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!

But my high expectations were probably why I ended up being so disappointed with the final result. I know that this is definitely an unpopular opinion, but I didn't really like this sequel.

However, I did like how it began. It directly connects itself to the first film in a really interesting way, and that was fun to watch.

Then it kind of went downhill.

For me personally, I didn't love the character of Skye Riley. I didn't really feel connected to her, and it never felt like the film allowed me to get to know her that well. So as much as the events are fun to watch, I feel like I would have been more engaged with the film if I really felt like I knew her.

Though I will say that Naomi Scott played her really really well. The acting all around was probably the best thing about the movie.

I also felt like the deaths/fake deaths/scary moments weren't as well thought out as they were in the first film.

In the first film, yes there were times when the main character saw what the entity wanted her to see, but there were also real moments that affected the film moving forward. In this one it just felt like there were too many things only taking place in Skye's head. And because of that, after a while you stop believing anything that happens because it's probably not real.

The same tropes are used too many times, and you almost lose the trust of the audience when you repeatedly undercut any real moments with things that never happened.

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.

Speaking of the first film, usually a sequel needs to either continue a story, or improve on a previous story to be successful. For me this film just showed a different perspective from the first film, but it didn't really feel like it gave anything different or improved on the story. 

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

Overall, this film just didn't really work for me. I do want to watch it again to see if it will be better than I remember, but for now it wasn't for me.

4/10