I feel this one is the worst of the three cube's. Don't't get me wrong, it's not bad, but definitely not as enjoyable. For starters they take away the aura of mystery of the first cubes by promoting the viewpoint of two 'inside' workers. While the first two cubes was about confused people trying to get out of a death-trap, this one concentrates more on the dealings of the two workers operating it. They also don't know how they got there, never go out, and operate a deathtrap, killing people, against their own wish? Not very plausible. It makes sense for the victims of the cube, but is pretty hard to swallow for the personnel. The local boss who comes along when things go wrong, reminded me of doctor gadget. And don't get me started about the pointless inclusion of a 'cyber soldier'. All this takes away from the brutal simplicity of the first two movies. Also i feel the interaction between the persons inside the cube is lacking. The first cubes had a way out (or at least you were lead to believe that), but in this one there supposedly isn't and you get fried at the end. They actually cheat to get out. It makes the purpose of the cube, there endeavors to get out, and in fact the entire movie pointless, and provides a weak ending. I would have loved a better connection between the movies. They should have rehired the retarded guy from cube 1 and given him the role in cube 0; where, at the end, he gets to walk out of the cube alone. Hypercube (cube 2) was a good movie that respected the cube concept, with a new twist, but in cube 0 it gets abandoned, unfortunately.

This was a real let down because I was hoping for so much. The storyline was meant to extend the mythos of the Cube but only really added more mundane questions whilst answering those that would have been better left a mystery.

We are shown how the cube works and even given its purpose, which is a shame, as the best thing about the movies was wondering what the cube is and what it's for. The removal of the paranoid absurdity of the whole situation leaves one feeling slightly deflated. I liked it better when the cube was explained as a cash guzzling project that had spun out of control and had no overall purpose apart from to justify its own existence. In essence the cube was a gravy train without a driver -- it had a kind of perverse logic to it that you can see in many misguided projects today.

It's difficult to care for any of the characters either. None of them are allowed to develop as there are two separate plot lines that only come together at the end. Each plot line tries to establish itself but neither has the time. This leads to the film feeling stretched and cut short.

The 'lab rats' that are in the cube are a bunch of cardboard cut outs who we hardly get to know before the inevitable happens. The guys working outside of the cube are the same. It's a shame as all of the characters had potential, just not the time to realise it.

The worst thing of all is the character of Mr Jax who is a ridiculous parody of a Nazi commanding officer mixed with Mr Bean and Basil Fawlty. This character is impossible to take seriously but is also completely unfunny. I actually found myself grimacing when he was on screen and half expected him to come out with lines like 'vee have vays of making you talk!' Absolutely dire - it practically ruined the movie. At first I thought it was the British comedian Rik Mayall with a joke plastic eye stuck to his face. That would have been preferable.

To round things off, the ending was poor with a stupid terminator style villain and a 'was it all a dream' sequence. What a shame.

Overall - a big disappointment, especially if you're a fan of the brilliant first movie.

Rent this one or borrow it from a friend.

A perfectly adequate prequel to the first film. This time we see the men who operate the cube, but it doesn't take long to realise that they are still within the system.

This film owes a lot to the identity loss themes seen in Dark City and even the matrix, as the film resolves to show existence as a hierarchical and circular metaphor of continuous control.

This is low budget, but has a dated feeling that the original Cube film did not. Writers and set designers face a lot of pressure to create fresh ideas, and new ideas are sadly lacking here. The horror element is delivered well, but the sci-fi elements are rather tacked on.

(Saw this at Sci-fi London)