After We Collided – A Cavalcade of Incoherent Melodrama

Afternators beware, this isn’t the same After. Of course based on the popular book series by Anna Todd, After We Collided, the surprising sequel to 2019’s After, is even more surprisingly grown up (but not really), foregoing the original’s PG/PG-13 rating for a harder 14A/R for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Otherwise, audiences can expect more of the same, sappy YA melodrama but with some edge. Nevertheless, said Afternators ate it all up the first time (prompting this sequel) and suffice it to say that they will do the same here though by no means is this a testament to the quality of either film because neither are good films which should come as no shock to anyone. While non-fans of the film or book series have clearly already decided to stay away from this one (pandemic or otherwise except for me unfortunately), any others who will find themselves subjected to this sequel will most likely be treated to nothing short of a torturous experience on multiple levels, perhaps more so for anyone who may have forgotten any details from the original film which won’t be that hard to do anyway (though it won’t really matter at the end of the day).

After We Collided sees Tessa (Langford) and Hardin (Tiffin) and their laughably complicated relationship back once again, just one month after the events of the original film. While the story here will surely have more of an impact to said Afternators who will hang on to every word, it is essentially an incoherent mess of derivative, predictable, and laughably-contrived melodramatic plot beats (that aren’t even worth mentioning) merely serving to pull Tessa, the good girl trying to carve out a future for herself, and Hardin, the reformed and possessive bad boy who was still recovering from a troubled past but only had his eye on Tessa despite his reputation, apart, coming between a will-they-or-wont-they subplot whose inevitable resolution (so basically the same as the film at least for now since the franchise is certainly not looking to end here that’s for sure) will definitely not come as a surprise to anyone.

That being said, there could be some entertainment to be found within After We Collided if only as a roller coaster of mediocrity full of twists and turns that takes it in so many directions and trying to do so many things while not doing any one of them particularly well. The gratuitous way in which film tries way too hard with its aforementioned edge, be it f-words and more explicit love scenes, is unintentionally hilarious more often that not thanks to its terrible, tone-deaf script ridden with bad dialog uttered by lifeless, disinterested actors. The direction also left much to be desired. If anything, the film does know what its target audience wants as it makes no attempts to aim for anyone else. Though Langford and Tiffin were okay, the former delivered a cringe-inducing performance at times while neither had any kind of chemistry with one another (something kind of counterintuitive for a film like this). Meanwhile, series newcomer Sprouse as Trevor, one of Tessa’s colleagues (who obviously wanted to be something more than that) was laughably wooden and robotic, however, he admittedly did not have much to work with.

In the end, After We Collided, for better or worse, will have its audience and maybe that’s enough.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.