User reviews

I've never really thought about it this way, but I suppose in most cases, it's an honor to have a sequel. Although no one liked the sequel, I'm sure Jonathon Lynn is proud that The Whole Nine Yards got a sequel somehow. And that seems like the case with Cube 2: Hypercube, a sequel to the cult hit Cube. But then one wonders how there can be a sequel to a movie that was basically all filmed in one 14x14x14 set? Well, Cube 2 is the answer-but not really the best one. It shows what Cube would have been if it had had a bigger budget, but it also showed what it didn't want to become.

Strangers are thrown together into a series of interconnecting cubes yet again, but this time they're more high-tech. They're not different colors, and there's no booby traps. Instead, some rooms have a cube that attacks you (don't ask), some have gravity reversed, and time means nothing. There seems to be no pattern, like in the first one, so how are these people supposed to get out?

This is all one big rehash of the first. There's the wandering around, talking about the past, and speculation of why they're in the cube. I guess that's for people who see sequels before the originals. The characters are all more broadly drawn, the dialogue is cheesier, and it looks faker. In the first, you barely knew anything about the giant cube they were in. Here, it seems like everyone was involved somehow. The ending, which was vague in the first, explained some more, which I was angry yet happy about. It's hard to explain. But then they left it in the air yet again. Maybe it's for the prequel, Cube Zero (due out sometime this year) to describe.

But one positive difference between the two is that this one seemed to be overall scarier. It's not claustrophobia, but the idea of anything happening in a hypercube. Because they don't exist, everything goes wild here, allowing for some things to happen. It's all quite creepy. And although the random crazy psycho killer is more random here than the first, I liked him more, and he was great as he was going through the hypercube. Cube was an original, interesting, and disorienting movie. Cube 2 is the exact same thing, except not as good.

My rating: 6/10

Rated R for language, some violence and brief nudity.

So the math took a backseat to the first movie. This one, however, is all about the completely ridiculous result of what happens when you build a hypercube. Where did the simplicity go? Where's the magical screen writing that made the first so excellent? Fans of the first one absolutely should see this movie, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the new things Hypercube throws at you. Literally throws at you, in fact. And throws at the seven new characters.

But where did it go wrong? The opening sequence is nothing short of the greatest moment the Cube series has ever seen. Draws you straight into the action, even if the first actor is bad at falling... up. From that point on, the characters take a seat and move along with a poor attempt at additional plot. We don't ever get any insight into character motive, as we did in the first movie. This person goes insane... wait, explain that one again? In addition to no character motive, the characters are completely static. Unless you had seen the first movie and were actually expecting focus on character archs, you would find yourself thinking how terribly predictable the characters are. Even more, the Cube's logical image has been destroyed, replaced by this machine gone horribly wrong in the fourth dimension.

The best part of the film is how it continually keeps you on your feet, long after you've seen it. What gave me hope for Lion's Gate was the frightening beginning and the fantastic ending. I'm still plagued by social, theoretical and mathematical problems posed in this second installment, and the ending will not disappoint. However, for those looking for intelligent theoretical sci-fi, I would look to the first, and watch it perhaps a second time.

I admit to being a huge fan of the CUBE trilogy. The first film is obviously the best, vicious and exciting in its simplicity, while the third, CUBE ZERO, is an interesting idea that takes the form of a prequel. CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE is a straightforward sequel to the first film, with significant changes that make a difference.

Although a number of characters are once again trapped inside a cube, the emphasis this time around isn't on solving puzzles and avoiding traps. Instead the characters must figure out a way to escape from their prison and to avoid the impending death which follows them at all times. There's lots of tension and interplay between the various characters, as before, and I liked the acting from the unknown cast which carries the story along.

There are some good twists here, especially with the climax that heads into the fourth dimension, although with a little blood and death for people who like that kind of thing. The special effects are very average on a low budget but as usual it's the ideas which make this film work. It's not on the level of CUBE but I do appreciate the fact that they did something different instead of just doing a slavish copy for a sequel.

Well, I guess it's an OK movie so long as you pretend the first Cube doesn't exist. Interesting characters, interesting plot, and lots of panic and violence... gotta love that.

But... the question must be asked: How can you have a sequel to Cube? Cube was a deeply philosophical movie that had nothing to do with conspiracies or governments or Izod or anything nonsense like that. It wasn't some government project - it just was. It was a means of putting the various kinds of "humanity" to the test.

