This movie contains sexual content, violence, and swearing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Romance movies have always been a target of my criticism. I am not very fond of unrealistic standards of romance, so when I come across the movie After, which was the first film of this movie series, I was armed and ready to attack. 

And although I thought After was your cliche, run-of-the-mill romance story, it did not hurt my soul as much as its sequel: After We Collided. And boy, do I have much to say.

Camera angles, dialogue, and costumes play a vital role in movie-making, and unfortunately, the creators of the sequel did not keep up in any of those departments. I first noticed when they first have Hardin go to the tattoo shop. When he arrives at the shop, the woman hands him a bottle of alcohol stating, “it will ease the pain.” Instead of taking the alcohol, he simply sits down and utters, “I like the pain.” I honestly could not expect anything less from a movie that was created from a book series originally written on Wattpad, where a lot of people write stories of sappy bad-boy-gone-good tropes. I am not saying a character who is masochistic or self-destructive overall is unrealistic or bad. The timing, lack of creativity, and usage made this line bad. 

Now, to the costumes. When Tessa has to go to a nightclub to meet with clients,  a co-worker helps her get dressed for the event.  After a time-jump, Tessa steps downstairs to reveal a short, gold dress and golden, obviously uncomfortable heeled-boots. The whole outfit looked cheap, thrown together, and the short boots with the short dress did not compliment her shape in the slightest. Another instance is when Tessa and Hardin attend a New Years’ party and the couple is approached by two friends who are dressed much fancier than needed for a party. They seemed very out of place, and their costumes looked more like a Hunger Games outfit than a normal, real-world outfit. Whether this is me nit-picking or not, I feel like the TLC of this entire movie lacked tremendously when you compare it to the first film. 

And last but definitely not least, the storyline. The first movie, although unoriginal, had an easy to follow plot. Yet, when I watched After we Collided, I felt like I had missed an important part of the plot because I had no idea what was going on throughout the movie. Was Tessa trying to get over Hardin? What was the point of Tessa’s coworker, Trevor? Was he just posing as an empty threat to Hardin? The story could have gone without his character. There was so much unnecessary drama and arguments that went ignored when it was convenient, and the plot just moved forward without any kind of closure.

After We Collided was, to put it nicely, the worst film I have ever seen. It was pretty clear that this film was intended for money, and not to give the viewers more content. I give the film a measly 1 out of 5 stars because, quite frankly, that’s all it deserves.