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A group of seemingly unconnected individuals wake up and come
together within the identical inter-linked cubed rooms of
a geometric superstructure. This hypercube incorporates the
fourth dimension of time-related alternative realities. As
the characters move through constantly shifting and often
perilous rooms, attempting to discover a way out as well as
the reason for their presence, they come to learn that the
one thing they have in common is an affiliation with Izon
Research - a weapons manufacturer and think tank based in
Washington...
First
and foremost, let me say that this isn't a patch on Vincenzo
Natali's original low budget sci-fi thriller from 1998. If
it's intended as a sequel, it doesn't work at all with only
the tenuous of links; and if it's a reworking, then most of
the good points are lost from the initial concept to make
way for quantum theory and other notions mention but not explored.
In brief, too much is attempted and little if any of it comes
across.
Let's make some comparisons. The first venture similarly portrayed
strangers thrown together but, unlike this version, there
was no link between them, only a variation of professions
or skills. It was full of effective ideas. One aspect was
rooms tinted one of three different colours, leading characters
to incorrectly believe that a similarly coloured room would
be safe if it proved so on the previous occasion. Another
clever point was having numbers by each access hatchway; the
assumption is the portals are numerically counted, but an
autistic man realises prime numbers signify safe and stable
rooms. In Cube 2, not only are all the rooms an uninteresting
white, but all the hatches operate by touch panels, and each
event takes place at random with no possibility of calculation.
The
original Cube was much more mechanical, with the rooms
sometimes even moving as characters tried to negotiate between
them. Here the effects look cheap and 'cartoony'. Also, you
feel nothing for the cast, because if the company wants them
dead, why not just kill them. I think it works better to have
no explanation than seek to justify what has no logical sense.
A psychotherapist, a computer game designer, a theoretical
mathematician, a psychotic private investigator (to match
the psychotic cop in the first outing); none get the chance
to use their so-called skills. The blind girl, Sasha, turns
out to be the legendary computer hacker Alex Trust and also
originator of the cube designs, but she might just as well
be the illegitimate offspring of Lord Lucan and Shergar, for
all the relevance it has.
Newcomers to Cube might be interested in Hypercube,
but I can't imagine any fans of the original seeing this as
an improvement, or even a logical story progression. Save
your money; buy Natali's original instead.
Ty
Power
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