I thought that this film was much better than the first and at least was character-driven than plot driven. While I do not prefer this to Ringu 2 as a sequel totally, I think it makes sense and was a good way of continuing the American "Ring" series (though it brings parts of different incarnations of other Japanese horror films in there as well). I personally liked some of the references to Dark Water (Rachel being copy editor--except for a newspaper--, the constant use of water and references to the sea) and the Japanese Ringu 2 (some of the premise of the film and the general image for most of the climactic scene). I thought Sissy Spacek was quite convincing as Evelyn and I think that Max (new love interest) was much hotter than Noah. The acting was slightly more refined, and I guess it might have just been the fact that creepy people walked into the nearly empty theater nearer the end of the film, but it had points that really left me creeped out.