On Friday, October 4, the sci-fi thriller «The Platform 2» was released on Netflix. This is a sequel to the Spanish hit about a hellish buffet «The Platform», which was released by the same Netflix in March 2020 and made a lot of noise. In this review, we will tell you whether the sequel adds anything interesting to the setting of the first film and how reasonable it is to have a sequel in general.
Genre sci-fi thriller, horror
Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Starring Milena Smith, Hovik Keuchkerian, Natalia Tena, Oscar Jaenada, Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Bastien Ughetto, Armando Buica, Pedro Bachura, Antonia San Juan
Premiere Netflix
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
The multi-storey prison with its gloomy concrete walls and a mobile platform with appetizing treats has been replenished: on one of the still comfortable 24 floors, a young woman, Perempuan, and a fat man, Zamyatin, a pizza lover who is cooler than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. More strange than the names of the characters is the situation itself: the upper floors are provided with a variety of food, while the lower floors are starving to death. Once a month, there is a random rotation, but if you are at the bottom, you still have to somehow hold out for that month.
Two people live on the same floor, and everyone has the right to order any dish on the platform before their imprisonment, whether voluntary or not, and to take one thing with them-even a book or a knife, whatever they like. At the initial stages, the slaves still try to follow the unspoken rule: eat only what is yours and do not touch what is not yours. That is, in theory, everyone should be satisfied. But the harmful human nature suggests that someone will definitely be tempted by the neighbor’s chicken, which will lead to disastrous consequences.
The authors of the sequel have gathered for the second time, obviously not to multiply the achievements of their predecessor and to lift the veil of secrecy of the strange place of detention. Frankly, they don’t add anything worthwhile to this mysterious setting at all.
It seems that after his unexpected triumph, the Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia did not know how best to use it and what exactly he wanted to convey to the audience in the sequel. And this is because there is nothing to convey anymore because everything important was said in the first movie.
The story again offers another «chosen» (or rather «chosen»), or the messiah himself; it is not without reason that the plot features a blind man (and here we immediately recall Neo with bandaged eyes) who claims this role, and the final act is performed in green.
There will be a metaphorical suspension of the protagonist, who seems to be between life and death, and a symbolic atonement for the daring act that landed her in this prison. There will also be a meeting with an important person from her past who will open her eyes to why it was so important for both of them to save her, but not themselves. In this way, the plot focuses more on Perempuan and her personal story than on the prison and the secrets associated with it.
In fact, the second part not only fails to provide the desired answers to the questions that might have arisen after watching the first part, but asks even more questions that are unlikely to be answered. This risks becoming a major factor in the rejection of the viewers, who deserve at least some hint as to what the hell this social experiment is and who is behind it.
From time to time, human heads and other body parts appear in the hole that stretches through all the floors. Scenes of brutal massacres, when people demonstrate the worst manifestations of their nature, have not disappeared. Again, we have seen all of this before, so these scenes no longer have any effect. It would be more interesting to see if someone witty ordered fugu fish — to what level this dish would last.
As a result, the authors of «The Platform 2» exploit an interesting concept in a trivial way, but do not bring something new to it that would look exciting and worthy of attention. It’s just another bunch of dummies suffering and suffering — you can’t become a sensation a second time with this kind of material.