Decent follow up.
"Pulse 2", a DTV follow up to a modestly successful staple in the dying wave of Japanese ghost movie remakes; we should have seen it coming. I'll be the first to admit that I genuinely enjoyed "Pulse" and find it the most enjoyable of sub-genre. I appreciated the films' ponderings of loneliness in dying, and our subsequent denial of death and dying in our culture amongst a flashy ghost story with technology being the medium between us and them. "Pulse" was by no means philosophical, but it gave enough vision to ideas that are rarely present in films, let alone the Horror genre. Very little of that is passed onto "Pulse 2", which is generally common when a sequel is made; new ideas, new visions, new story. It's hit and miss.
"Pulse 2" takes place following the events of the first film, and only has 1 returning character played by a new actor, and people may not connect that he is the kid who discovered the frequencies that the dead travel in the first. "Pulse 2" feels incoherent, unfinished; as though it had too many ideas and didn't know which to go with, and which to leave behind, and never really explains or shows us how, we just have to assume as viewers. For example, apparently people still live in the BIG city and electricity is running strong (contrary to what was established at the end of "Pulse"), but the streets are empty. No law and order, no presence of rehabilitated authority or civilization, which you'd assume a society would need to merely have those everyday amneties? We also have roadblocks, which would be a sign of civilization, or atleast some kind of authority, but that's never explained why 3 former Government employees are blocking a road with machine guns. "Pulse 2" fluctuates between the world of an established post-society society, and pure anarchy. It can't decide, so it falls to whichever is most convenient to the story, and it starts to get distracting pretty quick.
"Pulse 2" did have some very interesting plot points though, and I really enjoyed seeing life from the "dead" point of view, and how the roles of living and dead are reversed. Pretty clever how they played that out. But that about does it for originality. Everything else feels cliche, over-used, predictable, or flat out non-sense. Scenes feel out of place within their own story simply because the director couldn't settle on a feel of what world the viewer should be in. Should it be a lonesome ghost world? Should it be an isolated safe world, but the outskirts are dangerous? What does he want? Perhaps these will be fleshed out in "Pulse 3", but for the time being, it greatly hinders this entry.
"Pulse 2" is not a bad movie, it's not a terribly good one either. The constant use of green screens gets annoying, and it's obvious it affects the actors' capabilities constantly playing to a green wall. As mentioned, the lack of plausibility greatly conflicts with the film, and some of the choices the characters' make will leave you hanging your head. The film does feel uncertain of itself, but if you enjoyed the first you'll likely get atleast a passing enjoyment of this one, I know I did.Read full review
