HIGHLANDER 2: THE QUICKENING
A film review by Mark Santora
Copyright 1991 Mark Santora
Well, in Miami last night HIGHLANDER 2:THE QUICKENING premiered. And I must say that I paid no heed to the warnings given by the European members of this VAX system to the nature of the movie. I was determined to give the film a fair chance. And I did. However, a fair chance from a man who loved the first HIGHLANDER immensely could not save it from the inevitable failure it would end in.
First, let's start with the title. Or better yet, the subtitle; THE QUICKENING. I still know nothing about it after seeing this film except that both Ramirez and MacLeod put their fingers in this glowing orange stuff. They referred to the quickening a few times and that was it basically. There wasn't anything new about it that we didn't learn in the first film.
Next let's start with the plot. In the opening minutes we see a young MacLeod with another man as they stand in a bunker raising a shield over the now ozoneless Earth. We cut to 25 years later, MacLeod is an old man and sitting in an opera house. He dreams of being from the planet Zeist; a super tells us this is 500 years ago. He was a rebellion leader with Ramirez. This is where they dunk their fingers into the glowing orange stuff. Than we see the rebellion killed off by Michael Ironside and the troops of the planet. Ramirez and MacLeod are captured and sentenced to life on Earth as immortals until only one remains. Once that one is left, he may return to Zeist. They send them to Earth.
Now, 500 years later, they don't want them back. So they send two assassins down to earth to kill MacLeod. They don't. He dispatches their heads and becomes young again. Immediately after this he jumps into bed with Virginia Madsen, who plays an environmental terrorist who believes the ozone layer has repaired itself and that the shield can be turned off. Her character is worthless and has less depth than a saucer.
In fact, the entire plot and dialogue is horrible. I winced every time something was said. It was painful to watch them try to find some reason in the script. Fortunately for the writers of the first HIGHLANDER, they were not involved in this script. Which is a major problem with it. The new script just suffers too many inconsistencies. A major one is at the end where MacLeod and Ironside are sword-fighting. MacLeod loses the sword he is using. In the next scene, all of the sudden he has the Japanese sword back from the original film. This sword hasn't been seen in the entire film. It makes a cameo for the last two minutes.
Connery has some good lines and his return is well-handled. Granted, they could have made him a little more crucial to the plot, as he really wasn't needed the way the story was handled. His death was worthless and unimportant. Connery must have been paid very well to act here.
Filmically, it lacks greatly from the first film. The first had beautiful scndapes and wondrous transitions between scenes, the fishtank. This didn't have any. It was boring to watch. Not to mention the sets were horrible. It was like watching Batman again. They didn't look real. They had a fake quality to them. I was not impressed.
As for Russell Mulcahey, when his name appeared before the film, there was a lot of cheering. However, now I wonder what possessed him to accept a script this bad. Why did he not use his, obviously, talented camera work? This film might set back the help that RICOCHET did to his carrer.
Stuart Copland did the music. It was uninteresting and neither moving nor suspenseful. A song by Queen, "Who Wants to Live Forever?," is played by MacLeod on a jukebox in a bar. Also a piece from Michael Kamen is used when Madsen is going through MacLeod's attic. Here we Americans get to see a still picture of MacLeod in WWII, the scene deleted for HIGHLANDER's original release here. Aside from that, there is nothing special musically.
I don't think I can stress how unimpressed and disappointed I was by HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING. I had extremely high hopes that the film would at least bear some resemblance to the original. It does not. If you loved the first one, you can wait to see H2 on video. You won't miss much. Trust me. There is no "MAGIC" in HIGHLANDER 2. Do something good with your money, go purchase the original.
Mark Santora
The opinions expressed in this review are my own and I have no affiliations with the film in any way.
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