Wednesday 9 October 2013

The Collection (aka The Collector 2) (2012)

The Collector's MO of killing a building full of people to kidnap one continues... But this time his trophy is the daughter o a very rich man who sends a team of mercenaries to retrieve her.
And if you think he makes his victims houses deadly, wait until you see him on home turf...


Spoilers for 'The Collector' use invisitext like this, highlight to read them, there are no spoilers for  'The Collection'. 

IF YOU CAN READ THIS BIT WITHOUT HIGHLIGHTING, YOUR DEVICE DOES NOT SUPPORT INVISITEXT. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN 'THE COLLECTOR'. 

The writers of the first movie return and, true to form (they were responsible for Saw parts 4 through 7) they take the "more is more" approach to sequel writing. 


Elena, this subject of this movie's rescue attempt, inadvertently sets in motion the biggest deathtrap I have ever seen, by freeing Arkin, from the first movie (herein The Bait) from the trademark red trunk - which raises a question; does The Collector just take the last victim standing, or does he have a victim in mind? I ask this because in the first movie he has no way of knowing that Arkin would even be there, and in this movie, he can't possibly have known who would be first to find the box. 

In any case, it's Elena who gets 'collected', while The Bait escapes (leaving her behind in the process). 

While in hospital, The Bait is approached by Luccio, a mercenary in Elena's Father's employ. As the only known person to ever leave the collectors lair alive, Luccio figures that The Bait is his best chance of locating Elena; luckily for Luccio The Bait seems to have some hitherto unmentioned special ops or spy training, as he was able to retrace the drive from the ambulance crash where we last saw him, right to The Collectors door, having had, despite being beaten and bloody and trapped in a box, the presence of mind to make notes on his arm pertaining to the passage of time, and any turns!

And so the team of mercenaries enter the building, and the movie becomes the "bigger, faster, more" version of the original, where the traps (being in his own place) are much more endangered than the simple trip-wires and sharp edges of the first film... While tripwires are used, they're more likely to send a spring loaded iron maiden hurtling towards the victim, than to simply drop a knife on his head. 

This annoyed me; primarily because, in a sub genre dominated with elaborate set prices  it was nice to see such simple traps in the first movie, (9 Dead showed us that less can be more on this front), but also because, having so much first hand evidence that a meat cleaver on a wire is every bit as effective, why would the killer go to such lengths to embed motors and wires in his walls?

We meet some former collectees (explaining the title change - the first movie set up the character, this one is about his 'work') which include a woman who he has trained to be a 'little girl' and a small army of drug addled 'zombie' guards. 

While not a bad movie, the overblown nature of it does let it down, and ruin it's chance as a worthy successor to the original. 

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