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| Images courtesy BoulderLight Pictures |
Becky is back with a vengeance in her very own sequel, The Wrath of Becky. The follow up to 2020’s streaming cult hit sees our heroine doing battle with a fresh new crew of baddies. Again, the teenage slayer chooses violence against her attackers. Armed with dark wit, gallons of blood and a satirical take down of the incel generation and far right extremism, Becky is back in fine form in a follow up that doesn’t stray too far from its originator, at the cost of becoming old hat.
The first flick brought something new to the vengeance genre. We got a smart mouthed teen girl exacting revenge on a group of bad dudes that killed her father. The second film is a near clone of the first but doesn’t have the gravitas of a newly minted bad guy in the form of a reformed Kevin James. Seann William Scott doesn’t carry the same dark energy as James, which is a letdown considering his penchant for smart ass characters and never-ending quips. Scott almost seems bored with the material and adds no weight or dynamic to his role as the leader of the Noble Men, a comic spin on the Proud Boys.
The Wrath of Becky cops a John Wick storyline and adapts it into her world, which falls mostly flat. The kills are entertaining but nowhere near as unrelenting as her first outing. However, the title character’s primal urge for gore and pain is absolutely unhinged. This girl has no problem tearing militant religious whack jobs limb from limb and watching them suffer in new and unrelenting ways.
Yet, it does become repetitious and adds nothing new to Becky’s continued tale. The thing that’s great about these movies is that unlike so many female revenge sagas, Becky is never played as the victim. Instead, she actively seeks out a confrontation and is presented as a powerful female lead with a real talent for dealing death.
TWOB is definitely another fun trip with Lulu Wilson’s character of Becky. But all in all, it’s a repeat affair that definitely could have used a stronger script. Her one liners are on point. Her attitude is all intact. And her dedication to unruly action and bonkers death scenes still carry the movie. But this one is just missing something. It seems like this was rushed as it's missing some of the style and substance of the first.
-CG