Hypercube obviously missed that. It missed the deeper meaning of Cube because whoever wrote it was too superficial to see past the glossy exterior to its true meaning. In making Hypercube, they insult Cube, as well as all its fans who understood it for what it really was.

Cube was a philosophical statement. Hypercube is a pointless sci-fi thriller. As a sci-fi thriller, it's not bad - but when you watch it, disassociate it with its predecessor, or else you'll absolutely hate it.

The first half or even two-thirds of the movie is interesting. You see

how these strangers interact and how they proceed with their

problem. Naturally I began to think of how I would have dealt with

this dilemma, so you can see how this situation is thought-provoking. With lesser actors it could have been boring,

but the characters were deep enough that I was pulling for some

to get out and not to spoil it, but the one I was pulling for...

eventually figured it out. It felt like a survivor type of show, but within the cubes of a Rubic's

cube, which is what I thought these people were in. If you like

Outer Limits and Twilight Zone type of shows, you will enjoy this

one. I did not like ending though. The last five minutes kind of left me

hanging and not feeling like the survivor really won. Maybe you will

have a different interpretation.

The main problem with this movie is, that there is really no sensible way to make a sequel to Cube. But they probably got more money to do a sequel and who would say no to that? So what could they do? Of course! Build a larger Cube! Genius! And time shenanigans for some reason. Genius? And, of course, the government is behind it all. Super Genius! But the movie itself isn't that terrible I find, it has some enjoyable scenes and the cube is still terrifying enough to keep you interested. Like I already said, the movie is far from horrible or unwatchable, but there is just no point to a Cube sequel to exist in the first place. I have yet to watch the prequel, but that seems to be even more pointless than this film.

Hypercube. That title is terrible but I placated myself with the idea that a Hypercube is actually a real theoretical mathematical construct. That it wasn't some misjudged attempt at a catchy title. It is just telling it how it is. The first one was called Cube and was set in a Cube, this one is called Hypercube and is set in a Hypercube. How wrong I was. Everything - absolutely everything - in this movie is designed to be "Bigger, Better, Faster"! And that is why it fails miserably.

I loved the original Cube because of it's simplicity. It was what one might call a pseudo Science Fiction movie. It was a psychological thriller trying on the Science Fiction coat, and it worked to perfection. You thought, this is crazy BUT it could bloody well happen. It was (apparently) set in the here and now and everything in it was eerily possible. It would have cost an awful amount of money but it was possible, it was after all just a big mechanical Cube. Even the booby-traps were deceptively simple. The real beauty for me was that you never knew or got to know the why, where, or who in the first movie. The goal was simply to get out in one piece and each person had their individual skill to help achieve that goal.

Cube2 enters the full realm of Science Fiction and immediately trips and falls flat on it's face. None of the simplicity is left. The `captors' in this new cube must deal with time shifting, gravity shifting, alternate realities, some weird killer time thingy that moves through the rooms and one of the crew who turns a bit psycho... just like the policeman character from the first movie, except (you guessed it) he's even a BIGGER psycho. On top of that the story tries to put a face on who is behind these experiments: The Izon Military Corp. (or something along those lines). This movie therefore is what 2010 was to 2001, albeit on a more modest level. And in the same way it just doesn't work

Also, character development is practically nonexistent. For example one pair of characters disappear and are never seen again. Just like that, gone for no real reason except maybe to show the vastness of the Hypercube although another character seems adept at meeting the multiple instances of two other characters in particular. In the end you absolutely do not care for any of them or whether they can escape or not. The story gives you no reason to care for them. The idea of the Hypercube itself is too vast to make you care. As one character points out, the amount of possible rooms in a Hypercube is infinite. Therefore there is no real goal. The characters don't need each other to escape. There is no exit door in a Hypercube! So why bother at all?

And as for the one-liners. The pain, oh the pain.

The worst bit however is reserved for the end. The Über-Military guy's comments on the phone make it sound like they are really contemplating a Cube3. Spare us, please!

Since most reviews here are damningly negative of Cube 2, I feel I have to post one opposing view, just so that possible fans won't skip this film altogether. Yes, the characters are rather stereotypical, and basically imported directly from Cube 1, but there is enough mystery about some of them to make you wonder about their real motives and/or origins. I personally think the effects and visuals (the cube) look wonderful. But maybe it's just cos I was brought up on things like Doctor Who and Blakes 7!

