Buster Connolly As a sequel, you can't expect much but I was blown out of the water. I watched this movie thinking I was going to see a masterful continuation to the first. I was .. well, I was wrong. The movie stretches on and almost put me to sleep, the conversations and situations in the movie seem silly and bland, even prior to the first.I do like, however, that they used some of the same actors, but yet I couldn't get into the story and it wasn't as believable as the first. (and I loved the first movie.) I wouldn't necessarily recommend this sequel if you liked the first one. You can sort of see where the director was going, continuing with the Manga, but it was not the best choice, in my opinion. I really did try to give this all the credit I could.

brianshoebridge1 The parallels with Hunger Games are impossible to ignore. The first Battle Royale was superior to the "original" Hunger Games. Unfortunately in the sequels, whilst Hunger Games CF was not a great movie, BR2 is a pretty bad movie.The plot is not so much different as more like an alternative story that was rejected for the first movie as being just too stupid, then dusted off and, unedited, put to film so as to quickly cash in on the success of BR. My "Cheesey Overacting" gauge, which hangs next to the screen, broke about 30mins in & never recovered.I know that much Japanese cinema (and TV) is inexplicable to a non- Japanese audience but this film really crosses the line. So much is impossible to explain at all. Why use students if you really want the job done? Why does an apparently unsuccessful teacher of difficult students suddenly have free run and authority in a military HQ? Could the Rugby thing at the end have been any stupider? Could the constant pauses in the carnage for the 'characters' to have meaningful minutes be any more ridiculous? {no & no} Why do we never see an army guy who runs anything? Why do allegedly "tough" students constantly make such melodramatic and obviously poor decisions? And so on.In BR1 we cared a little about the characters, in BR2 we don't as the action rushes past in a blur of gunfire & stupidity. It would have been so easy to just do a minor rework of the original and release another successful BR film, as the HG people did. Instead the makers, again inexplicably, fell on their swords and have pretty much killed the franchise. 4/10 is generous. It's atrocious drivel with pretty girls who largely get blown up.

NeoCyberlaw It's on my mind the most brilliant representative of films, in which awesome first part and the second did not have to do it at all than make such a mess. Discouragement from the first to the last seconds. I am very sorry for my time spent Started watching eagerly second part immediately after watching the first, it is really a blow to all counts. From the very beginning the film is very tedious, but still there is hope that the story will begin to develop yet somehow. By the middle there is a great desire to turn off this stuff and never to forget about it. Sorry for the spelling, but you need to warn people about what it is not worthy to steal their precious time (which is priceless)

SeriousJest It's as if this movie was written by a child: a plot by the World's adults to get the World's kids to kill each other; the ease with which anybody can pick up an assault rifle with a grenade-launcher attachment and instantly know how to operate it like a trained pro; the melodramatic speeches against The Man; and the awkward romantic moments inappropriately scattered throughout non-stop violent war. The action is consistent, though, and Fujiwara does a great job of playing a very different role, now that his character has done a 180 after years on the run with insurgents. Still, unless you're a child, or the novelty of 9th-graders murdering each other is enough to get you geeked about this flick--and then you've got other issues, freak--hold off until the next installment of The Hunger Games.For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com