The Platform 2 movie review & film summary (2024)

There was most likely no greater hit of the pandemic than the Spanish language dystopian thriller “The Platform.” In that movie, the incarcerated, confined to lots of of ranges of particular person concrete cells as they await a floating large slab of meals, felt not too dissimilar from the confined existence many skilled whereas dwelling via the virus. It was a stunning cathartic reward throughout these lean months. Coming again to that excellent thought would appear like a mistake. Throughout the first half an hour of director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform 2,” it’s obvious that this return is certainly a grave error. 

The mechanics of this world are the identical. The incoming prisoners, who all have totally different causes for being there, are given the selection of what they’ll eat day-after-day and a private merchandise to consolation or shield them. Each month, they change from one stage to the subsequent. The upper ranges are higher and supply extra meals. The decrease reaches promise hunger. There are some further wrinkles. When Perempuan (Milena Smit) awakens, she finds the hulking Zamiatan (Hovik Keuchkerian) occupying her cell, too. They’re on stage 24. She eats croquettes, and he eats pizza. The veteran inmates above and beneath have tried to put in what they consider is an equitable system: You’ll be able to solely eat your chosen meals; you need to not eat the meals of those that have perished; the one method you possibly can eat a distinct merchandise is in case you commerce with another person. That system, nevertheless, proves to be deeply flawed. 

Equally, these new plot gadgets aren’t sufficient to breathe a lot life into the idea. Somewhat this follow-up not solely seems like extra of the identical, it’s additionally dulled the prior movie’s sharpness. All the movie is much too complicated. It takes too lengthy to find why Perempuan is right here. The enforcers of the system, often known as Loyalists and guided by a blind and harsh Anointed One often known as Dagin Babi (Ken Appledorn), are an equally opaque group. Other than their want to maintain regulation and order, it’s unclear what their motivation is for therefore violently perpetuating this technique. There may be, after all, the non secular part–messiahs, demonic figures, and allusions to various circles of hell—however they play as broad symbols quite than incisive world-building. 

Due to the inconsistency of the story, you possibly can’t inform what the movie is arguing. Is it about how even equitable techniques can result in chilly crackdowns? Or may or not it’s critiquing the COVID lockdowns, claiming that puritanical isolation infringed on folks’s rights? 

In any case, “The Platform 2” suffers from solely providing extra of the identical. Earlier than lengthy, it faucets a personality from the primary movie, rehashes the already worked-over premonitions and metaphors from the primary movie, and even tries to neatly tie each works collectively via a ham-fisted post-credit scene. None of it is sufficient to conjure the identical magic. As a substitute, this movie wanted to construct out its lead character extra—Perempuan is nothing greater than a drawn-out cipher—and to range its visible language. Whereas the primary movie was incredible at leveraging the confined area for pure rivalries and psychological angst, this one overly depends on close-ups, showing repetitive within the face of a sludge-colored setting.

Neither the cheesy ending nor the very existence of this second installment is earned. As a substitute, it languishes because the squeezing of the ultimate drops of a as soon as vibrant thought. It most likely would’ve been higher if “The Platform 2” had merely remained locked away.    

On Netflix now.