The original Cube movie is a strange Kafkaesque kind of physiological thriller. It reminds me of the Lord of the Flies in the way that it is simply a situation in which the characters interact and their internal propensities slowly become more and more exaggerated by the stress of the situation. Many movies follow it and use the personality types as a blueprint.
The main idea is that a bunch of strangers appear in a series of rooms together. They have no idea why they are there, how they got there, or even how much time has passed. It becomes clear that they need to work together in order to get past the traps that have been set on some cubes. The pattern of traps is very difficult to predict, so they adopt a method of "booting" a room by tossing a boot into the middle of the room to see if a trap is tripped.
Unfortunately, this method is not completely effective, and the slow, methodical process means that the characters learn more about each other, and their distrust of each other grows. When they inevitably disagree with each other enough that some must part ways, a chase becomes a very tedious process. But, a maniac looking to kill everyone else always make a chase more lively, doesn't it?
The dark, moody cubes with a door in the center of each panel (including the top and bottom) means that there are a finite number of ways around. Figuring out where they are and what their end goal should be takes up quite a bit of time, and they find themselves going around in circles, even though they go on a straight line. It is these complexities that allow the characters to boil and eventually turn on each other.
The direction is good, but the pacing could be better.
Special effects were good at the time.
Acting was decent.
Story was compelling.
Dialogue was mostly good.
3.5/5