Yeah, the first movie was bad enough with Jack deciding to stay in the 20th century. It's not like McNulty couldn't have sent back another vial of serum to send Jack home. He just says oh well it's broken I guess I'm stuck here. The movie ends before you have time to think about it. The truth is Jack is selfishly taking over Phil's life because he prefers the 20th century to the 23rd. He still has to sire the Deth family line, Whistler even mentions Phil would have gone on to impregnate Lena because he can wipe out the Deth line by killing Lena too.
In the second movie they suddenly have the time travelling box with it's overly complicated rule that they have send someone's mind back into an ancestor and have them summon the TCL chamber so they can return to the future. Meaning its only possible use is to take them home in their ancestor's body which would alter the past. We saw in the first movie that altering the past alters the present of the 23rd century as they see people vanish right in front of them. So the Council's plan to bring home Wardo and Jack also brings home both of their ancestors and wipes out both family lines between the 20th and 23rd centuries.
Since they didn't plan a seat for Alice they were presumably going to leave her mind in the 20th century, I guess a second chance at life was her reward? Screw her ancestor though huh?
If Wardo was Whistler's brother in the future then they share the same ancestry. Meaning Weisling or whatever his name was should be the only common ancestor either of them can jump into. So who did Wardo jump into in the 20th? Don't say Weisling's brother or cousin or something because that's not in the same line, that's a separate branch. Or maybe it's just close enough?
Jack obviously doesn't care about the rules. He screws over Phil and steals his body, he screws over Alice's ancestor in order to save his wife and give her a second chance, he kills Wardo's ancestor. McNulty really takes it in stride, "I guess you could say Jack found a new home," he says with a grin. Screw Jack! What about Phil?
The biggest plot hole has to be that the Council would want Jack as a member. Really? Jack Deth? The grumpy gumshoe? The guy who can't follow the rules should be calling the shots for the human race? That's a scary notion.
Why couldn't Jack just hit Alice with the serum that sends her back up the line, with knowledge of her future? Then she can avoid the circumstance that leads to her death the next day. It would also give her ancestor her life back.
This goddamn movie. Whose idea was it to shoot every line of dialogue in close up with the actor looking directly at the camera? Awful. How about hiring Jeffrey Combs and then not giving him anything to do? Sad. Hap's suddenly a millionaire who collects fire trucks? Here's what happened, they said we have no budget, we want this movie to look like money, so they started looking for freebies. Hey my friend will let me shoot in his mansion! Hey my friend has a fire truck we can use let's write that into the movie, it will look cool. It's all just so random.
The first movie's charm overcomes its flaws, this one only has the flaws. I like the cast but they don't really save it. Their acting is much worse than the first time around, I think it has to do with shooting every actor separately for the close ups. Maybe they couldn't get all the actors together at once? It doesn't flow naturally at all.
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