Review of Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown (2011) by Fabio R — 21 Dec 2016

Though the first Never Back Down (2008) was a truly abysmal film, with Michael Jai White taking the title of director on the sequel I knew it had to be worth checking out.

Never Back Down was a relentlessly generic high school story which used every cliche in the book and shamelessly stole from The Karate Kid (1984). I very much expected Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown to do the same thing, and this is a prophecy it certainly fulfilled. However, it did a better job this time around.

In essence, Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown is just a less cringe-worthy equivalent of its predecessor. Neither film is particularly transcendent or original, but Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown manages to do much the same thing without being as awkward as an experience. Given that the film is not just a sequel to a very poor film but a direct-to-DVD release, the standard of expectation is much lower. However, the film still doesn't make any great shakes as a movie. The film maintains a thin premise but takes a different approach with its characters, opting to pile them onto the story rather than focusing on any individuals. This means that the experience is far more scattered than its predecessor. It's less melodramatic, but it's difficult to establish who the real protagonist of the film is. Every character gets their own obligatory story full of cheap sentimentality and predictable plot dynamics, and with the addition of a scattered focus there just ends up being no reason to care about any of them. The only one who is interesting in any way is Case Walker as the martial arts master of the film, but even then he has to face the brunt of a thin script and play second fiddle to a series of far less interesting figures. The story makes no formidable attempt to be creative in any way, and though this is to be expected the fact that the premise is such a heavy retread of its predecessor is just poor. And more than 100 minutes of this with a slow pace and predictably sub-par dialogue makes it a challenge to engage with.

One big problem with Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown is the fact that there is no conflict in the story. The entire film centers around building up to the titular Beatdown, an underground fighting event which pits a group of characters together in battle. Up until this point there is exceedingly minimal actual fighting in the film, meaning that the action quotient ends up being minimal. The entire reason audiences would be watching a film like this is for the action scenes, so the fact that they take a backseat to generic plotting is really just poor form. It's obvious this has been put in place to extend the film to feature length, but given the sheer abundance of characters it would honestly do the pacing a huge favour just to cut several prominent figures out of the story. The film just drags on for way too long, and given that the standard for martial arts choreography in the film is average at best there is really no satisfactory payoff in the end. The final action scene is too brief and underwhelming to even be all that memorable. Essentially, the entire film just meanders along an annoying path between cheap drama and sporadic mediocre action and is ultimately satisfying on no sufficient level.

However, I will give praise to the directorial effort of Michael Jai White. With far better directorial sense than Jeff Wadlow, the man manages to craft a superior sequel in his debut. This is because he knows martial arts, and even if he has to work with a tight budget and thin script, you can still see enough to realize that the man has potential. His eye for action proves itself amid the few fight scenes in the film because the choreography is captured with steady cinematography which is gentle with its editing and effective with its addition of slow motion. Though the choreography is not transcendant, it's at least convincing and is more coherent than in its predecessor. The director is naturally able to capture it with a sense of imagery that implies greater potential in later productions. The film is no real achievement, but it suggests that perhaps Michael Jai White is capable of it. And given his genuine expertise as a martial artist, he is certainly befitting to be helming the film. His performance in the feature is also one of the few consistently good parts of the film. While he hasn't always been the greatest performer in bigger budget films such as Spawn (1997) or Universal Soldier (1999), he brings a strong supporting effort to Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown simply because his role requires him to pass on his wisdom regarding martial arts to the audience. In the scene where he discusses the best mentaility to fight in, we get the epitome of the man's wisdom. The entire film we see a strong sense of restraint in his character which makes him seem all the more human, and during this one scene he really passes some strong knowledge on to audiences with a genuine belief behind it. Amid a generic script is one moment which really highlights Michael Jai White's insightful understanding of the fighter's mind, and his genuine understanding of it all is clearly so inherent that it's hard to deny. Michael Jai White directs himself to a strong supporting performance withou a self-indulgent obsession that makes him the constant center of attention, rather earning it with genuine charisma and understanding.

And fans of Never Back Down should be happy to see Even Peters make a return so that the film is a direct sequel rather than a random spin-off. He may not have any particularly special relevance to the story, but his comic energy doesn't seem as forced this time and his lighthearted nature is more enjoyable than the forced drama of the other characters.

Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown benefits from Michael Jai White's direction, but its recycled plot, generic stock characters and minimal amount of action add up to another unsatisfactory entry into the series.