I have to admit I absolutely loved the second Highlander movie when i first saw it at the theatre back in 1991. Please, understand it, I was on my teens, and rather than bothering about the story, characters or anything like that I just sit back and enjoyed the fights, laughed with the silly humour and got al oad of eye candy from Russel Mulcahy's Ridley Scott impersonation. Of course, I was quite surprised to learn of the film's rather bad reputation as years went by, and only after reading the review at Jabootu (compulsary readin for anyone) and being subjected to a copule of TV screenings of the film I admitted it was a turkey.
Of course, such was my faith in the movie that my wish to enjoy it again as if I was on my teens again was fulfilled, and for that reason alone mulcahy and some other people managed to recut and re-release the film in some other cut, known as the "Renegade Cut" for some reason.
OK, the film stills sucks. It couldn't be any other way, considering the main faults of the movie lie deep in its heart and not in its execution. So what if the immortals don't come from the planet Zeist anymore and now come from the past? Isn't it as preposterous as their alien origin? Of course it is. Specially if the distant past involves buddhist monks (or people who look like them too much for their own sake), machine guns, video monitors (which at least they bother to follow the 16/9 standard) and spaceships.
And we still have Michael Ironside speaking gibberish, or Sean Connery chewing scenario and reciting his silly one-liners with gusto. Nor even Mulcahy's obssession to pretend he is Ridley Scott, and thus shooting as many scenes as he can with blue lights and industrial fans, is diminished an inch.
But at least we have a handful of added scenes that try their best to make sense of the story, and some much better (and more comprehensive) editing. At last the action scenes can be followed, and everything looks like a finished film rather than a student project. It couldn't be any other way, considering these people have had years to improve over tha almost unwatchable original. What the hell, even one of those scenes is pretty good, the one where MacLeod and Virginia Madsen manage to find the only spot on earth where the sky above the Shield is visible, if you can ignore the idea they climbed several thousand yards through a metal ladder.
This Renegade Cut is no magic solution to the abysmal quality of the original, but it is a substantial improvement over the original, and if we have to believe Russel Mulcahy, a much closer look into the original project. Alone for that, the film deserves to be re-watched, as it is far more satisfying. What the f**k, it's still much better than the rest of sequels, those which don't even have the excuse of a troubled creative process.
Of course, I was quite surprised to learn of the film's rather bad reputation as years went by
I sorta felt the same way about "Megaforce"
What?! Megaforce is a bad movie? Nonsense!
I disn't tink so when I was 10
The Highlander series of movies has the worst continuity. I couldn't believe that the same director made the first and second movies. I think the first one is a classic, but in the second one they should have just left explaining why they were immortal alone.
You know Adrian Paul and the original producers are cooking up another one called Highlander: The Source which sounds like they are ignoring Highlander II again and giving another explanation of the immortality thing.
Fearless Freep Wrote:
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> Of course, I was quite surprised to learn of the
> film's rather bad reputation as years went by
>
> I sorta felt the same way about "Megaforce"
If I had been drinking Coke when I read this, I'd still have foam coming out of my nose.
I was a fan of the original Highlander, but methinks the series has gone off the rails somewhat. How can anyone possibly be a fan of the series without trying to follow all the wacky plot changes all the bloody time. It's very frustrating.
But other than that, I didn't actually mind Highlander II that much all things considered, and that's not even the Renegade Cut. Though I must admit that I cannot remember a single thing about it off the top of my head.
Actuallyl, to turn it on it's head, if the *original* movie had not finished under the premise that Conner was *the* last immortal, there wouldn't really be continuity problems. They closed the movie out with a good conclusion, probably not anticipating several sequals and spin-off TV series. I bet if they could re-edit the original, they would've done it differently and left it more open-ended (they probably could if they took away some of the voice over at the end)
When they made the third they basically ignored the fact that the second existed. It was really bad, and all I really remember about is Mario Van Peeple doing his Clancy Brown imitation.
You could consider the series taking place prior to Connor becoming the one. But the fourth movie basically ignored all the rest of it.
trek_geezer Wrote:
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> When they made the third they basically ignored
> the fact that the second existed. It was really
> bad, and all I really remember about is Mario Van
> Peeple doing his Clancy Brown imitation.
The only good thing about HIGHLANDER III was Deborah Unger.