The mathematics and physics behind the cube remain intriguing throughout the film, as you gradually learn how the work in the cube. My interest was retained despite the fact that I was already very familiar with the concept of a 4-dimensional cube (`hypercube') and some theories about how they might `appear' to someone inside them. On the other hand, maybe this is why I was intrigued - to see how they translated these theories into a film (answer: very intelligently). I think that the script writers managed very well to combine interesting evolving inter-personal dynamics with the bizarre realities of physics (time and 4 dimensions).

Although the film was very similar in some ways to Cube 1, it was cunningly different in others. For example, the numbers identifying the rooms, vital to the progression of the first film, were in some ways a red herring in the second. I am somewhat ambivalent about the ending. I think it was acceptable, if you caught what happened exactly (I've only seen one review here (Sareji's) which seemed to actually catch what happened at the end), but as others have pointed out, it lacks the much deeper and fascinating metaphorical meaning about society and individual responsibility.

Although slightly flawed, this is an intelligent and unusual film, and, I think, deserves to be seen, but only after Cube 1, because it plays with some of the viewers expectations, and extends on many of the ideas of the first film.

After this movie was over and the credits rolled, my reaction was, "Wow, that was stupid." While actually watching it, though, it was entertaining enough. Pretty much anything with Kari Matchett in it is probably going to be worth watching as far as I'm concerned. Mostly thanks to her (the Rowdy Roddy Piper look-a-like was good too), the acting in this movie is actually much better than in the original, where it was pretty damn bad aside from the guy who played Worth. The most annoying thing about this movie is how lazy the script is. The writers throw in a bunch of catch phrases they probably picked up in a popular science book (I'm guessing Hyperspace by Michio Kaku), but they had either read the book a while ago and forgotten what the terms actually meant or didn't understand them in the first place. How much would it have cost to hire a physicist to work with them on the script for a couple days so that their ideas (which could have been interesting) actually made sense and weren't implemented in such a laughably nonsensical way?

Sad to say, since the first was so clever and original. This time, with a much larger budget, we are treated to special effects and noise; instead of more story or intricate dialogue.

The movie feels like a clone of the first retracing all the character archetypes and story beats, which is very odd. Any way the acting wasn't as good and nothing really was added this time around, just things taken away such as the room traps.

4/10.

I am a big fan of the first Cube movie and have seen it at least 15 times. I had high hopes for Hypercube but i didn't expect it to be as good or better than the first. I think people would enjoy it more if they didn't expect unreasonable expectations for this one.

Hypercube has some flaws, but it is still entertaining. If you love Science and Physics (like i do), then you will love some of the questions this film proposes.

I liked the darker feel of the first film more so than Hypercube. The "Cubes" in this one are basically very bright white and it is sometimes very intrusive to the eyes. I also would have liked less characters in this one. One thing that worked so well in Cube 1 were the interesting characters and the fact that there were not many in the film at all. This doesn't always work in most films, but it worked perfectly in Cube 1.

If there was one thing which i really did not like in Hypercube, it would have to be the ending. It was very cheesy and way over the top. It seemed like an episode of The X Files, which works just fine for a Sci-fi TV series, but it just didn't work here.

So, is Hypercube worth viewing? Yes it is, simply because some viewers will like it more than others. It is still a better movie than most of the Sci-fi movies that have been released lately. If you love the original Cube you should check out Hypercube, if only to watch it one time...

Cube 2: Hypercube takes the simple premise of the first movie and adds a layer of complexity to it because some laws of physics do not apply in these cubes. You have a similar setup then the first movie, except that this one at times overcomplicates things. It was the simplicity of the first movie that made it memorable and interesting and this aspect is sadly lost in this sequel. That being said it is not a bad movie, it's still interesting to see how our set of characters manage to move forward through these cubes and obviously some of them being killed by traps again. The characters in this one do have similarities to the first movie but are less memorable and slightly harder to root for. There's even an unneeded sex scene included that gives the name booby-trap a whole new meaning. (Sorry) Some effects look pretty dated and the overall movie had a more polished look with the cubes being white instead of having the metallic look from the first one. You also get a slightly deeper look into what is going on in this world that was created in 1997. Overall it's a decent sequel but it has more flaws and can't quite reach out to its full potential, however I think it's worth a watch. [6,3/10]

This is my second time watching the whole cube series,

I have seen all 3 once before and out of the 3 movies, I could remember anything from this at all and Now I know why.

First move was something new and fresh at the time, it had some really good plot, nice gory deaths in the movie, it was fun to watch and acting was really good for first movie.

