Movie Review: The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

Synopsis: Two days after a spelunking expedition with her friends goes horribly wrong, a hysterical Sarah is found by authorities, covered in blood and unable to tell them what happened. Determined to get to the truth and not knowing the trauma Sarah had gone through, a local sheriff insists she return to the caves with him and a rescue party, only to discover the same subterranean humanoids she had escaped.

Who's in it? The movie stars Shauna Macdonald, Michael J. Reynolds, Jessika Williams, Natalie Mendoza and Anna Skellern.

Review: Since my wife and I had enjoyed the first movie and it was still reasonably early in the evening, we decided to watch the sequel, The Descent: Part 2 last night as well. While not as enjoyable as the first film, it proved to be a good selection as well.

I'll start out by saying the first part of this movie is extremely confusing, especially if you watch it immediately following the first film. The beginning of this movie and the end of the last movie don't quite mesh. Some parts of this do get explained by the end while others do remain a mystery. 

Other than that, however, the movie does wind up having quite a few good things going for it. For me, in particular, I enjoyed how fast paced this was. There wasn't a lot of build-up that made the film seem longer than it was. Instead, the film wastes very little time getting to the action scenes and maintains a quick, efficient pace throughout.

Another thing I liked about this movie was, even though there were characters that were clearly there to be fodder, several others had just enough personality to leave open the possibility of them being able to survive the ordeal. In other words, it wasn't just Sarah (Macdonald) re-entering the cave with a bunch of no-names who were clearly marked to die.

The added twist involving Juno (Mendoza) still being alive was an intriguing one as well, though I wish the movie would have done a better job explaining how she survived the first film. The tension between her and Sarah that had helped the first movie was essentially doubled by Sarah leaving Juno for dead and that only added another unpredictable element. 

I wasn't a huge fan of how the movie ended because I felt like it left more questions than answers and almost felt like it was meant to set up another sequel than to provide closure. I'm not saying it wasn't a good twist (albeit not an unpredictable one). I just think the film shouldn't have ended on that note.

Final Opinion: The first movie is slightly better, but this film does a good job building off the first movie without ruining things by trying to do something overly complex. I just wish the ending would have been a bit better.

My Grade: B