Brief Story Line
Five years after the events of the First Movie, Connor (Robbie Amell - Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, The Babysitter etc) was released from prison after serving time and started to work as janitor in a youth center managed by Mina (Jean Yoon - Kim's Convenience TV series etc). Meanwhile his partner in crime Garret (Stephen Amell - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Heels TV series etc) took over the Psyke drug business and was quite successful. During this time, the Lincoln Police Department under the lead of Sergeant Kingston (Alex Mallari Jr - Dark Matter TV series etc) had developed new kind of robot in the form of dog called K9 to replace the deadly Guardians.
Connor's peaceful life though, did not last long when a young powered girl named Pavani (Sirena Gulamgaus) who witnessed a crime somehow ended up in his place of work. Now Connor must try and save Pavani from the capture of Garret and the police.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I remember watching the fist movie few years ago and the dark & grim feeling after finishing it. To be honest, I did not think it was successful enough to warrant a sequel, so it caught me by surprise when I saw it was promoted by Netflix few weeks ago. As I said above, I already thought of giving this a try some time in the future, but I was intrigued in finding out what made this so appealing to Netflix audience.
Frankly after watching this, I still could not see the reason for its major attraction. Sure it still had the same dark story (if you are fans of those), but it was not a blockbuster film with extraordinary action and amazing plot or A-List movie stars which would make people easily opted to see it. Anyway, I thought this sequel was not as heavy as the original film. The lead character Connor was still trying to keep himself out of trouble, but unfortunately caught in something that he could not seem to avoid (although the reasoning was a lot more convincing in the first movie). Meanwhile Garret remained the guy that could go either way, with the addition of other new characters whose faces were unfamiliar to me (except Aaron Abrams who reprised his role as Detective Davis).
In term of action, I thought the original was a little bit better with more super powers shown and the Guardians were more ruthless than the K9. In here the best part was the finale which was quite suspenseful. Special effects still similar to the first film which was quite an achievement considering it did not have huge budget like those Hollywood movies had (this was a Canadian production). The cast were pretty decent to my opinion, but somehow I did not feel any emotional attachment to them and they seemed to just come and go without leaving a big impression (not even the supposedly emotional moment under the bridge had any impact on me). Btw this sequel was directed by Jeff Chan who was also the director of the original and he served as co-producers with Robbie & Stephen Amell. Its duration was 1 hour 40 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene.
Overall this was an OK action drama movie. It was dark and not exactly the kind of film that would leave you elated after watching it, but it did have a good enough story and some nice action. If you like the first movie, then there is a chance you would enjoy this one too. I read that critics were more receptive to the original, which indeed have a better story. I do think it's a pity that Netflix did not make the first movie available, as it probably would give better appreciation by audience. So it was quite awesome that people were still interested in watching it.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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