Subject: REVIEW: HIGHLANDER 2: THE QUICKENING

From: [email-masked]
Date: 5 Nov 91 15:04:01 GMT

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	               HIGHLANDER 2: THE QUICKENING
		       A film review by Mark Santora
			Copyright 1991 Mark Santora

     Well, in Miami last night HIGHLANDER 2:THE QUICKENING premiered.
And I must say that I paid no heed to the warnings given by the European
members of this VAX system to the nature of the movie.  I was determined
to give the film a fair chance.  And I did.  However, a fair chance from
a man who loved the first HIGHLANDER immensely could not save it from
the inevitable failure it would end in.

     First, let's start with the title.  Or better yet, the subtitle;
THE QUICKENING.  I still know nothing about it after seeing this film
except that both Ramirez and MacLeod put their fingers in this glowing
orange stuff.  They referred to the quickening a few times and that was
it basically.  There wasn't anything new about it that we didn't learn
in the first film.

     Next let's start with the plot.  In the opening minutes we see a
young MacLeod with another man as they stand in a bunker raising a
shield over the now ozoneless Earth.  We cut to 25 years later, MacLeod
is an old man and sitting in an opera house.  He dreams of being from
the planet Zeist; a super tells us this is 500 years ago.  He was a
rebellion leader with Ramirez.  This is where they dunk their fingers
into the glowing orange stuff.  Than we see the rebellion killed off by
Michael Ironside and the troops of the planet.  Ramirez and MacLeod are
captured and sentenced to life on Earth as immortals until only one
remains.  Once that one is left, he may return to Zeist.  They send them
to Earth.

     Now, 500 years later, they don't want them back.  So they send two
assassins down to earth to kill MacLeod.  They don't.  He dispatches
their heads and becomes young again.  Immediately after this he jumps
into bed with Virginia Madsen, who plays an environmental terrorist who
believes the ozone layer has repaired itself and that the shield can be
turned off.  Her character is worthless and has less depth than a
saucer.

     In fact, the entire plot and dialogue is horrible.  I winced every
time something was said.  It was painful to watch them try to find some
reason in the script.  Fortunately for the writers of the first
HIGHLANDER, they were not involved in this script.  Which is a major
problem with it.  The new script just suffers too many inconsistencies.
A major one is at the end where MacLeod and Ironside are sword-fighting.
MacLeod loses the sword he is using.  In the next scene, all of the sudden
he has the Japanese sword back from the original film.  This sword
hasn't been seen in the entire film.  It makes a cameo for the last two
minutes.

     Connery has some good lines and his return is well-handled.
Granted, they could have made him a little more crucial to the plot, as
he really wasn't needed the way the story was handled.  His death was
worthless and unimportant.  Connery must have been paid very well to
act here.

     Filmically, it lacks greatly from the first film.  The first had
beautiful scndapes and wondrous transitions between scenes, the
fishtank.  This didn't have any.  It was boring to watch.  Not to
mention the sets were horrible.  It was like watching Batman again.
They didn't look real.  They had a fake quality to them.  I was not
impressed.

     As for Russell Mulcahey, when his name appeared before the film,
there was a lot of cheering.  However, now I wonder what possessed him to
accept a script this bad.  Why did he not use his, obviously, talented
camera work?  This film might set back the help that RICOCHET did to his
carrer.

     Stuart Copland did the music.  It was uninteresting and neither
moving nor suspenseful.  A song by Queen, "Who Wants to Live Forever?," is
played by MacLeod on a jukebox in a bar.  Also a piece from Michael
Kamen is used when Madsen is going through MacLeod's attic.  Here we
Americans get to see a still picture of MacLeod in WWII, the scene
deleted for HIGHLANDER's original release here.  Aside from that, there
is nothing special musically.

     I don't think I can stress how unimpressed and disappointed I was by
HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING.  I had extremely high hopes that the film
would at least bear some resemblance to the original.  It does not.  If
you loved the first one, you can wait to see H2 on video.  You won't
miss much.  Trust me.  There is no "MAGIC" in HIGHLANDER 2.  Do
something good with your money, go purchase the original.

Mark Santora
 
 The opinions expressed in this review are my own and I have no 
affiliations with the film in any way.