Neverending Story 2, The |
  • Germany / UK • 1990 • 90m •   • Directed by: George Miller. • Starring: Jonathan Brandis, Kenny Morrison, Clarissa Burt, John Wesley Shipp, Martin Umbach, Alexandra Johnes, Thomas Hill, Helena Michell, Christopher Burton, Patricia Fugger, Birge Schade, Claudio Maniscalco, Andreas Borcherding. • Music by: Robert Folk.      Once again, Bastion is transported to the world of Fantasia which he recently managed to save from destruction. However, the land is now being destroyed by an evil sorceress, Xayide, so he must join up with Atreyu and face the Emptiness.
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Review:
The original film was never anything that special but I must admit I quite enjoyed the adventure and the dark tone it took at times. The sequel tries to basically ape the first film, with a similar story but with Bastian inside the world full time. It work anywhere near as well as the reasonably good original and instead it feels like it is just trying too hard for the majority of the time. The repetition of the characters is a bit pointless because their familiarity takes away the chance for a fresh view of this world while still be unfamiliar because all the original actors were six years older by this point. The story has enough to it for slighter older children to perhaps be engaged by it but it didn't have anything of real interest for me. Likewise the design really; it looks like more money was spent on it but it is not as imaginative as the first film.
The cast are obviously all new to the film series -' even roles that really could have been played by the same people. Brandis and Morrison are not that good although the former is better than the latter, who speaks far too much "modern American English" to be convincing within his world (too many "totally's" and the like). Brandis is a bit hard to watch looking back now because it has only been a few years since the actor (pretty much my age) killed himself. Burt is obvious and uninspiring, Umbach is OK considering the amount of make-up on him. Shipp has somehow turned into a young father rather than the older man of the first but he isn't that good. The support cast are OK but again nobody seems to have the feel of quality that was in the first film.
Overall a reasonable film but a pretty unnecessary one. Most children who watched the original will have moved on by the time this came out, meaning that the next generation could have easily just stuck with the original again.
Review by bob the moo from the Internet Movie Database.
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