When
taken as a stand-alone: meh. It's run of the mill and lacks anything
that would particularly endear me to it (apart from effective
atmosphere and lighting, which can be pretty much taken for granted
in a horror like this with a reasonable budget anyway). When taken as
a direct sequel to 'The Woman in Black' though, it doesn't hold up at
all.
The
setting is the same, but it's set like 40 years after the first
movie, and none of the same characters are in this one. Their
replacements are bland and forgetful (the main thing about our hero
is that she smiles to hide fear/sadness...?), and the film doesn't
use it's slow pace to build on them enough. The villain is the same,
as far as I can remember, but I don't understand why she's back.
Unless this is a different ghost now? It's not just that, though. This just doesn't feel on the same level as the previous movie. The scares are cheap and predictable, the pacing is up and down, and the plot plays out extremely predictably.
The
fact that I'm unsure of what the main villain's motivation is, is a bad sign - I mean I was trying to
pay full attention to this movie, it just never fully clicked,
you know?
But
as a stand-alone, fine. Not great, or even good, but not the worst. I
don't recommend it though, the war stuff (which I'd usually find sort
of interesting) wasn't even that real feeling. Sort of like 'Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow' but not quite as bad.
The Woman in Black: Angel of Death: 23.9