Re-Review: Xtro II- The Second Encounter

 The best fake Sequel until Excessive Force II: Force on Force!  Yes, that is a real Film Title.  This is Xtro II: The Second Encounter, a 1991 Film with a confusing history.  The short version: Harry Bromley-Davenport (not to be confused with Harry Bromley-Des Moines) owned the rights to the Xtro name...but not the Story.  As such, he hired some folks to write a Script that had Aliens and that he could call Xtro II.  If you want to know the further adventures of Alien Dad and Son planting Eggs in people- too bad...weirdo.  This time, we get a creature from another Dimension.  It's also a creature that never quite wants to be in frame for more than a millisecond.  This is a pretty blatant Aliens-wannabe.  Fun fact: Davenport has since moved on to making Documentaries about Concert Pianists- no joke!  In the time since I last watched and/or spoke about this Film, the Star- Jan Michael-Vincent has died.  That makes all of the major complaints from the Director feel extra awkward.  To be as nice as possible, the late Mr. Vincent had a public drinking problem that affected his work and work ethic.  This did not make the Director happy.  It's hard not to see the Actor reading his lines just off-screen or occasionally being redubbed like Steven Seagal.  Is the camp enough to make this more like Aliens than Shocking Dark?  To find out, read on...

In an Underground Lab, Scientists at Nexus (which is superior to the Corre) are working on an Interdimensional Portal.

This ended well in Fant4stic, so I'm game!

The Explorers go missing and only one comes back.

To be fair, your Portal looks like a mid-level Laser Tag Court, so that might be the problem.

To help with the rescue, the Female  Lead brings back the lone survivor of the previous Nexus Experiment (Vincent and those glasses).

He blew up the lab then (implying that this Film is a Sequel to that) and wouldn't say why FOR THREE YEARS).

He acts combative towards everyone and is kind of a dick.

Their opinion isn't improved when he's caught trying to kill the lone Survivor from the portal.  Why?

The woman turns into a strange creature that smashes up the place, but isn't seen.

It does manage to scratch Obviously The Villain Guy, so that will probably pay off later.

As mentioned, said creature is shy.  Well, that or the Budget didn't allow them to use early CGI to make it move well on-camera.

Enjoy this brief, totally-original look at it here.

So Shocking Dark is infamous for turning from an Aliens rip-off into a Terminator rip-off.

This one, in contrast, stays an Aliens rip-off, but features a lady who was *clearly* told to look and act like Linda Hamilton in T2: Judgement Day (released 2 months after this came out on Video).

After much of the Cast is whittled away, the Creature comes back for one last hurrah.  It gets killed by the Aliens rip-off gun (it is identical!) and Obviously The Villain Guy is mutated and dies...

...but we actually end with...the Computer now being evil...or infected...I think...maybe.  

Can an Xtro Film end clearly?!?  The End.

A weird, pretty jumbled mess of a Film.  Xtro II has pretty much been disowned by Harry-Bromley Cedar Rapids.  He admits to making it for money and blames Vincent for many of the Film's issues.  That said, their Monster can only look good from certain shots and can barely move otherwise.  It reminds me of other such creatures, most notably the killer fly monster from The Fly II.  That one also looked good from the right angle, but could barely move.  Supposedly this creature design was actually reused for a 1994 Film I've never heard of- let me see if that one uses it better.  The Plot here is all sorts of silly.  Why are we trying to go across Dimensions?  Why stage it in an Underground Lab?  Why do it just 3 years after a Lab blew up?  The whole thing is just there to have a Monster introduced to kill people.  It is no Xenomorph.  It does get some nice kills in, with the funniest being how it pops out and scares a Scientist who falls down an Elevator Shaft.  It doesn't even bite him- it's just a jump scare.  It is weird that the creature is a big, giant thing that can bite through your head...but also has proxies scratch and transform you.  Is that how the Computer got all evil?  Who knows?!?  Objectively, Xtro II is not good.  For me, though, it falls just on the 'fun side' of a Bad Movie.  Plus, it warms my heart to see Nicholas Lea here.

Next up, I dig deep into the Digital Library of Tubi for something good.  I have so many odd choices, so keep guessing.  Stay tuned...