The original Battle Royale is one of my favourite films of all time. It's fusion of extreme violence and a thought provoking, complex substance made for a very different and refreshing movie. The sequel, unfortunately, is merely a stale variation on the events of the first film. It's ironic that this sequel is a complete disaster as making a sequel to 'Battle Royale' should be one of the easiest tasks of all time. It's simple; another battle royale, with all the uncompromising violence of the first, and to continue the story; we'll have Nanahara, survivor of the first film, put back into the frey. Simple. But no; for some reason, the writers have opted for some drivel involving Nanahara becoming an internationally wanted terrorists and an act known as 'BR 2', whereby school children are 'hired' to fight terrorist threats...or something. Now, you might be thinking along the lines of "well, as long as there's school kids with weapons, I'm happy'; but it's no again. The film plays out more like a feature length version of the start of Saving Private Ryan. That's it; it's more or less a simple war film. Damn.
One of the things that made the first film work was the underlying theme that the violence is coming from children that know each other, killing each other. This gave the film a soul-searching horrific edge; "could you kill your best friend" was the tagline, and the film got it's depth from that. Here, that message is gone; and it's replacement is a dull 'anti-war' one. The film piles on the sentiment in an effort to get it's message across, but it never really succeeds. The film also seems keen to prioritise it's 'Requiem' subtitle. Far too keen, in fact. The requiem sequences were the worst thing about the first film; interrupting the adrenaline pumping action sequences all too regularly, I don't doubt that I'm the only person who feels this way. Battle Royale 2 is much like one long requiem sequence, with characters 'reflecting' left and right and the film on the whole suffers because of this. If the film had focused more on character development, the reflecting parts might have worked because we would have cared; but it doesn't, so we don't. Pretty stupid really.
Battle Royale 2 isn't completely devoid of positive aspects, however; the first half hour is definitely good. Going back to how it was in the first film, we see a group of unwitting school children kidnapped by the government and, of course, the hysteria that results in a couple of the kids ending up dead. Although this is almost a complete copy of the first film (we've got knives being thrown, necklaces exploding etc), it works because the first film worked, and fans of the original masterpiece will no doubt enjoy it. However; when I said that I'd have been happy with just 'another Battle Royale', I did mean one that's different from the first one, not just a remake of it. In fact, the sequel takes most of the ideas from the first film and reuses them; from the danger zones to the maniacal teacher who delights in seeing his kids maimed and killed. The only real new idea in the movie is the idea of the 'tag game', which involves the detonators being linked to each other, so if your partner dies; you go too. However, although this is a fairly good new idea, it doesn't make sense.... you see, the government want these kids to kill Nanahara, so why do they make it hard for them? Why not send them in with an army of tanks and just have done with it? Why not just bombard the island with napalm? On that note: I deem this movie ridiculous and pointless, and therefore not worth your time. Even if you like the original as I do; this film is one to miss.
