I bought this movie, having been a big fan of the original, and I watched it that one time but never again. I remember thinking how completely lame it was, and luckily I'd managed to somehow purge what made Highlander II so bad from my memory. Well, I hadn't seen the original in a while so I decided to watch it today. Still an awesome movie over twenty years later... I figured, 'Hey, why not give 'Highlander II' another shot', y'know, because I'd completely forgotten what made me hate it in the first place... it's been in my DVD player for about 5 minutes and I'm about to take the DVD out and BREAK IT. This movie sucks ASS. "General Katana"... ARE YOU F@#KING KIDDING ME? I love Michael Ironside (in OTHER movies), but how do we go from Kurgan to THIS? In fact, how does ANYTHING in the sequel relate to the original? This movie is so screwed. If it were just another lame action movie, fine. I could sit here and laugh at it, no problem... but the fact that it IS supposed to be a sequel to Highlander is absolutely mind-numbing. And am I hallucinating, or are there actually threads on this board with people DEFENDING this steaming pile of sh@t?
And did I mention that AFTER I bought this movie and watched it the first time, I IMMEDIATELY took it to a place that buys used DVDS to sell it and they WOULDN'T TAKE IT? I'm stuck with this piece of sh@t... Oh well, back to it I suppose. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE... person who would attempt to watch Highlander II twice, and that person is me. What a dope.
And how does this movie have a 3 star rating!? Un-F@$KING-believable. The DIRECTOR walked out of the premiere after 15 minutes...
"Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name."
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Taketsuo
17 years ago
Just a question...did you see the Theatrical Cut or the Renegade/Special Edition?
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burbs82
17 years ago
It's the 'Renegade Version'. Actually, I've never even seen the theatrical 'The Quickening' version, which is supposed to be even worse... and I don't see how that's possible.
"Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name."
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tootcb
17 years ago
Go see the theatrical cut. Then you'll understand what a bad movie truly is.
You're gonna need a bigger thread.
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martinrobs
17 years ago
I'd just like to put a different perspective on this. I'm off work sick and I've just watched HL II on satellite. (From what people are saying the theatrical version I think.)
I have never seen any of the other HL films or TV series or anything before so I'm not worried about continuity. That's not the problem. It just stands out on its own as the worst movie I have seen for years.
It looks like someone was making an action film and shot a load of scenes without having really worked out what the plot was going to be. Then they ran out of money and had to give up. Then someone else with even less idea of what it was about came along and spliced those sequences together completely randomly.
I had heard people say good things about HL in general so I came to look it up in imdb to try and find an explanation for how bad the film was. Having read some of these threads I can understand a bit but I thought I should say that people are missing the point by talking about continuity problems with the first and/or subsequent films. It has no continuity within itself from one shot to the next. This is a serious contender for the worst movie ever in its own right without being a sequel.
Having said all that I watched it to the end (I'm ill and very bored) and it did entertain me in a "I can't quite believe how bad this is" kind of way.
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tootcb
17 years ago
The film was not even completed when the insurance company took the film from the director/producers and rushed it into post-production. The theatrical cut of the film is not edited properly, and so scenes often appear in the wrong order. Also, the visual effects team was given no time to use all of the effects shots that they had filmed for the Shield, and so those effects came out sloppy.
In subsequent years, the original filmmakers had the opportunity to film new scenes, re-dub old scenes, completely re-structure the film as originally intended, and update the visual effects to the intended standard. The resulting film is called the "Special Edition," and it is the closest that we will ever get to seeing the film described in the screenplay.
You're gonna need a bigger thread.
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Refrax5
17 years ago
THere's not any exceptional continuity issues with this and the first film---not any moreso than any of the other sequels or TV show anyway. What made people so mad was that it complete ruined the entire concept (it made the mysterious immortals f--king space aliens) and the movie pretty much feels nothing like the original. Like, if you watch the first film and then watch "The Quickening" it literally feels like a completely different series with the same actors. They have the same names and faces and there are immortals beheading each other...otherwise, its just an entirely different feeling and idea.
I promise you, Highlander is a far, far better film. It isn't just that it's such a departure from the original---the theatrical cut is a terrible film in and of itself. The directors cut is far better, but still has some weird acting by Lambert, an appearance from Connery's character that actually serves little purpose in the story (other than for Connery to just be awesome), and General Katana's annoying a$$ henchmen.
And the alternate idea to the alien thing from the original is a lot weirder and more confusing. It's not as stupid, but it's just weird as hell, not to put to fine a point on it.
The poster formerly known as Refrax2
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