Bridget Jones: The edge of reason

Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason is as much a cookie cutter sequel as you could ever find. Using the same formula that made the original film such a hit it successfully reunites everyone for a repeat performance. Now there's nothing wrong with that per se, it just makes it a film that offers few surprises. What is especially annoying about that is that it comes from a book which does, and that it fails to capitalise on this is a shame. The films starts off well in its portrayal of Bridget's blossoming relationship with Mark Darcy. However as the film goes on it quickly degenerated into a predictable fare as it becomes too much like every other romantic comedy we have been swamped in recently. The ending in particular feels like a total cop-out to what the audience have been used to seeing and doesn't fit at all or make complete sense in the context of the film. You never really get a sense of why Mark likes Bridget as much as he does, in fact his character is changed again from the book to simply becoming the typical English gentleman that Colin Firth plays so regularly. Don't get me wrong he is very good at it, but you again feel like you've seen it all before. Better is Hugh Grants brief return as Daniel Carver and another fight scene that I have to say made me laugh a lot more than the first film equivalent scene. Basically you know what you're going to get with this film and it does it very well, it just doesn't deviate from the set formula at all especially late on in the film and so leaves you thinking that it could have been better. By no means a terrible film, but one you feel doesn't add a great deal to the original. An unnecessary sequel that plays well to the original's strengths and to its target market but does nothing daring or new and deviates greatly from the source material leaving it remarkably like every other romantic comedy, and so painfully average.