this movie has an interesting characteristic: you can change your mind-set to enjoy more or less.[spoiler]
if you compare to the excellent first one, you enjoy lesser. it is hard to ignore all the bad things that the blind man did, so its hard to cheer for him.
if you do NOT compare to the first one, and treat as a stand alone movie, you enjoy more! watch through the eyes of "Phoenix" and the twists become more powerful. [/spoiler]
so, as a sequel it's a poor movie, but as an stand alone movie, it works great.

if you didn't like the movie (or even if you did), here is a **thought experiment**: think that this movie is the FIRST movie of this duology and that the first is really the second one acting as a prequel, so you can know [spoiler] all the bad things that the blind man did as he spoke to phoenix in his lasts moments[/spoiler]