"Rings": Movie Review

I recently read a review where someone said he hated himself for seeing Rings, but hoped his sacrifice would save others from seeing it. After I saw Rings for myself, I can safely say that he was being highly overdramatic. Am I claiming that Rings was the best horror film of all time? No, but it wasn't horrible either. For those of you who wish to avoid spoilers, stay away. For those who want to know what the good, the bad, and the ridiculous parts of the film are then keep reading.

Still here? Wonderful! Okay, the film begins with probably the dumbest scene in the whole film. A man is on a plane and is obviously nervous. The girl beside him asks him what's wrong and so he tells her about the tape he watched which has caused the deaths of a few of his friends. Right away, we're reminded of the original mythology and what Samara does. He then reveals that that particular night is the night he was supposed to die. Immediately, I rolled my eyes as the inevitable happened. I mean, if you know a supernatural entity is coming after you and you know it's your night to die, why in the name of God would you get on a plane full of people? Because of him a plane full of innocents were killed. Idiot!

Okay, that was the worst of it. Now we're led to cute couple Holt and Julia who are being separated because of college. Holt is the one leaving and Julia is going to be home without him for 6 weeks. They chat via webcam and do the cute couple stuff until one day he doesn't answer. He disappears seemingly into thin air. So of course Julia goes looking for him. His science teacher Gabriel, played by Johnny Galecki for all you Big Bang and Roseanne fans out there, had seen the video and started "The Ring Experiment" which was basically a club for people that had watched the film and then in turn invited new members to watch it in order to save themselves. The new members would then have to make their own copy and forward it and so on. This holds true with the mythos that was established in the first Ring film when Rachel saved her and her son's life by making a copy and forwarding it to someone else. (Oh, before I continue I need to point out a missable detail-slash-Easter-Egg. In the scene on the plane, the nervous guy says that "some chick in Seattle" sent him the film. We know from the first Ring film that Rachel was from Seattle. How she knew this guy, we don't know and we never find out. Maybe Rachel wasn't even the one who sent it to him. Maybe I'm just reading too far into it. Anyway, moving on....)

Julia finds Holt and he demands she not watch the film because he doesn't want her to get caught up in the whole situation. Out of self-sacrifice, she watches it anyway while he's asleep in order to save his life. Now, for all you naysayers saying the film isn't logical, here's the logic part. The description of the movie says that there's a film within a film. When I first read that, I felt confused, as Rachel dissected and studied the film frame by frame in the first movie. Okay, here's what actually happened. Because Julia performed an act of self-sacrifice, Samara showed Julia new images in order to guide her to finding out how to release her spirit. The images WERE NOT on the tape before. This was solely Samara's doing.

Now, the rest of the film I will not spoil but now you know where the new images came from. I will say that the film seemed a bit slow in a lot of places which hindered what the film could have become. The acting was mediocre at best. It was nice, however, to see Johnny Galecki branch out into new territory and I would like to see him do it again in the future. Just pay close attention and you'll catch on. The film isn't spoon-fed to you, which I appreciated. If you go in having already decided you're going to hate it, then you will. Sit back, open your mind, and you'll enjoy it.

In conclusion, Rings wasn't bad but it could have been approached better. The ending was a nice twist, however, which ultimately saved the film. I give it 2 out of 4.