Film Review: The Fly II

A few years after David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly, this sequel came along to pick up where the first film left off.  Following in Cronenberg's footsteps, The Fly II continues to shock and horrify, with a fresh new wave of grotesque mutations, gnarly blood and gore, and even more inhuman experiments in teleportation.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't quite move along as smoothly or quickly as its predecessor; this sequel is laden with quite a bit of dragging at certain spots.  When the film isn't dragging, it does maintain decent interest with some explosive drama, and explosive bloodshed.  A lot of it is more of the same (guy continues to morph into a fly-human hybrid, animals continue to get mangled by the teleporters, more digestive goo is sprayed liberally), but there are a few surprising twists to the thing as well (there's a certain scene involving an elevator that I found quite gnarly, and the ending is wickedly ironic).

I never saw that much wrong with the story either.  As a continuation that follows a new generation of characters, the story keeps a decent focus on the characters.  It is pretty easy to relate to them, as they are effectively treated like lab specimens.  That is also the source of the movie's drama and horror.  Beyond that, however, the film isn't quite as fresh or deep as the predecessor.

The film looks decent, with quality photography and editing.  The actors do the best they can, but they don't really stand out enough to surpass the cast of the first film.  Writing is okay, but nothing to scream about.  The production has okay-looking sets, props, costumes, and SFX.  Make-up work and gore is pretty well-done.  Music is not bad either.

I felt this was a decent follow-up to Cronenberg's The Fly, for it has its moments.  If you liked that first film, then this one should be worth a rent.

3.5/5 (Entertainment:  Pretty Good | Story:  Pretty Good | Film:  Pretty Good)