A forced grin: Smile 2

Naomi Scott's (Aladdin, Charlie's Angels, The Martian) character, Skye Riley, is an ungrateful and stereotypical pop star who comes across as fussy and cringe-worthy. Despite Parker Finn's directing attempts, which felt cheap and lifeless, Scott's captivating performance elevated the film, preventing it from being a total failure, even though her character was unlikeable and underdeveloped.

More than half of the movie feels unrealistic, which raises the question of its purpose. There's no need for a two-hour runtime when there is little to no character or plot development. The director uses a plotline similar to "It was all a dream," leaving you wondering what's real and what's merely inside the protagonist's mind—but not in a way that creates intrigue—just confusion.

The whole movie appears to serve primarily as an advertisement for VOSS water. There are about three scenes, each lasting around two minutes, in which Skye Riley is seen chugging an entire bottle. This raises the question of whether Finn intended to create a sequel to the original Smile or if this film was merely a cash grab.

Smile 2 relies heavily on sudden cinematic cutaways and excessive gore to scare the audience. It's evident to everyone who watches that this sequel is nothing like the original movie, which was genuinely frightening and effectively used psychological scares.

The first half of the movie was completely useless. Nothing in that first hour would have made any difference to the movie or plot line if removed. The plot twists were cliché and not difficult to guess from the first 10 minutes of the movie.

However, despite the criticism, Finn created a tension-packed film that does an amazing job of portraying substance abuse and how the world treats recovering substance addicts. This portrayal is rarely seen in the media and will hopefully catalyse more directors following his lead to create a less stigmatised view of the subject.