The first trailer from eons ago was actually kinda promising to me. It seemed to hint at a disturbing atmosphere, interesting cinematography and genuinely creepy moments.

The second trailer showed Joey King as the headliner. Lovely.

I have to wonder if there was a version of this movie closer to that first trailer before Sony got confused on what to even do with this, because the final film blows giant chunks. It still has some purty shots, but it has horrible acting, an ass-backwards script and....in the end, this is a feature-length 2000s meme.

I loved this when I was about 12, and my fiancee still does (which is why we rented it from Netflix DVD), but man this has not held up at all.

Ah, this whole trilogy, man.

This is the one trilogy, to me, that actually got BETTER with every film. Yeah, they're pretty straightforward with no twists or plot complications, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that these movies and everything in them just feels right. Characters, scenarios, humor, morals, the endings.

Especially the ending to this one. Not just the best way to end this movie, but to cap off the entire trilogy. There is ZERO need for a fourth one. Everything feels complete, everybody's gonna be on their own way elsewhere, nothing else needs to be done to enhance it. It's...just right.

I recently watched a mini-doc on David Fincher's film techniques. One of the scenes that's mentioned is the famous "box" scene. When he filmed Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, he used a handheld camera as "shakycam" to represent the two losing control of the situation. When he filmed Kevin Spacey, he used a tripod so it would be shot in place to represent him having all the power.

I had never noticed this before, that genius bastard.