Creative Industries Week 9:Re-Review-Acceptable Aces 2?

Acceptable Aces 2?
From the Smokin' Aces1 I had a high expectation if the there was, for a second installment, would it live up to that expectation? With vast films there are alawys and expectation with sequel or prequels to the previous film, But over years aren't many that have exceeded ther first though.

The director of Smokin' Aces 1 and NARC comes a prequel to Smokin' Aces 1in which a FBI office worker finds out that a bounty has been put on his head which causes him to go into hiding whilst Assasins from all over the world are edging closer towards him.

I began noticing the same key points as Aces 1 and 2 which started the film as part of it's storyline where the glue to the story is that there is a bounty on someone's head, attracting assassins towards him. Once the story has begun the action from both films gives myself the insight on what type of characters they are simply from their killings for examle if the cut the person limb from limb they are a sadistic killer.

As the story continues I begin to see why there are so many differences between the two movies because of the type of actors to me aren't well known, besides Vinnie Jones and with some of the actors they weren't well known which to me caused no emotion or extra abilities towards Aces 2 as well as not enough backing in budget for more of a stand out production.

In Aces 2 there began a main focus point in whichthe FBI office worker has been sealed with a chamber underground and with the location set i began to believe that the focus point would be the killers going down each floor killing till they reach the end, the worker. But instead i notice that i was wrong when the hired assassins encounter each other causing a "shoot out", which causes only two or three of the left and seeing this I knew that the ending is looming

The final piece of the film finishes off with the remaining assassins trying to break into the bunker only for the FBI office worker to uncover that he was the one who lured the killers to him to kill them all as they were hired by the U.S. to do their dirty work and so he opens the bunker to release a grenade resulting in all the people around and in the bunker to be killed. However the end twist was yet to be uncovered and i found out that the office worker survived as well as two of the hired killers but as the scene draws to a close the FBI worker get in his car only for the leading agent who was protecting him, to arrive in front of his car and shoot the worker.

Now to answer the title Acceptable Aces 2?, I think you would have to examine some of the areas for example in it's repetitive storyline to Aces 1, the Aces 2 storyline had it's unique ending which has no faults in my mind, which causes me to think would repeating the same storyline again with a different and unique ending also be as good? As for some of it's weaknesses i have to say that the lack of action is a downside which could be a way to improve on to balance the film out with equal action to story, but after researching into what could have had an affect on this film i noticed that Aces 2 is a direct-to-dvd film causing a certain amount of budget which could be lower thatn it's previous film and the affect of budget could result in it's cost for special effects and big name actors.

To answer the question, was it acceptable... i would say yes but could have improved in the amount of time for action scenes and having the assassins have single encounters with each other rather than almost finishing them all off with a big battle. With the knowledge of this film being a direct-to-dvd causes a good point in why they had less of a action packed movie and that not all films are good with a sequel/prequel such as the film 'The Mask' which was a great film but got a bit of a damaged reputation from it's sequel 'Son Of The Mask' all in all i would give this movie a 65% out of a 100%.