Némesis 2

Albert Pyun is the writer and director of many a straight-to-video action movie (just look on the bottom shelf of your local video store). Generally dreadful, his films are cocktails of bigger, better ones, but this one does stand out from the crowd. I first rented this a couple of years ago, and I actually quite enjoyed it. It's about Alex (body-builder Sue Price) who was adopted by a tribe in Northern Africa, after her mother was killed by theives. Raised by the way of the warrior, she's a tough kind of cross between 'Alien slayer' Ripley and 'cyborg dodger' Sarah Connor. However, she's completely human either. She is in fact genetically modified (as explained in an introductory voice-over) and can jump and run and fight much better than anybody else. So, when a cyborg (the Nebula of the title) is sent back from the future to kill, she has her work cut out. Yes, it is like T2; yes, the cybergenetic villain is basically the PREDATOR; and yes, the budget was about £2.50. But, it is very entertaining in a half-drunk, don't-quite-know-what's-going-on state of mind.

The action scenes are a tad flat, and of course there is a whole encyclopedia of cliches, but if you except if for a low-budget action movie, which it most definitely is, then you just sit back and enjoy it.

It's crap, but it's good crap, and at least it can admit it.

I remember enhoying the 1992 sci-fi action movie "Nemesis" quite a lot back in my teenage years. But having returned to it not too long ago, it was actually not all that great a movie. And I do also remember having seen the 1995 movie "Nemesis 2: Nebula" once or twice, back in the day. However, I have entirely forgotten about it, aside from the big, muscular woman that was starring in it. And I remember always being somewhat repulsed by her physique.

And as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch "Nemesis 2: Nebula" once again here in 2024, of course I did so. However, it wasn't with a whole lot of great expectations though.

The movie is set to take place in 2077 in what is known as Cyborg America, yet they are still using weapons we have in our times today and even 30 years ago, that made very little sense. Wouldn't such weapons be considered archaic by that time? The storyline in "Nemesis 2: Nebula" deviates so much from the 1992 movie "Nemesis" that it hardly feels like the same franchise. Just exactly what were writers Rebecca Charles and Albert Pyun thinking when they concocted the script and storyline for this movie?

Needless to say that there wasn't a single famous or familiar actor or actress on the cast list. But then again, a movie such as "Nemesis 2: Nebula" would hardly draw in great talents, now would it? I have to say that I am still put off by the physique of Sue Price (playing Alex).

The character gallery in the movie is flaccid and superficial. You don't really get to know any of the characters, as they are either just extras or briefly passing by without much of any influence on the narrative (not that there was much of that either).

The special effects in the movie are exactly that; special. For a movie made in 1995, the special effects were quite dubious and laughable. A sci-fi movie such as this needs proper special effects to fully come off as being believable and creditable. And the props and wardrobe department didn't really manage to make the movie have a believable futuristic feel to it, which spoke well against the overall impression of "Nemesis 2: Nebula".

This is essentially a movie where you just disable your brain cells, lean back and enjoy the dubious sci-fi action, whilst munching on whatever snacks you have readily available. The movie requires absolutely no particular focus or concentration on the storyline.

"Nemesis 2: Nebula" is a futuristic sci-fi action movie without much of any actual sci-fi feel to it. It was, at best, a cheap knock off based on the "Predator" movie.

My rating of director Albert Pyun's 1995 "Nemesis 2: Nebula" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

In 2077, the cyborgs have won the war against humanity which they started in the first part. Baby Alex is sent back in time to 1980, so she can safely grow up in the 20th century - and become the star of part 2. Stranded in Africa, the girl is raised by a native tribe who is one day attacked by Nebula, a warrior from the future. Her enemies did obviously discover Alex finally, and she has got only a knife at first to fight the heavily armored cyborg. So she is mostly on the run, also attacked by human enemies, (a rebel army), and on top of that, she also tries to rescue 2 American girls. Sounds like a mission impossible, doesn't it? But Sue Price in her first movie is quite a show with her muscles. Pyun dared giving the Stallone/Schwarzenegger role to a woman, and then look at the locations: a fight against a robot - that's something you'd expect to happen on a space station or a dark rainy city a la Blade Runner. Instead, Pyun takes us into a bright, sunny Africa (shot in Arizona, though) and the first third of the movie is just about Alex' initiation as a warrior, with dialogs in the tribe's language and subtitles. Strong colors and wide angle shots of barren landscapes make it look really good. The remaining two thirds of „Nemesis 2" are less remarkable: a constant battle, you can't get some popcorn before the next grenade explodes. Since the hunter has got a lot more technical options (radar, infra-red, audio scanning, laser, whatever), his prey stands no chance normally, but has a strong survival instinct. The ending titles already announce „Nemesis 3: Time lapse". I watched the 4 Nemesis movies (which I watched first in the 1990s) again now in chronological order for my reviews and voted 7/7/5/5.

The first one, while not great, was decent and this is a massive let down. A new actor who's even worse than the previous one and a meandering plot that's just a Predator rip off crossed with a bit of Terminator.

This film has it all ... mainly because it unapologetically borrows from several other films, including "Dirty Harry," "Predator," and "Terminator." For example, the final battle scene looks like it was set in the exact same locale as in "Dirty Harry." They battle in some kind of rock-crushing mill, complete with conveyors, and a big fall from the top of a metal tower.

Of course the alien cyborg bounty hunter is a cross between Bobba Fett, the Terminator, and that alien guy from "Predator." He even has that partial invisibility screen that looked much cooler in the former film.

Speaking of "Predator," theres even one scene which is an hommage (rip-off) of when Schwarzenegger is escaping from the alien and gets all muddy and wet from trudging through the Amazon river.

Sue Price is stone cold in her acting, and you're never sure whether she's angry, sad, happy, or whatever. I'm not sure what else she's done, other than the rest of the Nemesis series, but I'll bet she's a much better weightlifter than actor.

All things considered, I've seen better episodes of "Sheena".