The Fly II (1989)

Some things should be left alone.

Martin Brundle(Eric Stolz)is the son of the mutated Seth Brundle. After he was born, a company monitored his progress to keep up with his accelerated growth. At the age of five he was already a full grown adult genuis. The company owned by Bartok(Lee Richardson) wants Martin to continue his father's work. Martin soon learns more about his father and the terrible genes inside his body.

It no secret that sequels usually fail when compared to it's predecessor. But Cronenberg's remake of "The Fly" was a very tough act to follow. I don't even believe he could have surpassed it had this sequel been directed by him. Still without making comparisons, to me "The Fly II" really isn't that good of a movie anyway.

The movie isn't as plotless as some may think. It's just boring and never really picks up steam until the second half. The acting performances are pretty good but it's the writing that suffers. There is little to no suspense and the story is mainly playing on a possible betrayal. When the transformation stage begins this is when the movie picks up. John Getz returns and delivers a very funny segment, this to me is the best character interaction in the whole movie.

The gore scenes are brutal and the special effects are on point. They really didn't pull punches here. The events leading up to the end is action packed and the ending itself is ok. Overall, I think this is a solid sequel and it doesn't follow the horrible sequel syndrome. I don't think it was needed but it was still a decent ride. I think this is good for a rental at least. This collector's edition comes with a second disk with documentaries, featurettes and other small stuff. October 23, 2008

Great Double Feature

The Fly is a classic movie- the original and the remake. The movie went by quick but at the end, I felt satisfied with this movie. Great speical effects.

The Fly 2 was a excellent sequel. I cant understand why so many people hate this film. The story was real good, the speical effects were top notch, and it flowed together well. The ending had some gruesome deaths and I enjoyed them alot. The ending made me go huh? and i'll have to watch it again just to figure out what happened.

Overall, I know there are new speical edition Fly movies out. If you just want the simple movie and trailers, then get this set. Both movies are worth it. June 28, 2008

For once, a rather underrated sequel. 3.5 Stars

Needless to say, The Fly 2 had a pretty tough act to follow as its predacessor sits among the best sci-fi horror films of all time. Not to mention the fact that David Cronenberg did not return to direct this follow up didn't exactly help its cause. However, special effects creator Chris Walas from the original tried his hand at directing this sequel, and truthfully the results aren't that bad. Albeit not nearly as effective in any category as the original remake, it's still a solid movie that does not deserve to be tagged with the less than honorable reputation of the average horror sequel.

We begin with a Geena Davis look-alike in a lab who gives birth to Martin Brundle, son of Seth Brundle. The infant is then taken in by Mr. Bartok, the president of Bartok Industries, who raises him within the confinement of a laboratory to study the genetic effects Seth's experimentations will have on him. Martin proves to be rather interesting boy indeed as he grows at an accelerated rate physically and mentally. By the time he is five years old, Martin already appears to be in his twenties and has the mind of a genius. He admires the Mr. Bartok as his father and eventually agrees to finish Seth's work on the infamous telepods for the benefit of Bartok Industries.

As Martin's work progresses, he slowly stumbles upon more things to indicate that Mr. Bartok has been deceitful in his hospitality. He finds the horiffic results of a telepod experiment on his childhood dog, spy cameras in his room, and eventually discovers that Mr. Bartok plans to keep him as an experiment when the fly genes kick in. Well, Martin eventualy does undergo the fly metamorphosis, and when complete he unleashes his revenge on Bartok and all others who had wronged him.

Thankfully there wasn't too much of a gap between these two films, so the look is very similar and some footage of Jeff Goldblum as Seth is even featured in the movie. The trademark gross out effects are present once again with the mutated dog scene, a very memorable death scene involving a security guard's face, and the final showdown with Mr. Bartok. The fly transformation was more or less abbreviated to a coccoon like process this time around, but it does more justice to the pacing than it hurts it. The acting is generally well done, and John Getz even briefly reprises his role from the first film. You will defiently get a good laugh when he utters the horribly corny pun, "He bugged me", in reference to Seth.

Overall it's a cool revenge story with a fantastic ending. It doesn't really convey any of the emotion the original did, but then it probably wasn't meant to for the most part. If approached without any expectations set forth by the original, The Fly 2 actually makes for a decent watch. I'd recommend it to horror and science fiction fans. April 28, 2008

By the numbers sequel to a great film

The Fly II is a clealry by the numbers sequel to a great film. When I say by the numbers I mean more gore, less story, more action, weak acting. Eric Stoltz does an okay job in the lead role but to me Stoltz has always been more of a serious actor and he seems lost in this film. Just check it out if you wanna see gore otherwise be afarid, be very afarid. April 8, 2008

Just swat this fly

The Fly II was a decent attempt at continuing the story, but overall it lacks and makes for a rather dull movie. While not the worst movie I have ever seen The Fly II pretty much lacks in every category. The problem here is there is no story to tell; the only thing in The Fly II that works well are the special F/X. The F/X still holds up to this day and is very much on par with the remake. But that is about all The Fly II has that is as good as the remake.

The screenplay by Mick Garris, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat & Frank Darabont was rather poor; there really isn't much of a plot. The first half has hint of a plot and when the plot begins to develop in the 2nd half it really isn't that interesting. When all is said and done the script is rather pointless. There's no plot and the character development is quite poor. In the remake we are able to feel for the characters, but here they are so poorly developed I highly doubt you'll care about their fate.

Chris Walas makes his directorial debut is unable to really get much going; the first half of the movie the scenes lack and just go through the motions, while the 2nd half does pick up the scenes still don't work very well. In fairness Chris Walas really didn't have much to work with, but he never really is able to elevate the movie to much of anything. The Fly II lacks any suspense and tension. The final act picks up a bit, but still lacks any tension or suspense. While there are flashes of it still very much lacks.

The cast is solid, but they don't have much to work with. I like Eric Stoltz, but here is performance is rater boring. Stoltz starred in Mask, which one of my very favorite movies and gave a really brilliant performance, but here it's just well boring. His character really lacked any depth so I suppose it could be more poor writing and directing, but he doesn't really show much emotion. Daphne Zuniga is an actress I am quite fond of and like Stoltz her character really doesn't fair any better. She manages to put in a fairly decent, but forgettable performance.

Nothing really works out well in The Fly II besides the F/X; the gore here is pretty good at the end and like I said the F/X are actually quite solid, but nothing else works at all. As I stated before the movie is pointless really. There's no plot and when we do get one it lacks.

The only real highlight is the brief role for John Getz who reprises his role from the remake. He has a scene early, but is gone till towards the middle sections. To be quite honest besides the F/X the small role by Getz is the only thing that works well. Geena Davis was wise to turn down a very pointless role. Not even sure why they needed to even bring the character back.

In closing, The Fly II is a boring and predictable movie that lacks the emotions and suspense of the David Cronenberg remake.
November 7, 2007

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