“No matter how many different doors and portals I go through I always end up in the same three rooms.”

Justin’s rating: This set looks like a control room on the TARDIS

Justin’s review: Cube was one of the many welcome surprises that emerged from the imaginative ’90s indie scene, turning a single location into a captivating concept. Did it beg for a sequel? Probably not, but there was an effort in the early 2000s to fashion this into a franchise with Cube 2: Hypercube and Cube Zero.

The literal mystery box of Cube reestablishes itself in Hypercube, with a group of eight strangers awakening in one of the potentially lethal rooms. But this time we might get some answers, as some of the strangers seem to have connections to the Izon corporation — the same outfit that apparently created this human-sized rat trap.

On top of revealing secrets and hidden agendas, the group also contends with the fact that this cube is a little more science fictiony than the last one. Something to do with alternate dimensions and reversing gravity and dopplegangers and strange noises.

Of course, one doesn’t merely show up to a Cube movie solely for the intellectual angle. Like the Saw and Escape Room series, this franchise is known for its hidden traps. You never know if the room you’re entering has a grisly fate in store. There doesn’t seem to be as many of these, but a couple are cool, such as a field that rapidly ages you or transparent pillars that’ll knock off your head.

The first Cube hit a sweet spot of mystery, rules, and weirdness, but it did feel like a mystery that could be understood. In trying to up the stakes and top the previous effort, Hypercube goes a little too far into science fiction weirdness and inexplicable narrative. Rules? Who knows. And good luck trying to keep track of the whole alternate dimensions thing and a weird gadget flying about.

It makes Hypercube incoherent to a degree, leaving us with the human drama as the only relatable part. It doesn’t take long for the group to realize that, in some way, shape, or form, all of them have connections to the Izon corp and the creation of this second, far more complex cube. One of the guys ends up going well off the deep end of sanity, helping to up the death count.

I remember being so underwhelmed with this film back when I first saw it in the early 2000s that I had to drag myself back to it for the sole purpose of completing the series. Unfortunately, time hasn’t taken a disappointment and somehow redeemed it. The computer effects are especially creaky, and the bulk of this slightly-long runtime is merely people moving from room to room while the occasional odd thing happens and some clunky backstory is occasionally shared.

Cube 2: Hypercube takes everything cool about the first movie and replaces it with a lot of Star Trek-style technobabble, artificial human drama, and bad effects. Out of the original three movies, it’s easily the worst.

Intermission!

• Shrink-wrapped action figures — life-sized, no less!
• Have a hissy fit over your briefcase, why don’t you
• “Hello, do you know where the showers are?”
• “Where am I?” “That’s the million-dollar question.”
• You can be dead and not-dead and stink but still be alive… I guess?
• Make out too much and you might end up older than you’d like