a project... the worse it gets. While two is relatively tame compared to, say.... Cars and it's 6 goddamn writers, it still becomes blatantly obvious where the writers seemed to switch off during this movie.
The beginning of the movie is actually decent, it has some brilliant cinematography throughout, one of the only real redeeming factors of this movie, the editors and camera crew clearly knew what they were doing, and the nods towards the 2005 short film, which are entirely in the beginning half, are a good setup. But then the movie does a complete 180 right around the middle and basically just turns into a lesser clone of the first one. In all the worst ways. Including the final "plot twist" that was already given away in the trailer. Anyone who's seen the first Ring knows exactly what's going to happen. Hell, anyone who watched the trailer would know what's going on. The fact that the characters in the movie don't is some of the most "screenwriter's convenience" I've honestly ever seen.
Which leads me to the next massively major problem: the characters, especially the main character, are just downright dumb with the worst case of "plot-convenient naivety" in a modern movie. We've all seen plenty of it and it's always annoying, the "simple" miscommunication that, if taken out, would destabilize the entire point of the movie. Between that and it's 10x's more obnoxious cousin "we're in a conversation but I'm going to stay silent and stare off instead of answering or asking a question like a normal human being would because screenwriters don't know how to real people for the life of them", this movie is just aggressively annoying.
This is worsened by the fact that, once again, the beginning of the movie shows an entirely different character. At the start, all the characters seem believably intelligent for a 2017 movie involving college students, yet, by the end they turn annoyingly dumb for the sake of a shitty, rehashed plot.
Speaking of the plot, it's just downright confusing and too obvious at the same time. Jumpscares are seen miles away, twists are obvious, but an actual explanation of what in the nine hells is even going on is the only thing that escapes the audience. It takes the concept of the first movie of going back to Samara's roots to find a solution... except that they aren't even Samara's roots we're going back to. For some reason... it's Evelyn's. Which starts with the most unnecessarily confusing backstory no one asked for. If anything, the entire concept of "further explaining Samara's backstory" just lessens Samara's original impact. In the Japanese movie Ringu 0/Birthday, an entire movie dedicated to how Sadako got into the position she did, even when straight up asking about her actual father, the movie still doesn't answer, keeping her true origins, which is a huge part of Sadako/Samara's existence, a mystery. So the over-explanation where it's not needed in Rings... is just sort of insulting, in a way.
(As a side note towards the marketing department... no one ever feared saying her name. That wasn't a thing. At any point. Ever.)
The one major compliment I can give the movie is the one I mentioned earlier. On top of the beginning being a decent setup, the visuals were wonderful. While the symbolism hit you over the head repeatedly, as, admittedly, these movies, even the Japanese ones, tend to do, it at least looked brilliant while it was happening. Sadly, it still wasn't enough to save the movie from bad writing, but I do have to give props to the camera crew and editing team for giving the movie what little redeemability it has.
Overall, however, I can't give this movie a passing grade. It's confusing, annoying, and downright insulting to a fan of the franchise. It's another case of Hollywood Sequelitis that I'm glad I waited until a $5 Tuesday to go see because it's not worth the price of popcorn, let alone full admission. Will I buy it on DVD once it's out? Probably. But I have The Ring 2 on DVD, too, and that's downright god-awful. It's a necessary evil for full reviewing purposes. And special features. Sometimes it's not what's in the movie that says the most, it's what they take out.
(As a side note towards the marketing department... no one ever feared saying her name. That wasn't a thing. At any point. Ever.)
The one major compliment I can give the movie is the one I mentioned earlier. On top of the beginning being a decent setup, the visuals were wonderful. While the symbolism hit you over the head repeatedly, as, admittedly, these movies, even the Japanese ones, tend to do, it at least looked brilliant while it was happening. Sadly, it still wasn't enough to save the movie from bad writing, but I do have to give props to the camera crew and editing team for giving the movie what little redeemability it has.
Overall, however, I can't give this movie a passing grade. It's confusing, annoying, and downright insulting to a fan of the franchise. It's another case of Hollywood Sequelitis that I'm glad I waited until a $5 Tuesday to go see because it's not worth the price of popcorn, let alone full admission. Will I buy it on DVD once it's out? Probably. But I have The Ring 2 on DVD, too, and that's downright god-awful. It's a necessary evil for full reviewing purposes. And special features. Sometimes it's not what's in the movie that says the most, it's what they take out.
