El Aro 4: El Despertar

I saw the movie at the theater today and it did not disappoint. The advantages of the film were the following: it was well set, the atmosphere was adequate, the youthful characters were so unpleasant that they all deserved to die for idiots (and the film leaves us a great surprise about them), there is a strange but fast plot and the ending is unexpected and fantastic. There are only three jumpscares and the sequences where Sadako appears are extraordinary. By far the Japanese are much better at treating their characters than Hollywood cinema. This film is a thorough demonstration of how to make good cinema without insulting the intelligence of the viewer. And it has another plus: it makes you laugh. Very good.

The Ring and Ju-On (The Grudge) are two of my favourite Japanese horror franchises. I'm kinda sad that both Hoga and Hollywood neglecting both of these franchises and I'm here waiting for more sequels, reboots, remakes and spin-offs.

This latest installment is science focused with unnecessary humor, sudden loud noises that was annoying af and also a sequel to Spiral (1998). I loved the production quality, cast (except Kazuma Kawamura, his clumsy nonsense was irritating and one of the worst parts of this movie) and the familiar feel. But unfortunately the overall quality was quite disappointing.

I just watched this movie for the first time after being a fan of this franchise for about two years now. People who are familiar with the franchise. Will know that many of the films in this franchise are pretty boring. That's what I expected from this one, but I was actually entertained throughout the entirety of it. Sure, some of the dialogue was cringe and some of the characters were kind of annoying at times, but other than that I found the premise to be very interesting and most of the characters likeable. At the end all of the seriousness is thrown out of the window and just decides to get goofy, which I actually found to be pretty fitting for this film. So ignore all the people giving this bad review's because it isn't like the original. Just sit down and embrace the silliness and you'll probably have a good time.

"Sadako DX" is a bad movie that tries to mix nostalgia with modern elements, targeting generation Z, the result is a disastrous script that at first manages to bring nostalgia but soon becomes ridiculous when trying to parody TikTok trends and Twitter. The soundtrack is irrelevant, the editing gets tired and even seems to have been done by an internet influencer, the cinematography is lousy as if emulating an episode of some cheap children's TV series. In the midst of the chaos, the only thing that stands out is the performance of Fuka Koshiba who tries to give interest to her character, the rest of the cast is poorly directed and mainly the director did a totally horrendous job. Definitely a horror movie, but speaking of the horror that results as a final product. "Ringu" should have remained in the analog era and not touch the digital times.

Opinion of someone who follow the Ringu series (books and movies): This is an original story, as the last adaptation of the last book was Sadako - Final Chapter (2019).

For me who saw all the films and read the first 3 books, Sadako DX started out quite interesting, the part of the video of Sadako coming out of the well and getting close to those who are watching is phenomenal and could give a new boost to the franchise, but then it was just a bit of a mess.

The story does not follow any rules established in the books or in the previous films. I understand that the slightly funny parts were an attempt at comic relief, but they missed the mark.

Whoever wrote this script and who approved it should go back to film school. And whoever left the cinema in the middle of the film in anger, left with good reason.