I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Do yourself a favor and watch this movie up to the point where the first guy gets sprayed with "water." Turn it off after that. At that point you'll have seen the only decent gore, and you will be spared the boredom and stupidity that is the rest of the "plot." This movie adds absolutely nothing. The gore is lame, the story is laughable, the acting is poor, and the plot holes are bigger than the cube itself.Just some examples.The helicopters can be heard at the lake as soon as they are scrambled. So the base is right next door? How could they possibly get away? The woman's daughter magically appears in the last scenes in the forest. Where did she come from? The "people upstairs" have to come down to the tech room to operate the controls and find the rogue tech guy? Really? With all their tech, there isn't another control room somewhere? Okay, so they have computer eye implants, chips in people's brains, and the means to build a cube... but they can't find one guy in the cube? Even though every room has a camera? Hello, how about a single mosaic channel showing all rooms? Or a motion sensor? Blah, blah, whatever. Not wasting time typing more. I figured with a 5.7 rating it can't be that bad, but it was just dreadful. How anyone can rate this higher than a 3 is beyond me.

Eric Wynn and Dodd are workers mindlessly monitoring the deadly cubic maze. They are ordered to record the dreams of Cassandra Rains, one of the new subjects. In it, she was kidnapped while walking in the woods with her daughter. The other subjects are Robert Haskell, Meyerhold, Jellico, and Bartok who all have lost their memories. The plan is to work their way to the edge while avoiding the traps. Wynn searches through the files and finds Rains' consent form missing. It's an illegal imprisonment and Wynn fears that all the files are lies.I've only seen the original. It's a great premise for an indie splatter horror. I don't know anything about the sequel. This one adds a dystopian file clerk nightmare of an office. It's a little like Brazil. It's a nice expansion of the cube universe. The original didn't really explain itself which is perfectly fine. This backstage story has good potential although the execution is less than perfect. It needs more paranoia. Michael Riley's look is too campy and detracts from the darker tones. The outside should be as dark as inside the cube. The movie does degenerate over time into a muddle.

The first movie "Cube" did not explain at all the strange events happening. As if movie makers didn't want you even to ask the questions, and just enjoy the thrill of watching the strange events. The second movie "hyper-cube" gave a hint that someone, after all, was in control. In this prequel "Cube 0" one layer of outside, controlling-agency is shown. The higher layer of control (up above) is not disclosed even now as if they have saved it for yet another Cube movie. This movie gives you the experience of thrill. There is the fear of the unknown, disgust of gore, a feeling of helplessness, cold objectivity of the authority, and empathy among the co-sufferers too.

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.