Review of Screamers: The Hunting (2009) by Ded-Meet C — 04 Jan 2014

I just finished watching it. I was so psyched and blown away to find out there was a Screamers 2 as it was one of my fave sci-fi's of the 90s.

Well it uhhh unsurprisingly is not too good. I mean... it's not complete trash, it's alright for fans I guess. If it was on TV it'd be worth a watch for free. It's like the difference between The Avengers and the Agents of Shield pilot on ABC......

This is literally like a 2010 quality tv movie. I applaud the effort - I love Screamers and was happy to see a new sequel after all these years. Really happy. It's too bad it was such a wasted potential. Now, the fx and film quality are quite capable - they can do more with less than they could 15 years ago, but.... there's not a lot of talent here compared to the original. Lance Henriksen shows up once again as the special guy in an unspecial movie. The rest of the cast is very sterile and chemistry-less. Sure, it keeps you guessing who's a Screamer, but the first movie didn't have to do that. Every character was brimming with personality. Directors need to encourage actors to improvise, especially in overly serious movies like this. It's empty thematically . . basically watching someone play a pretty boring ps3 game. The overall plot concept was fine but it could've explored more interesting things. The practical effects were the only impressive thing.

Too many scenes fail to achieve what they were going for, but there are one or two moments of brilliance that I won't spoil in case there are fans of Screamers out there. If you haven't seen the original Screamers, check it out immediately for some of the most intense acting you've ever seen, as after all, it's based on Philip K Dick. In fact, I'd recommend fans of Screamers just re-visit it instead of this one, unless you like straight-to-video sequels.