MovieRat-2

I honestly do not understand the hate and poor box office numbers for this film. The visuals were absolutely stunning. The universe of the story is truly epic in scale and scope. The acting was decent except for a few minor points: Eddie Redmayne's Belam is always talking at a whisper (SPEAK UP!); Channing Tatum's Caine is unemotional to almost robotic levels; and Mila Kunis's Jupiter is unrealistically taking the existence of aliens and everything that is happening to her waaaay to calmly.

Looking back, the one thing that I think truly hurts this film's acceptance by audiences and critics is the story. The story is epic...unfortunately, I think the Wachowski's tried to show too much in a very limited 2 hours. People have complained that the story felt rushed at times, which is indeed true. But does that mean the movie is bad and not entertaining? No, it is still an incredibly well made and well told movie for what the Wachowski's were limited by.

Despite this, I believe the story would have played out masterfully over several installments like a TV or anime series.

Another reviewer likened this film to Loony Toons. Given the sheer insanity of the film and the indestructible nature of Chev I can understand that. But this film sadly is nothing like the comedic genius of Loony Toons...but I digress. Crank: High Voltage is, in my humble opinion, simply an excuse for the creators to do a movie filled with insane and bloody violence and throw in ungodly amounts of nudity, language, and...oh...I almost forgot, pornography. In fact, the reviewer would have been more correct as to compare this film to an porno pumped full of action. I loved the first film and was utterly disappointed with this so-called "attempt" at a sequel. Action was still top notch, but everything else was simply horrible with any shred of realism left from the first film completely thrown out the window. About the only other thing that I liked in the film apart from the action was the subtle references I noticed throughout the film (or at least I thought they were references). References ranging from Takashi Miike to "The Princess Bride" to Walt Disney. And David Carradine makes a strangely ironic (or should I say foreshadowing) cameo. Worth viewing only by truly hardcore (no porn pun intended) fans of the first film. Film is rated R but only (in my opinion) because they blur out much of sex that would have given this film (and what it should have received) an X rating. NOT TO BE VIEWED BY CHILDREN, EVER!