Carnosaur 2

You can say a lot of (negative) things about "Carnosaur 2", but not that it blatantly imitates the first film. "Carnosaur", from 1993, was a splatter horror flick about scientifically engineered dinosaurs running amok in a small town, whereas the sequel is a harshly violent 'send in the military cannon fodder for a mission that is guaranteed to fail' Sci-Fi movie. It's like Ridley Scott's "Alien" versus James Cameron's "Aliens", but on shoestring budgets, of course. Speaking of which, director Louis Morneau and writer Michael Palmer obviously were massive fans of "Aliens". The narrative structure, macho mercenary characters, kills, and a handful of iconic battle scenes are clearly and shamelessly modeled after the 1986 Sci-Fi landmark.

Is it original? Not exactly, no. Is it entertaining? You bet! Although less fun than the first "Carnosaur" (in my humble opinion, at least), the sequel also guarantees blood-soaked massacres and heavy artillery. My favorite moment: a tough-as-nails female mercenary sees her arm chewed off by a T-Rex, but she courageously continues to fight it until the critter also tears open her stomach.

"CARNOSAUR II" (1995, Morneau) is a surprisingly star-studded low-budget film inspired by "ALIENS" (1986, Cameron). Funnily enough James Cameron wanted to make "Jurassic Park" and he said it would have been "ALIENS but with dinosaurs", so perhaps "CARNOSAUR II" isn't far off what we might've gotten from Cameron (except the effects, sets, soundtrack, directing, props, story, etc. Would have been miles better...) had Spielberg not gotten his golden mits on the rights.

I don't know if this is better than "CARNOSAUR" (1993, Simon) because that would be like comparing apples and oranges. This second outing is definitely more mainstream and more watchable but with the same gore value. The raptors aren't as detailed as the deinonychus from the original but there are more of them and the Rex is just the same. Big, jerky and unforgivingly hungry.

Whereas the first was a Monster-on-the-loose in a small town kind of movie, this one is much more of a cramped low-lighted enclosed-space survival horror along the likes of the video game Dino Crises. To start off, I want to To start off, I want to make it clear that Aliens is one of my all-time favorite science fiction/horror movies, and this movie is Aliens. It's as if they took the exact same script but turned Ripley into a male, Newt into a male, set it at a facility in the desert instead of another planet, and replace the aliens with Raptors, and then you've got this movie. I am not kidding when I say it's the exact same movie as Aliens. Even some of the dialog is word for word the exact same. And you know what? I'm fine with that, because it ended up making for a damn entertaining movie. I always say that if you're going to rip something off, rip off something good.

This movie is for those with patience. It can be very tedious at times. They seemed to have wanted to go with suspense but fell short. Somehow Dianne Ladd's rubber puppet dinosaurs have ended up in a government mining facility in Nevada. And a very rag-tag crew of computer repairmen (and woman) just happen to be there at the time. From there, the movie follows a very Aliens type synopsis. The Velociraptor dinosaurs have improved their looks considerably since the first movie, but their movement is incredibly stiff. The same T=Rex appears in this film. Like the first, this movie is for those that like cheesy films with low production values.

And I was actually glad and surprised that the first movie wasn't being as much a "Jurassic Park" ripoff. It probably only didn't because it couldn't, since it was released a couple of months before "Jurassic Park" hit the theaters. This movie makes up for that though, since it really doesn't have an original idea of its own in it. It even more blatantly is ripping off James Cameron's "Aliens".

It even isn't being subtle about it. It doesn't try to conceal that it 'borrowed' heavily from "Aliens" and pretty much steals entire scenes, dialog and characters from that movie. Really, if you have seen "Aliens", you have seen "Carnosaur 2" as well already! The story even progresses in the exact same way.

But oh well, I still have to give the movie that it at least is being better to watch than the original. The story is much easier and pleasant to follow and it at least has some half decent characters in it as well.

Another thing that had been improved were its effects. The dinosaurs are better looking and more threatening this time around. It really prevents the movie from being ever becoming a truly ridicules or horrible one as well.

Really, it isn't anything too uncommon for a movie to ripoff another one. Especially not for low budget movies like this one. And out of all the "Aliens" ripoffs that are out there, this ons is not all that bad and actually at times quite good and enjoyable.

Not original by any means obviously but it at least is a watchable enough, cheap, little movie, that is far better and more pleasant to watch than the original as well.

5/10

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