Xtro II - Die zweite Begegnung

After all the bad reviews I read of this movie, I was dreading watching it. But it actually exceeded my expectations!! It's really fun! Don't listen to all the negative reviews. This was actually a very suspenseful, entertaining, low-budget SCI FI movie! Yes, there are some Alien elements in it of course, but I think the actors performances were really very good. Tara Buckman is fantastic as a "Linda Hamilton" type heroine. I really enjoyed her performance - she definitely leads the movie, and I have to say she's got wickedly cool hair too! She was a knockout in a Buck Rogers episode ('Unchained Woman') from the 70's. I was worried that Jan Michael Vincent would be alcohol-deadened, but he actually turns in an admirable performance as well! I know he's older, but some of that 80's 'action star' persona comes through really nicely, and he still has amazing charisma in front of the camera. It's also a treat to see a young Nicolas Lea (from the X Files) in this - battling aliens, no less! The alien itself is pretty interesting - nothing as scary as 'Aliens', but it's pretty cool special effects. Enjoy this movie- it's fun!!!!

Scientists at a secret underground complex have found a way to travel to another dimension. Three dimension-travelers are the first to go through the gate - but are soon attacked by something that interrupts the communication with Earth. This horrible something uses the gate to travel back to the underground complex. Most of the staff are evacuated, except four heavily-armed militaries and Dr. Casserly and Dr. Summerfield who just can't stand each other. It turns out that the creature is a alien monster that craves human flesh. Not the best horror film I've seen. Some very nice creature effects and the filmmakers sling some pretty cool gore at us but There's virtually no tension, suspense or atmosphere. It was dull, too, why were all the sets so foggy? Couldn't they afford proper lighting? Or were the sets even complete? It's an OK time waster at best, at worst... 4/10.

I saw this movie for the first time when I was a young teenager, and I actually liked it. I honestly couldn't tell that the acting was bad, the suspense was absent, the plot was non-existent. So, is it then safe to say that this movie probably was made by young teenagers, unaware of the different aspects that make a good sci-fi/horror movie work? I had the chance to re-watch it last night, so I did. Better had not done it, because it's another childhood memory shattered.

This movie indeed is a shameless ALIEN rip-off. There's a chest-burster-scene, there's a BIG gun attached to a soldier's body like in ALIENS, there are soldiers crawling through air-shafts with somebody looking at a monitor telling them the creature's closing in on them,...

It's a shame, really, because the 'other dimension'-concept had potential. The film-makers should have shown more of it. Like the soldiers scouting the landscape or them entering the dome you see in the distance. Actually, you don't see sh!t. Just some fuzzy transmitted images on a monitor. I guess they didn't have the budget to write all that in the screenplay, since they clearly used only three sets or so.

I'm still trying to figure out why I liked this movie back then. I think because there's some mild gore in it (chest- & face-bursting and an exploding dude at the end), but they cut away from it too quickly. So it must have been the creature, which looks reasonable (but still rubbery) and fairly dangerous when it shows its teeth, but it moves way too slow.

Anyway, I'm waisting too much words on this crappy movie. The important thing is: XTRO II: The Second Encounter is actually no sequel to XTRO (1983). The two movies have absolutely NOTHING in common. I even think the first XTRO is worth tracking down and watching it, 'cause it's a peculiar and unique little sci-fi/horror-gem. XTRO II is not. But if you want to see every possible ALIEN rip-off: Be my guest.

Now I think that I can appreciate a movie if it doesn't have brilliant sets brilliant actors or even a brilliant plot. But this film? No way! It was dull it was pointless it was a rip off of alien for the first part then Aliens for the second. Also it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the first film Xtro, I am guessing they just called it Xtro II to try and get some people to buy it, and I am one of those people. The acting is awful the characters are lame the sets are not very complicated if you know what I mean, the special effects are not that special although the alien actually is passable as a fun monster if not a realistic one. Now this is full of cliches but where as Cyborg Cop seems to know it's using cliches and relishes in the fun this movie takes itself completely seriously, the only part where it started getting interesting was near the end but that was only getting upto a 2 or 3 on the excitometer. All in all a bad film, Paul Koslo was much better as the evil Russian counterpart in Robot Jox, here he is just plain wooden. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone except maybe if you put together a short five minute movie of the edited highlights. A waste of time. 2/10

This movie is fun from start to finish. The idea of a rescue team being trapped inside a top secret government research lab that has unleashed an alien creature from another dimension is fun. Paul Koslo from Omega Man, Tara Buckman from B.J. and the Bear and Jan-Michael Vincent from numerous b movies lead the cast as the scientists who developed the device that opens the doorway. Jan being brought back after being forced to retire because he destroyed the last facility that the device was used in and once again opened a doorway allowing alien creatures to escape!! Nicholas Lea is the young LT. of the rescue team, an early chance to see the man who would become Krycek on the X-Files. The cast continues to drop off trying to stop the creature from escaping. The effects are o.k. but there is one very good death of a rescue team member by the alien through a wall. Overall the story is entertaining.