It was not as good as the first one, but definitely not bad. Why does this get so much flack?

I thought the bathtub scene was brilliant. How Samara was deflecting the water from the faucet all the way up to the ceiling! It was so eerie and creepy.

Also the relationship between Rachel and Aidan is interesting. It's not a regular parent-child relationship. And the way Rachel sensed Samara in her son by noticing that her son was acting more like a traditional child was brilliant character transformation writing. Its the subtleties like that which make the movie good.

My only complaint with it is the unrealism of the crime scenes. For Rachel to go and tamper with the body in a crime scene and get her fingerprints all over it, and then tamper with the crime scene itself by taking the video tape is very dumb.