Somewhat to my own surprise, I actually enjoyed the 1986 remake of "The Fly." Because of that I decided to watch "The Fly II," but sequels being sequels, I approached it with very low expectations. That was fortunate, because approaching this with anything other than low expectations would have led to a major disappointment.
If you recall, "The Fly" ended with Veronica pregnant with Seth Brundle's baby. This movie picks up the story, with Veronica giving birth to Seth's son, named Martin, whose story this then becomes. We basically know where this is going. Martin inherits his father's genetically mixed up nature. He's very intelligent, he never sleeps, he ages tremendously quickly and he's raised in a laboratory by "Bartok Industries" who apparently think that studying him will accomplish something for them. The first two-thirds of the movie is rather dull to be honest. Not much happens. Eric Stoltz is decent enough as Martin, although he doesn't match Jeff Goldblum's performance as Seth in the original. The love interest in this is portrayed by Daphne Zuniga, who wasn't great. "Passable" might describe her performance.
This is directed by Chris Walas, who's really known more as a special effects wizard than a director. It's his first outing as a director, and there haven't been many more - which probably says something. The pacing was poor and he didn't manage to coax much out of the cast. His unique contribution really comes in the last third of the movie as Martin begins his inevitable transformation. The movie becomes a special effects bonanza, and took on the feel (to me at least) of an "alien loose in a spaceship" type of monster movie - except that the alien is Martin and the spaceship is Bartok Laboratories. It turns into a rather gory bloodbath eventually. There wasn't anything particularly original and I had a "been there, done that" feeling as the security guards sought out the thing Martin had mutated into. There's also a pretty predictable climax and a "gross out" ending.
If you stick with the original, you'll be a lot happier.
If you recall, "The Fly" ended with Veronica pregnant with Seth Brundle's baby. This movie picks up the story, with Veronica giving birth to Seth's son, named Martin, whose story this then becomes. We basically know where this is going. Martin inherits his father's genetically mixed up nature. He's very intelligent, he never sleeps, he ages tremendously quickly and he's raised in a laboratory by "Bartok Industries" who apparently think that studying him will accomplish something for them. The first two-thirds of the movie is rather dull to be honest. Not much happens. Eric Stoltz is decent enough as Martin, although he doesn't match Jeff Goldblum's performance as Seth in the original. The love interest in this is portrayed by Daphne Zuniga, who wasn't great. "Passable" might describe her performance.
This is directed by Chris Walas, who's really known more as a special effects wizard than a director. It's his first outing as a director, and there haven't been many more - which probably says something. The pacing was poor and he didn't manage to coax much out of the cast. His unique contribution really comes in the last third of the movie as Martin begins his inevitable transformation. The movie becomes a special effects bonanza, and took on the feel (to me at least) of an "alien loose in a spaceship" type of monster movie - except that the alien is Martin and the spaceship is Bartok Laboratories. It turns into a rather gory bloodbath eventually. There wasn't anything particularly original and I had a "been there, done that" feeling as the security guards sought out the thing Martin had mutated into. There's also a pretty predictable climax and a "gross out" ending.
If you stick with the original, you'll be a lot happier.