6. Speed 2 Immediately Destroys The Romantic Payoff From The First Film
The first Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, was a phenomenal hit when it was released in 1994. It was like a guidebook on how to perfectly execute an exciting film built around one simple hook. After a couple of hours of breathless action, the film timed its wind down moment just right so that the audience could see a payoff to the romantic chemistry that had been bubbling under the surface between Reeves and Bullock throughout. It was an appropriately silly ending for a film as bombastic as Speed. In the second film though, this relationship is brushed off within minutes through throwaway dialogue by Sandra Bullocks character as she is getting a driving lesson. There is no real explanation, and the audience is just expected to suddenly care about some guy they havent even seen before. Who, to make matters worse, is completely charmless. Even if audiences could ignore everything else that is wrong with Speed 2, there would have at least been some sort of enjoyment if the romance everyone invested in the first time round was there. Removing that element so cheaply and lazily meant the whole platform of the film was doomed.
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