Beneath a Wild Vision of the Future Lies a Flawed Sequel

Rating: 5/10 (11 July 2011)

When it debuted in the winter of 1989, this sequel's wide-eyed portrait of the future was so ambitious and dramatic that it was tough to look beneath the surface. Today, a mere four years removed from the distant year 2015 depicted on the screen, those predictions seem more like a creative writing essay from the science fiction magazines of the 1950s. They remain endearing and entertaining, but in a different way - the jokes still work, but the more serious elements either don't play or, worse, come off as pure camp. And, with the shiny veneer of that potential future relegated to nothing more than a running series of sight gags, the holes and flaws of the plot itself find themselves stripped bare. It came as something of a shock to me, given my fond memory, but this really is not a good film. What screen time the cast doesn't spend breathlessly explaining the plot (which is, perhaps, fifty percent of the film) is devoted to revisiting several of the best scenes from the first movie, rather than creating fond memories of their own. It's an overly elaborate story, unashamedly building to the simultaneously-filmed follow-up, that has neither the steady pace nor the genuine charm of the original. Plot holes the size of a steam engine are the least of its concerns, given that the first film managed to be such a success in spite of similar problems.