Watching the second part of Escape Plan, titled Escape Plan 2: Hades, you might end up feeling angry about the laziness with which this movie is made. I am not saying the first one was a great one in terms of craft as it primarily focused on the commercial viability of the Stallon – Schwarzenegger combo on screen. But that movie was watchable to an extent and this one here is an extremely scattered dull movie.
Shu Ren who worked with Ray Breslin, at one point had to go with his cousin as a bodyguard and during that he and his cousin got captured and were kept in a secret prison with high security. Ray decides to help Shu and the film shows us how the collaborative effort ends up in the ultimate escape.
First of all, if you are looking at this movie as a Sylvester Stallon movie that has Dave Bautista playing a pivotal character, you are seriously mistaken. This is pretty much a standalone Chinese action film with a cameo from Bautista and an extended cameo from Stallon. If my guess is correct, Stallon might have spent only 10 days for the shoot and Bautista may have spent half of that. This movie is pretty much about a Chinese guy trying to save his cousin brother from a private prison. There are areas they try to make it look like a sophisticated Shawshank by showing us how Shu Ren analyses the prison and a plot that could have been intriguing just becomes flat out boring when they just randomly add characters and add plot twists that were kind of visible from far away.
Steven C Miller packages this movie with little thrills and lots of pointless action. The sophisticated gadget filled automated prison and the whole concept gets explored in a really shallow way and it feels like they were only keen on showing the hero’s martial arts skills. Cheesy cliché banters between hero and villain and the typical feel makes it a really boring experience and on top of all that, there is an absurd climax that ends as if they ran out of the budget. I felt like telling the writer to make some ultra cool location finder and kill the last villain so that the franchise would end there. Shaky camera work along with edits that confuses you just makes the movie more uninteresting.
Huang Xiaoming is the hero here. While he has the charisma to look like a hit man, his dialogue delivery and emoting feels really flat. A tired Stallone somehow manages to add attitude to Ray and Dave Bautista is pretty much doing nothing.
Escape Plan 2: Hades isn’t really a sequel. In my opinion, it’s a scam that tried to make fool of an audience that kind of expected a popcorn entertainment as it was a sequel to a film that was almost a popcorn entertainer.
Rating: 1.5/5
In my opinion, Escape Plan 2: Hades is a scam that tried to make fool of an audience that kind of expected a popcorn entertainment as it was a sequel to a film that was almost a popcorn entertainer.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
