Review of The Fly II (1989) by Adam T — 14 Nov 2009

Alright, so any sequel to a commerically successful horror movie with hidden human depths is going to be doomed to inferioty. It's a one trick pony, pulled off brilliantly by Cronenberg's original. What the Fly 2 does it accept essential the movie to be a scructual clone plotwise of the original movie, take the most successfl elements to set a credible begining half to the movie, and the second a condensed B-movie horror. And it works brilliantly. If I watched another movie struggle to emulate Cronenberg's vastly underatted, if critically popular, horror tradegy I'd lose interest. Only Cronenberg could of produced such an effecting drama with horrific overtones. Sure, it ain't the best horror sequel, or the best horror movie as a stand alone. But it features a very strong performance from Eric Stoltz as Brundlefly's offspring, very strong technical effects for the time from director Chris Wallas, the usual horror 80's faux pas with some brilliantly effective gore for a commercial horror movie and solid if simplistic story developments and direction . Of course, many looking for a sequel somewhere on par to The Fly may not be satisfied with this movie. It lifts.

Key points from the original story and continues it through Stoltz effecting performance, and revelling in more standard gore shocks than The Fly, Wallas directing debut makes a success out of the original's key plot elements in this picture without making a solid commitment to either. Neither tragic horror, neither fullblown generic creature feature movie.

In fact the only criticisms I have of the movie in a serious vein is that the insect/human hybrid itself never looks convincing, as in the first movie. While it certainly moves better technically, I never felt enough time was spent actually on the space bugs themselves to make them look convincing, although I do prefer this space bug due to a much more forboding size. But the design certainly doesn't spoil the picture for me. A B-movie in monster tone with some solid acting and strong execution for the time, The Fly 2 produces what is in effect a monster movie rather than tragic horror with more positives than negatives.