The Cube series is quite a lot of fun if you like thoughtful, low budget horror and it has the following going for it...
1.) Intriguing use of single room location.
2.) Characters from all walks of life thrown together are forced to rely on (and trust) one another.
3.) Open ended discussion of what the cube could be lets your mind disengage from reality and imagine the worst.
4.) Open ended fears allow characters to deviate from their societal facades and become their true horrific (or good) selves.
5.) Imaginitive deaths keep the body count high and create a sense of anticipation for next victim.
The original (CUBE) is better than the sequel (CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE). The third film is not being reviewed here but is a prequel of sorts and is said to go outside the cube and into the control room of those conducting the "experiment".
The location and basic set up of the Cube series consists of the following. A group of strangers is deposited into the belly of a giant cube. There are doors in the floor, ceiling, and on all four sides. It's a simple set. Everytime the captives escape into another room the same set is used but is dressed differently. Over time, it is revealed that the structure is a much larger cube consisting many individual cube-like rooms. These rooms are moving and there is only one way out. Of course it takes the better part of the entire movie for the characters to discover all of this and in that time they go from being politely guarded with one another to (in some cases) cut throat, back stabbing murderers. Along the way there is a fair amount of confusion and speculation about why they are all there. And there are gruesome deaths. The cube is a prickly pear and very unforgiving.
In the first film, the cube is made up of colored rooms providing a simple but visually diverting look. The cube is a physical structure that exists in three dimensions and can (theoretically) be escaped if you can get to the one room with a doorway that meets the bridge to the outside world at just the right time. In the sequel, the cube is all white and very sterile. It is revealed to be a "hypercube" that exists in four dimensions. This allows for all sorts of interesting possibilities concerning the relativity of time and space. The first film is rather weak on dialogue but has a serious moral center as the characters speculate about why the Kafkaesque structure was built and who is responsible. There is a sense of moral futility evident in CUBE as each character must decide the value of his or her own life relative to the lives of the others in the group.
In some ways CUBE 2 is more accomplished and polished but it is also more emotionally removed. I'm sure the relativity of time and space could be as scary as rooms that slice and dice you, but the screen writers of the second film haven't explored interesting ways to make the sequel as chilly as it might have been. The newness of the cube concept has worn off slightly and the characters (though more believable) are no more compelling then those in the first film.
Though CUBE never lets us know who is really behind the building of the structure, every other detail in the movie is fairly concrete. They are trapped in a rat's maze but there is a way out if they can find it. There is an elemental brutality evident in the first film whereas the second is more talky and theoretical though at times fascinating to watch.
I can't imagine the third film being better than the first two. Half the fun is not knowing what the hell is going on and discovering it slowly with the characters.
http://www.spout.com/films/114680/default.aspx
http://www.spout.com/films/222190/default.aspx