Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Mirrors 2

October 16, 2010

Mirrors 2 - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray

The original Mirrors, that is to say the original remake, opened in 2008 with terrible reviews and really went nowhere at the box office. So it is kind of a shock that a sequel was made. It is not a shock that said sequel is going direct-to-DVD. This does lower expectations, which is probably a good thing going in.

The Movie

We are introduced to Max Matheson as he is discussing the tragic death of his fiancee. He was driving, there was an accident, he survived, she didn't. He tells his psychiatrist that he's starting to have hallucinations, but she seems almost disinterested. (It's hard to tell if she's a bad therapist, or if it's a bad script.)

After the credits, where we are given a brief rundown of the events at the store, The Mayflower, we meet a security guard, who for no reason I can tell, rips the covering off a mirror after saying, "Fancy mirror." It's not. It's a rather dull looking mirror. After playing around with the mirror for a bit, his reflection stops doing what he does and eventually tries to kill him. (That's not really a spoiler, as you know going in that this is the type of movie it will be.)

The next week, the owner of the store, Jack Matheson, who is also the father of Max Matheson, calls his son and says he has an opening as a night guard at The Mayflower, while dropping a couple more plot points along the way. His dad wants him to stop in early so they can talk. During this meeting, Max is introduced to Jenna, the head buyer at the store, and Jack takes the time to try and set the two of them up, which is probably considered sexual harassment.

As Max gets ready for work, he sees a freaky kid in the mirror behind him, but when he turns around, she's gone. He informs his therapist, who seems to think this is a good sign. That night while on the job, he hallucinates again, this time its Jenna naked. ... First normal thing anyone in this movie has done. But when the mirror image of Jenna dies ...

There you go, 20 minutes in and you have your boobs and blood, which is sadly all this movie has to offer. It is too similar to the original, and the original wasn't a good movie to begin with. There's very little in this movie that works. Hell, the opening credit sequence is three minutes long, and by the end I was bored. Not a good way to start a movie. In fact, boredom is practically the only emotion that the movie is able to generate. There are some gory death scenes, but they are gory, not scary. Most of the "scares" come from seeing people's reflections do something the people are not doing. If this was a haunted house movie, seeing one scene like that might be effective. But a whole movie of those scenes is too much to take.

The big mystery wasn't intriguing enough to draw me in as a viewer. Finally, some of the kills are bloody, but for the most part the special effects were second rate.

I guess if you really liked Mirrors, then Mirrors 2 is worth a rental. But for most people, this is entirely skippable.

The Extras

Extras on the DVD include two making of featurettes, the first an overview and the second focuses on the special effects. Finally, there are two deleted scenes.

I do not have the Blu-ray to compare, but apparently there's a picture-in-picture track.

The Verdict

The mystery in Mirrors 2 is not interesting enough to sustain the movie, it moves far too slowly to be a gorefest flick, and there's not even enough nudity to be "Boobs and Blood" low expectations cinema. (Although on that last point, I've read more than a few people commenting on seeing Christy Carlson Romano naked. So much so that I'm starting to think that's the biggest selling point of the movie.) Add in weak extras, and neither the DVD nor Blu-ray are worth picking up, and they are only worth renting under limited circumstances.


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Filed under: Video Review, Mirrors 2: Evil Lives