Cube Zero (2004)

Employed to monitor the progress of those subjected to the Cube experiment, two technicians begin to question the ethical implications of their job in this prequel to Vincenzo Natali's 'Cube'. The film gets off to a solid start with lots of mysteriousness in the air with ominous personnel files and odd touches like pill-form lunches. The novelty of having two individuals in limited danger sit back and watch events unfold does, however, wear thin quite quickly even with a lot of intriguing answers given to explain the Cube's purpose and the reason why individuals are generally placed inside. Simply put, it is more exciting to watch those with no idea figure out what is going on piece by piece (as per the first two movies) than it is to have all the answers gradually unfold from the perspective of those in control. The film is also compromised by an inappropriately comedic performance from Michael Riley as the mysterious man in charge; he is charismatic but far too goofy to ever seem menacing or fearsome. There is also some baffling, unexplained technology that somehow allows the technicians to read dreams. 'Cube Zero' does, however, trump its predecessors by including a more imaginative variety of gory, graphic death scenes. The film is also topped off by a thought-provoking ending with a chilling reference to Natali's original horror thriller.

If "Cube Zero" was an attempt to right the ship after the mistake known as "Cube2: Hypercube" then it was a failed attempt. They did nothing to restore credibility or goodness back to the franchise. The acting was just as poor if not poorer and there was nothing new except more scenes outside of the cube.If I can comment on the acting for a bit because I feel I must. Now I believe that the pitiful acting is on purpose. For the actors to deliver their lines like they are doing voice overs for kung fu movies or doing voice overs for chipmunks just doesn't make sense. Their words were abrupt and choppy like they had to suddenly stop talking or they'd run out of breath. Nothing about their acting was good--the delivery of the lines, their facial expressions and their expressions of different emotions. Even if the plot was good they would have sank it.Back to the story. Again, like "Hypercube", they fed us a little more information about the cube's purpose and who may be behind it. This is supposed to be a prequel so the cube you know in "Cube" is pretty much the cube you see here. Still, after having watched all three parts to this series I don't understand the significance of the cube participants.It tries and fails to explain "Cube": the reason for its existence, who's behind it and why we know so little behind the characters. I don't know if it's fair to say they tried to explain because they really didn't. They just added more confusion and more mystery to a mysterious thing. This installment from the Cube trilogy is less intelligent, less creative and filled with more deus ex machinas (plot devices whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object). "Cube Zero" at least forecast it's ability to be entertaining: zero.

I've heard of the Cube series, but my interest in the series started with Cube Zero. I don't know; Something about it makes it so fascinating and it's hard to describe that without spoiling the movie to people who hadn't watched it yet.When I first stumbled upon this film, and then looked it up on this site, it was pretty clear that most people did not like this movie. So, after getting the chance to watch it on the internet (Because of the rating it received, I couldn't buy it,) and I have to say, it was actually a nice prequel to Cube, apart from the less than two hour time run and some of the traps involved.The premise of Cube Zero sounds very similar to the first Saw movie and all of it's sequels. For example, the facts of people waking up in a strange room, with no recollection of how they even got there, or why they're in there, and the threat of certain death, is there in both series. In order to get a clear understanding of Cube Zero, I recommend looking up and/or watching the first movie, like I did when I first heard of the series, back in early 2012. For me, I would definitely recommend it, because of the mystery that surrounds the Cube and it's victims makes it so worth it to watch.

Surprisingly Cube Zero does not center mainly around the people trapped in the cube. Of course there are still people who wake up inside, get to know each other and then either die horribly in one of the gruesome traps or get killed by one of their own turned psychopath. It wouldn't be a Cube film without this. However Cube Zero focuses on what happens outside the Cube. We get to see a glimpse of who/what is behind the growing mystery, formed by the earlier films, that is the cube(s). However, and this is not necessarily a bad thing, Cube Zero raises about as many questions as it answers. I will not give away anything here though, you will just have to watch it and see for yourself.The plot has a lot of twists and turns along the way, including a big one that ties in very nicely to the first film. The film certainly has better writing than its predecessor Hypercube (2002) and may even surpass the original. Some of the characters are still fairly shallow, especially the people inside the cube, but otherwise the writing is inventive and a lot less cheesy than in the other two films.The acting is also quite good. Despite having unknown actors the characters are portrayed believably and are fun to watch. The direction is well paced, and while Cube Zero is not the tensest of the three, it still keeps you wanting to watch by asking another question every time it answers one.Cube Zero definitely had a lower budget and maybe this isn't a bad thing. It created the need for a strong script and after all this is what these films depend on. It makes you think, it keeps you wandering what is going on afterwords and this makes it a good film. I can definitely recommend it.