This movie felt nothing like the frist movie at all, there not one think that I liked about this movie.

The movie took far to long, for anything nasty to happen, for about hour we need sit though people bickering and what they going to do,

I asking my self, where the hell are the traps, I was bored of the movie,just before hour mark, So I had too fast forwards last the half hour.

The death were not gory or nasty at all, they were Utter rubbish and the same can be said for acting from most of the annoying cast

If the last scene was meant to be some kind of twist, I didn't really care, why that Happened, I was clad the movie ended.

1 out of 10

This movie compared to the origional is a huge let down. The origional cube was menacing in the fact that you never knew if the rooms were safe or not. Here in this movie stuff just happens and Jerry dies a lot. A lot more could have been done with they Hypercube Idea but unfortunately about 3/4 the way through they just stop trying and go for just tossing in goofy gimmicks to try to show off special effects. I would have been happy if they just kept with Time Distortion rooms and the Paralell realities and saved the Gravity changes and stuff for another movie. And good greif they needed way more traps. Ooo a spinning ball of death. In one room. Scary. The Collapsing Idea was cool and those parts i liked but those don't count as traps. Much more could have been done with this flick but once again why bother when we can just make money in favor of providing a quality show. It's still fun to watch, just don't watch Cube before you watch it.

Unlike its predecessor, Cube 2 actually went out of its way to insult its audience. There is no subtext, no social commentary, just exposition and gore. If the movie had a point to make, that point found itself on the cutting room floor.

The characters are one dimensional... which is funny considering the film's title. It becomes very obvious that they were just written in for the sole purpose of dying and not for adding anything tangible to the plot.

This movie can be skipped entirely in the trilogy. It doesn't answer any questions from the first movie, and it doesn't lead into the third installment as Cube Zero is a prequel.

This film begins in much the same way as its predecessor with a person-in this case a young woman named "Becky Young" (Greer Kent)--waking up in a strange room with an exit hatch on all four walls, along with one on the floor and one on the ceiling. After choosing to go through one of the exists leading into a similar room, she enters a room in which gravity is reversed and falls upward before disappearing from sight. The scene then shifts to several different people finding themselves in a similar room with exists on all sides. Eventually, they all meet up in one particular room where they compare notes about who they are and how they ended up in this particular situation. It's then that they discover that all of them have had a connection to a corporate entity known as Izon which was created by a computer genius named Alex Trusk who is rumored to be quite sociopathic. Regardless, having now grasped the fact that they are trapped inside a tesseract, one particular man named "Simon Grady" (Geraint Wyn Davies) takes charge and the group follow him from one room another in which they soon encounter deadly scenarios resulting from the distortion of both time and matter. In one specific incident, upon opening the hatch into one particular room, an exact replica of Simon is seen stabbing a female member of the group named "Mrs. Paley" (Barbara Gordon) before being decapitated himself. Needless to say, this disturbs everyone in the group--especially Simon--who just happens to be the only person armed with a large knife. To that effect, as Simon becomes more and more agitated, the other members become even more wary of him. Meanwhile, the tesseract is becoming even more deadly as well. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, even though this film clearly benefited from an imaginative plot, there were some cases where the acting was quite sufficient to really capitalize on it. To be sure, I thought that Kari Matchett (as the psychologist "Kate Fillmore"), Neil Crone ("Jerry Whitehall") and the aforementioned Geraint Wyn Davies performed well enough. However, some of the others weren't nearly as convincing. Be that as it may, even though this film was still fairly entertaining, I don't consider it to be quite as good as its predecessor and I have rated it accordingly.

"Cube 2: Hypercube" is a weak and confusing entry after such a great original.

**SPOILERS**

Waking up alone, Kate Filmore, (Kari Matchett) Simon Grady, (Geraint Wynn Davies) Sasha, (Grace Lynn Kung) Max Reisler, (Matthew Ferguson) Jerry Whitehall, (Neil Crone) Tom McGuire, (Bruce Gray) and Mrs. Paley, (Barbara Gordon) each find themselves trapped in a large structure together. Trying to determine a way out of the structure, they find it is a series rooms with weird numbers scratched all over the walls. Discovering that they are in a hypercube, which has four dimensions across it and can fold back in on itself, which forces them to believe that an alternate reality is inside, as well as their self. Forced to take action, they try to solve the riddle of the cube and escape before they're killed off.

