Smile 2 | Film Review

After a harrowing accident, popstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is putting her life back together and embarking on a world tour. But after witnessing a suicide, she begins to experience strange occurrences - the strangest of which is a smile that seems to follow her wherever she goes... 

Having absolutely loved the first film, I was so excited to see where this next one would take the storyline, and it seemed really promising!

This is the first review I've ever written where, after watching the film a second time, my opinion has changed so much that I've had to take my review down and rewrite it.

The first time I saw this movie I was disappointed and didn't really like it. However, after watching it a second time, I liked it so much more!

For a start I liked how it began. It directly connects itself to the first film in a really interesting way, and that was fun to watch. Especially because it makes us as the audience feel more familiar with this world than the actual characters do.

One major thing that changed for me between the first and second watch was how I felt about the character of Skye Riley. On the first watch I didn't get her, and couldn't really connect with her. This time around, while I still didn't love her, I didn't really need to.

She was a really interesting character to follow for a number of reasons, not just because her life outside of the entity was really complex and interesting, but the things she had gone through made the scares more prominent in a really fascinating way. Everything became a bit scarier because of what Skye had already experienced.

Speaking of Skye, Naomi Scott played her really really well. The acting all around was probably the best thing about the movie, but Scott's performance is the one that the audience needs to believe and we really do.

I still think I prefer the deaths and scary moments in the first film compared to this one, but they were still done well here. I think what I liked more about the first was how fresh they felt. In this one they were great, but they didn't feel as new.

The cinematography also needs to be mentioned - specifically the camera movements which were really unique whilst also feeling entirely like a 'Smile' film. They have a signature style that really works!

But one thing that didn't change after my rewatch was how much I disliked the third act of the film.

It just felt like there were too many things taking place in Skye's head. The trope of something happening and then not being real is great when it's done once or twice, but after it keeps happening you stop believing anything.

This film introduces a way to potentially break this curse, but the reality of it doesn't necessarily make sense. This doesn't really take anything away from the film, but the practicalities of the character's theory (and Skye trusting this character at all) just made everything feel a bit off.

The jump scares are well done and effective, but once they're over you completely forget them. Whereas there are jumps from the first film that I still remember.

And then there's the ending, which still felt like it came too quickly and was a bit rushed.

Overall, this film definitely deserved a re-watch, because it was a lot better than I gave it credit for. But the sequence of events leading up to the end of the film were disappointing, and ultimately changed a lot of what made the first two thirds of the film good.

6/10