Director: Christopher Landon
Performers: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, and Sarah Yarkin
Happy Death Day 2U starts strong with an interesting addition to the Groundhog Day style déjà vu homage by adding a multiverse theory. It wants to build on the themes from the first movie, but it doesn’t manage to match or surpass the original. If you saw the first one and crave more of the same, or just love hanging with these characters for a while, then this is a good choice. However, if you saw the first movie and want something new, I’d pass.
Spoilers Ahead!
The film introduces the repetitive struggle Tree (Jessica Rothe) dealt with in the first movie only from a different character, Ryan’s (Phi Vu), point of view. It sets the film up for dealing with doppelgängers and gets us on track for the multiverse theory of multiple dimensions and time lines – with a new killer (or killers) in each one. This was a strong angle and promised a fun film full of slasher fun with a science fiction twist. But almost immediately afterward, the film drops the doppelgänger notion, switches back to Tree as the sole protagonist, and stays firmly in a single timeline. Why did Ryan have a doppelgänger bent on killing him? Why was he experiencing déjà vu? We never find out.
The struggle takes Tree through her same struggle as the last movie, only in a slightly different way. It’s not surprising which choice she makes when confronted about staying or returning to her own timeline (Hint: which one resets the characters sitcom-style with no stakes or development). Ryan, who had a dilemma all his own in the first twenty minutes, never sees resolution. Tree returns home, gets the guy, and the film ends abruptly. It’s hard to get invested when the character development she’s engaged in for the bulk of the film doesn’t matter and the original struggle is never resolved.
Overall, the performances are fantastic, and there are plenty of genuinely funny moments, but the actors can’t save a flimsy plot. In the end, the movie exists to capitalize on the fame of the first film without committing to the hard work. I enjoyed it a lot, but the average viewer might want a deeper cut.
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