They obviously spent a lot more money on this movie than the first one. Everything from the script to, to the make up, to the special effects was better, not great, but better. The red contact lenses looked cheap and could have been done better. The acting was went from questionable to shaky to cheesey in some spots but not enough to ruin the whole movie.
They also did not follow the story line as much in this movie as the first, but that was not necessary a bad thing. Some scenes were actually better than how they played out in the book, in my opinion.
Heres to hoping that there is even more improvement in the third movie.