While it's not a bad movie, Happy Death Day 2U's sci-fi twist gets in the sequel's own way, and makes the plot too hard to follow at times. Released in October 2017, the first Happy Death Day earned positive reviews from critics, and was a sizable box office hit for Blumhouse, earning $125 million worldwide on a budget just under $5 million. Any film with that kind of profit margin was a lock for a sequel, and sure enough, Happy Death Day 2U materialized in February 2019.
Although even many who enjoyed the first film wondered how the slasher flick meets Groundhog Day time loop plot could be successfully extended into another story, Happy Death Day 2U also earned very good reviews from critics. However, the approval rate among moviegoers was significantly lower. While Happy Death Day 2U is by no means a hated film, the fact that the film only grossed about half as much as the original makes clear that audiences at large weren't quite as enamored with the time-traveling sequel.
One complaint expressed by Happy Death Day 2U's detractors is that the sequel ended up getting too bogged down in sci-fi mumbo jumbo for its own good, whereas the first film was more about simply providing thrills and chills. That's actually a fair criticism, and here's why.
Happy Death Day's concept, while clever and original, was still presented pretty simply. Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is a popular sorority girl who isn't exactly the nicest person on campus. Tree ends up getting killed by a masked assailant, then finds herself trapped in a time loop that always ends with her death, until she finally solves the mystery of who wanted her dead. What caused the time loop isn't explained, and there really isn't much time spent exploring the topic. By contrast, Happy Death Day 2U spends a large chunk of its running time attempting to explain what caused the loop, and in doing so, succeeds in repeatedly bogging down its plot with long-winded explanations that not many people really cared to know.
Additionally, while some fans had speculated that Happy Death Day's time loop might have a supernatural origin, or that it might be karma punishing Tree for her past behavior, Happy Death Day 2U reveals that the cause was far more mundane. Ryan, roommate to Tree's eventual love interest Carter, built a quantum reactor, and it led to a malfunction in the timeline. The reactor later sends Tree into an alternate dimension, which leads to some great dramatic scenes, but also even more sci-fi jargon, and even a subplot in which Tree has to memorize math equations.
Again, Happy Death Day 2U is by no means bad, but it's also not what most who enjoyed the original expected out of a sequel. The horror and mystery elements are almost completely gone, in favor of an often confusing, Back to the Future Part 2-esque time travel tale. It's important not to repeat oneself, but it's also necessary to give fans more of what they loved the first time. It's a balancing act, and one the sequel doesn't always manage to pull off.
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