Just got back for seeing the movie, and here is my review. SPOILERS INCLUDED:
Reviving a series after 10+ years can be tricky. After the Phantom Menace came out back in 1999, the Star Wars fandom was never the same. When Crystal Skull came out in 08, the internet has yet to stop making "nuke the fridge" and "aliens in Indiana Jones!" comments. Now, Wes Craven's popular slasher series has a sequel after 11 years. Does Scream 4 produce the same kind of reaction the aforementioned movies did?
No. In my opinion, Scream 4 is tied with, if not the best film in the series.
Though it's been a little over a decade, Sidney, Dewey, and Gale are still the same characters we know and love. Neve Campbell does great again as the lead, and gets the best "about to kill the killer line" in this one.
The new actors do fairly good jobs as well, Erik Knudsen (from Saw 2), Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, and Hayden Pennitiere all giving nice performances. It's a shame none of their characters are alive to come back for a fifth film in Scream 4 does well enough.
I will agree with some other reviewers that there really wasn't any big chase scene in this, even part 3, regarded as the weakest, did have a big chase. The killings in this, unusual for a Scream movie, were more evenly spread throughout the movie, as opposed to saving most of them for towards the climax. This admittedly prevents a lot of the early-to-die characters from getting development.
Now, one thing anyone who followed articles on the movie will know, is that a LOT of scenes were cut. (Including scenes shown in the trailer, such as the new group of teens' conversation at the fountain.) Watching the movie, I could tell there was some things missing, but it didn't really bother me that much.
As for the killers themselves, they were quiet a mixed bag. Charlie (Rory Culkin), I admittedly figured out not too far in that he was one of the killers, did a good "Evil" job. Out of the 3 films in the series with 2 killers (1,2, and 4), he's the only accomplice killer that you really can feel bad for, because he did it out of love for Jill, and you really see how betrayed he feels when Jill stabs him in the back (by stabbing him in the front).
As for Jill....if Scream 4 ends up being the last movie, then I feel she's the perfect final bad guy in the franchise. She is, arguably, the most evil killer in the entire series. Literally doing every thing she did (including killer her own mother) just for fame makes the audience want to hate her, and a good portion of the audience (including myself and my friends who I was with), did some form of cheering when she got the defibrillator to the face followed by being shot in the chest to death.
As for a point some might argue, that it was cheap to have the main 3 live and have pretty much all of the entire new cast (except Marley Shelton as Deputy Hicks) die, I actually think it's quite fitting. Like the say, "The rules have changed. The unexpected is the new cliche." Having the main 3 die would, in this case, I'm sure in many viewer's minds, be the "expected." Having the new cast of teens become the focus of the franchise would be what was "expected." I think it was important to have Sidney, Gale, and Dewey survive again.
For my rating, I give Scream 4 a solid 9.6 out of 10.