The Good News: There isn't a whole lot here to really like. The hyper-dimensionality allows for a lot of fascinating ideas to play around with. Gravity operates at a different angle in some rooms, time operates at a different pace in other rooms so that at time, they see other people alternately sped up or slowed down, and of course, doors open up into alternate realities and points in time, which allows them to constantly meet different versions of themselves. In one simply fascinating scene, one of the characters opens a door and sees them-self staring back. Reaching out to grasp the hand, another character appears from behind, kills the parallel version before being wiped out by a wall of crystalline shapes. It's a compulsively fascinating moment that works quite effectively for it's creativity. Another scene shows on of them stabbing a character in the eye, only to then turn around and encounter them on the other side of the room a moment later, having aged several years and seeking revenge. Outside of these great ideas, the film is pretty hollow.

The Bad News: There's a lot here that doesn't work. As a whole, this is a mess of a movie. It differs so much from the original that it's almost in a different series, with only the main premise and the cube structure remaining. Gone are the numerous, and quite cool, traps from the original, replaced here with a trap that will spring only if too much time is spent in a room rather than being the structure of the room itself, and in their place is a much too talky, confused, and poorly written movie. Not once does it fall together so that a simply answer can be arrived at that will explain everything, and instead, it just chooses to get more and more incoherent ending up being way too complicated for its own good. Even the traps that do spring up aren't that great, being simply a multiplying square that morphs into a spinning shape, not at all that creative or impressive. The laser-wall isn't that bad, but otherwise, the traps in here are barely worth mentioning, not being that great at all and nowhere near the inventiveness or cruelty of the originals. The extreme amount of down-time in here is also a problem, since it takes nearly forever for the film to get going. After introducing themselves, it takes nearly forty minutes before the first trap is sprung, and that's far too long to be standing around arguing with each other. That's the main gist of the middle of the film, long sequences of everyone arguing about what each clue supposedly means or where each person came from. This is a downer and makes the middle seem like it takes forever, and coupled with the weak, confusing story and lack of inventive traps, really brings this down.

The Final Verdict: With a couple of decent scenes and ideas thrown in, this is a really hard movie to recommend to anyone. Fans of the original might like it, but it only has to be the most forgiving fans to do so. If you want to really watch it, watch it before seeing the original or not back-to-back, the differences will be quite startling.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity

First off, don't bother seeing this until you've seen Cube. You wouldn't miss much if you did, but you won't appreciate & enjoy it nearly as much. I heard this was more of a remake than a sequel, but actually it's a straight-out sequel.

Again, a seemingly random group of people are abducted and imprisoned in a possibly enormous matrix of anonymous Cube-shaped rooms, with doors in all six surfaces, and a number of fiendish & deadly booby traps (and scary noises). Hypercube (moving on from Cube) adds gravity, time and parallel universe traps into the mix.

It's good because: it's broadly similar to Cube, which was excellent. You're not immediately sure who will be standing at the end. The special effects are a bit 'clean' looking, but very smart. And there are some funny moments in this one.

But it's not brilliant because: the plot is a little too clear (and simple), whereas Cube really worked because it was unexplained and ambiguous. The characters seemed to fit the same sort of roles as in the first movie. And there's a fair bit of hammy over-acting, deliberate comedy, and a curious lack of desperation & fear (whereas Cube was superb in all these respects).

There are a lot of well-intentioned sequels which (by their very nature) cannot string you along with the same 'fear of the unknown' in the original, and this is the case here. I also believe that having access to a bigger budget for a sequel is often a bad thing, since it's easier to go for flashy special effects at the expense of story, acting & dramatic tension - as in this case. (brilliant opening credits though)

But Hypercube - although not as good as Cube - does work as 'next step' sort of sequel. I was just surprised I laughed so often, without it ruining the film for me.

If they make a third one (the ending does indicate that they could), they should spend the vast part of the budget on a really good concept/script & director, get really-good-but-unknown STAGE actors (Hypercube came across as more of a soap-opera level of acting), and go back to the ingeniously wicked & creative traps a la Cube - because the CGI route does not look like a road worth following any further..

The plot is basically similar to the plot in the first movie but with some modifications and even more "far out". The list of characters are basically similar to the one in the first movie with some modifications, the setting is the same with some modifications, the acting is basically as bad with some modifications, the special effects are basically as outdated with some improvements, and so on.

The movie is still OK, and worth a watch. But do not expect something revolutionary as the first movie even if this movie in many ways are similar to the first one. "Cube 2" is more or less "Cube" on repeat, but somewhat more extreme.