For the 99.99% of you who don’t remember, Escape Plan was a 2013 action film that kind of came and went, and it was about Rey played by Sylvester Stallone, who basically breaks out of prisons for a living in order to show faults in the system and security, and he ends up getting stuck in this massive, secret offshore facility with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I actually had a blast with the film. It wasn’t great cinema by any stretch, but as a throwback to 90s action films that also brought together two of biggest stars of that era, it served its purpose well, and I had a wonderful time with it.
So, for the sequel, Escape Plan 2: Hades, they decided to focus on one of Rey’s operatives, Shu Ren (Huang Xiaoming) who gets taken and imprisoned in an absurdly futuristic facility known as Hades. Schwarzenegger is nowhere to be found, but hey, Dave Bautista shows up as Trent DeRosa, an old associate of Rey’s, so that’s cool. Oh, except both Rey and Trent don’t really play an active role in the film until the final act.
I’m really puzzled by some of the creative choices made here. It’s like the filmmakers went out of their way to not capture the main appeal of the first film. It would be like making a sequel to a Transformers movie that takes place entirely at an auto dealer. Because you liked the cars, right? That’s what you enjoyed about the Transformers so much?
To be fair, once we do get to Hades, there are some neat visual cues and imagery. It feels remarkably alien in its construction, and while the tech is probably way past anything in the realm of possibility at this point in time, especially compared to the last film, it still provides an interesting and compelling puzzle for our characters to solve. It leads to some solid fight sequences throughout the movie, but compared to other DTV fare, it’s nothing you can’t find done better in other films.
The film is directed by Stephen C. Miller, who was behind Silent Night, Arsenal, First Kill, and some other low budget actioners. He has a flat look that can’t escape the inexpensive production values and inconsistent visual effects. There just isn’t much style to what he brings here. If it was under someone like John Hyams, who brought a real sense of energy and verve to the last couple Universal Soldier films. Escape Plan 2: Hades could’ve had its own interesting visual language and feel, but instead, it feels like one of many disposable DTV action movies.
Huang Xiaoming does his best as the new lead, bringing in a smooth, stoic performance to a character that ultimately doesn’t have much going on, and he just doesn’t quite have the charisma to carry the film. The supporting characters are largely bland, and are given about as much to do as the plot lets them, which usually isn’t much. The first film does a good job with allowing you to spend time with Rey and Schwarzenegger’s character, in between the plot beats that allow you to invest in them. Those character moments are missing here, and it’s the one thing that really could’ve saved it.
Dave Bautista is a great addition to the cast, and he has a fantastic intro around halfway through the film. Unfortunately, after that sequence, both him and Rey don’t get in on the action until the final 20 minutes or so. The film does set up a sequel at the final moment, which seems to imply more involvement of those two characters, so that is something I look forward to. It’s also going to be helmed by John Herzfeld, and I believe it’s already finished shooting, so there is a chance the next one will be an improvement.
I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say Escape Plan 2: Hades is a terrible film, but it is a disappointing one, coming in as someone who genuinely enjoyed the first film. If I were to look at it as just any other DTV action movie, I’d say it just below average. It has a couple moments where I was engaged by the story, a few action beats work, and I think it does a good job at selling the oppressive atmosphere of the prison and the toll that it takes on someone as tough as Shu Ren. It’s full of strange decisions, so drastically different from the approach to the first film, that I can’t say I was ever really bored. However, so much of it is in one ear and out the other, like it’s running on auto-pilot, and whenever it tries to bring something interesting to the story and characters, it isn’t given much of a satisfying payoff. So, I’d honestly just recommend catching the first one if you haven’t already seen it, it’s better than you’d expect.