Directed By Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

Starring – Milena Smit, Oscar Jarnada, Hovik Keuchkerian

The Plot – As a mysterious leader imposes their rule in the Platform, a new resident (Smit) becomes embroiled in the battle against this controversial method to fight the brutal feeding system. But when eating from the wrong plate becomes a death sentence, how far would you be willing to go to save your life?

Rated R for brutal sequences of violence, nudity and adult language

The Platform 2 | Official Trailer | Netflix (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Five years after ‘The Platform’ made him a Spanish directing force to be reckoned with, Gaztelu-Urrutia hasn’t undervalued the elements that made his gimmick within the film such a compelling social experiment among class warfare, this time with the added pressure of abiding by a law and system of rules that have so evidently failed these characters in their past lives. This dynamic is one that obviously won’t persist throughout the duration of a 93 minute run time, but it is quite fascinating for the film to convey this idea that everybody only wins when everyone participates, serving as a bit of a cautionary tale to unnecessary overindulgence, which inevitably throws this vertical prison into carnage and chaos that takes complete advantage of its R-rating in ways its predecessor merely flirted with. In addition to the concepts and orchestrations of that first film, this one thematically taps into the desire to change and deviate with time, especially while locked in a mental prison of their own that relives many of the past mistakes of these prisoners. Its message does become a little more metaphorical than I was expecting by the film’s climax, but it does keep this from feeling like a complete retread of the original, all with a psychological stinging for these characters that proves the physical difficulties with their respective predicaments within these many levels inside of the prison, are only the beginning to their own guilty conscience that can’t be satisfied by nourishment. Gaztelu-Urrutia’s visual impulses parallel those of the first film, with claustrophobic framing, color saturation to an otherwise bland canvas, and a complexity of angles far and wide, high and low, that constantly stir the pot of uneasiness to boil so many combustible elements housed under one roof, with very little influence of authority to oversee so many dangerous prisoners with dangerous intentions. In emitting such, the film feels like it picks up merely minutes after the first one concluded, with visual similarities that are impressively identical, all with the air of ambiguity that the concept drives so well in its meticulous storytelling. It doesn’t remain this way throughout, but for my money the film and its conflict are best when approached when interpretation is left to the audience, without the need to explain every little aspect, especially considering the script isn’t always best at eliciting character motivations that are even remotely believable, but its something that demands focus and attention from its audience, where the hypothetical of what we would do in certain unpredictable predicaments constantly comes into play. In addition, while the characters of this secondary installment left more to be desired, the performances from Smit and Keuchkerian are connectively effective in materializing the kind of humanity needed to brandish some kind of depth to their respective portrayals, with Smit surprisingly stealing the dominance over the narrative by the film’s second act. As Perempuan, Smit bares the weight of her thoughts in a continuous daily demeanor that effortlessly conveys that her mind and body are in respective places, simultaneously with a moral clarity that between her desire for equality within the prison, and her revealed reason for why she ended up there, that gives her character heart and humanity that are a rarity in this desolate setting. Similar can be said about Keuchkerian, despite him reveling more in the ambiguity that much of the film’s best qualities exude. Aside from the ghastly reason for his incarceration, his work as Zamiatin serves as the monster created by the machine, where a soft-spoken and easy-going man disappears in a cloud of desperation, resulting in conflictions within his own morality that I wish the script dove a little deeper into, especially with Keuchkerian’s bold facial registries that say so much about his own internal battles, without literally saying anything at all.

NEGATIVES

While ‘The Platform 2’ raises cunningly astute observations about overindulgence and mental captivity, it’s an uninspired mess of a sequel by the film’s second half, that can’t stand on the same ground of its predecessor, with a sloppy structure and heavy-handed dialogue that make it difficult to remain as compellingly invested as the 2019 film managed to elicit. On the former, the film feels like it begins already in process, with no backstory towards the established characters, or introduction to the air of this world-building, which becomes all the more incoherent the longer the film persists, as it deviates from psychological to metaphorical in ways that convolute the easily-interpretable material with an underlining profound sentiment that completely convolutes, and the result is that the climax initiates these series of images and altercations without much context or character motivation to their capture, leaving the film feeling scatterbrained in spectacle when it should’ve demanded authenticity from humanity, all in order to never lose sight of the scope and stakes that completely blows over the head of Gaztelu-Urrutia’s inconsistent execution. On top of this, the film doesn’t live by the same claustrophobic limitations of the first film, choosing to explore much of this prison alongside Perempuan, and while expansion would normally be an admirable quality to a claustrophobic thriller, the kind here undercut the rules of the prison’s confinement, all the while inscribing a bit too much levity to established conflicts that border a bit too much on convenience to right its wrongs. As for the latter, the dialogue enacts some overhead narration that comes out of nowhere, around the film’s midway point, and while it’s a fitting tool to help audiences distinguish some form of clarity to what they’re experiencing, it phones home to much of the endearing sentiment, which was pivotal during the original film. Subtlety isn’t this film’s strongest quality, especially once the violence starts moving into frame, and while I do appreciate when action conjures intensity in any movie as dialogue-dependent as this one, I think it goes overboard on its way to the climax, leaving little for those final few moments that should resolve matters on peak anticipation, but instead reaches for deeper meaning in a flimsy tie-in link towards its predecessor. In my opinion, this film would’ve been better distancing itself as much as possible, because failure to do so constantly reminds us of the better film that we should be watching, all the while constructing one of the most underwhelming resolutions that I’ve experienced this year, with regards to Perempuan’s desperation arc, where she reaches for salvation in a character we meet only a few minutes prior to this delivery. This leads to my single biggest problem with the film, and one that is the most noticeable inferiority to its predecessor; the characters. While sequels have typically always surmised weaker characters compared to their previous film counterparts, the kind here don’t even attempt a decent backstory to lend itself towards some kind of relatability to their outlines, forcing the aforementioned ensemble to work overtime on their performances to give us some semblance of substance to their candid approaches. The work from them is solid enough, but never enough to earn the kind of empathetic investment that makes them feel like monumental losses whenever one of them is unceremoniously shuffled off of this mortal coil, which in turn shreds the stakes towards feeling practically non-existent. Considering we meet a new supporting character what feels like every few minutes, I wish that even one of them attained either an endearing personality or importance to the plot that makes them feel indispensable, but they’re simply there to double down on the ages old rule of succeeding the fatalities of its predecessors, in turn feeling like speed bumps to confrontation and resolution that even at 93 minutes of a run time feels spaced out with so many characters sharing screen time.

OVERALL
‘The Platform 2’ doesn’t ascend to the heights of its superior original, particularly with uninteresting characters and convoluted storytelling plaguing its pallet towards feeling half as satisfying and less filling. Despite enhanced brutality and equally effective production values, this sequel simply feels like unfulfilling leftovers that grow cold quickly, leaving no escape for sequelitis that confines us to a night with no parole.

My Grade: 5/10 or D