Descent: Part 2
Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by Jon Harris
Starring Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Douglas Hodge, Krysten Cummings
Lionsgate Entertainment
Release date: April 27, 2010

A lot of sequels make the same mistakes: they go too far, they add too much, and they assume bigger is always better. Add to that the familiar idea of “direct-to-dvd” usually is a sign of poor quality. Fortunately for fans of the original The Descent film, the sequel has avoided some of the usual pitfalls and manages to be a relatively satisfying sequel.

Picking up immediately where the original film ends, The Descent 2 clarifies the ambiguous ending of the original, which saw traumatized spelunker Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) escaping from an previously unknown cave system inhabited by inbred, mutated humans called “crawlers.” However, the original film also included an additional scene that implied Sarah had only imagined escape as she descended into madness and was still stuck inside the caves. This ends up being discarded in the new film, with Sarah’s escape being real.

The very first new trailer for Neil Marshall‘s Centurion has been released via IGN.

The movie takes place in 117 A.D. and tells the story of Rome’s Ninth Legion, who set off on a major mission to find and destroy the leader of the Picts and anyone who tries to stop them. But when the Picts spring a trap on them and take the Legion’s general captive, one remaining Roman soldier must take just a few men and find a way to stop the Picts once and for all.

The movie reunites stars Dominic West and Michael Fassbender, who appeared together in another epic battle movie: 300. West plays captured General Virilus, while Fassbender plays Quintus Dias, a survivor of the ambush who is trapped deep within the enemy’s boundaries. The movie also stars Hitman and Quantum of Solace leading lady Olga Kurylenko as a Pict warrior whose tongue was removed by the Romans after they killed her entire family. This character would seem to point to one of those cases where we the viewers will not be sure who to pull for.

Click over to the other side to check out the new trailer for Centurion.