Quatre filles et un jean 2

I feel this movie was really good. I remember when the first one came out and I was like, so lame. I eventually came around and saw it but it was okay. When I heard they were making a second one I was really happy. I think this movie had a lot of variety. At one point you would think it was going to end and then it started up again with drama. I think all of the girls are amazing in this and I like that the movie wasn't generic. I noticed there were some plot twists that could have gone the usual way in that the characters win but it wasn't always like this. I give the movie a nine compared to the eh, 7 I would give to the first.

The movie was pretty boring. Girls who are incredibly different and who talk with tremendous disrespect toward each other. I don't believe their friendship.

I liked the first movie. It had heart. Even though the girls were far apart, you felt like the pants did connect them via some magical power. The sequel is so plot-thin. The characters also struggle with the same things as last time. Lena has to fight for what she wants. Bridget has to stop running away from pain. Tibby has to let people in on her pain. And Carmen struggles with insecurity and feeling left out/alone. While these are all relatable feelings, they're basically repeats from the first movie and they aren't explored in any great ways. I feel like the first movie depicted the pain of three of the girls pretty well (all except Lena...that girl doesn't have a real problem, they just had to invent one for her). This movie felt extra disjointed and robotic.

" Promise draining away with duration. A little romance with too much complication. Not enough anecdotal inspiration. Film finds itself in a mediocre rank location."

Sisterhood of the traveling pants 2 (6.5/10)

Setting the scene

Imagine you are a bee ... Out on the hunt for nectar. You don't find a sweetly scented rose but end up settling on a daisy. The daisy is fine. It still provides the nectar you want but you wonder. You wonder if your fellow bees have found a flower which is more salubrious. This is the theme of the scene setting. The not knowing of characters lives and how they are unfolding. This is a capture. Gets you wanting to know more and acts as an effective hook.

Main body

The beginning shows real promise with many dramatic emotional scenes with 2 of the main characters. You almost expect some relationship development but nothing feels long term. It feels like nothing is real or deep enough to provide a real romance vibe.

Perhaps the art of the film is it's action and progression but for this, all the scenes and characters should be as emphatic as each other. This just isn't the case. The second film learns from the issue of focusing too heavily on the main character in the first. With this though it struggles to make each small excerpt from every character dramatic.

The greatest drama begins with a combination of characters. One is left out from any really emotional or engaging events. Things get a little tedious later on since the drama is siphoned just towards the main character. Only a short snippet for the left out character is provided to try to reengage or wake up the viewer. This seems a bit desperate and feeble however and some stones are left unnecessarily unturned.

The main body therefore seems to fade away and could benefit from a little truncation or just quality time focusing on relationships. That said the stories do have variety but just aren't on the whole that entertaining.

Music

Quieter music as well as increased fading was used especially well for sadness and turmoil. This enhanced the authenticity for just one of the characters though. Again this was far more effective at the early part of the main film body but by the end was not noticeable unfortunately. In general the music was calming and relaxing which suits the films friendship vibes although perhaps needs changing up where things are threatened or more exciting.

Ending

The ending is too much like the first which is a shame. There could have been a twist in the tale or the significance of the pants revealed which would have been nice.

Summary

A varied combination lacking seasoning. Not fully reasoned and seasoned by any stretch although some good relationship scenes, location variety and number of life snippets just about get you to the end of the film. No better or worse I feel than the original but the film appears to suffer from less surprise after viewing the first.

In the first adaptation of Ann Brashares's famous novel series, soap-opera clichés and predictable story lines were defeated by the sheer charm of the characters and their relationships with one another. And whereas that film dealt with the transition to womanhood and celebrating feminine diversity, the sequel fits our young heroines into contrived, "after-school" special story lines that end exactly the way you'd expect them to. The first film is by no means a masterpiece, but there was a genuine sense that these characters were real and thus we could relate to their plights.

There are some moments in the sequel that shine, most of them occurring when the four titular characters are together, but so much time is spent on filler plots and unnecessary contrivances that the film simply gets old too quickly. Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively don't do much to make their characters any more believable or human; they have no personality and thus their individual story lines are rendered even weaker. Amber Tamblyn and America Ferrera do the opposite, and bring their characters to life, against the odds of the mediocre script. There's also some impressive input from supporting performances, such as the great Blythe Danner and the heartfelt Shohreh Aghdashloo. All in all, a disappointment considering the first film, but still a somewhat worthy escape with four friends who, in the end, above all things, value one another more than anything else in the world.