L'Histoire sans fin II : Un nouveau chapitre

I'm a bit surprised at the heavy criticism this film received. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that this sequel didn't live up to its predecessor. However, it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be.

Before I continue, I should note that I have not yet read Micheal Ende's novel, so I can only judge this film as just that, a film. Not as an adaptation.

Many have complained that the personality of the characters from the original movie were contradicted and the film had little continuity. I disagree. In this film, Bastian is older and wiser, yet still has a lot to learn. That is not a flaw. He is *supposed* to be this way. As for his father, we didn't get to know him well enough in the first film to understand his personality, so the audience needs to give him the benefit of the doubt as well. Kenny Morrison was a fine Atreyu replacement for Noah Hathaway and Xayade is a villain that you'll love to hate.

This film goes the "Temple of Doom" route by offering a darker tale than before. In fact, some of the scenes might be a bit frightening for anyone at pre-school age or younger. I know that those giants used to scare me when I first saw this film at the age of eight. There are some humorous moments regarding the clash of cultures as Bastian and Atreyu often find it difficult to understand each other's vocabulary. A few thrilling moments, a dramatic twist mid-way through, and some nice visual effects round out a solid film.

On the negative side, some of the humor seemed a bit forced at times. *Cough* Spray can. *Cough* And while the dialogue was passable, it often sounded too plain without any real motivation behind it.

On a final note, and this is overlooked by the earlier reviews, Robert Folk's musical score is spectacular. It's a shame that it'll probably never be released in the mainstream ever again. The score alone makes the film worth watching.

All in all, this is an underrated film that needs to be viewed with an open mind instead of a quest to find as many flaws as possible. It's no fun using the latter way. It may not be the best sequel one could hope for, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. Just watch Neverending Story III to find out how.

I am a fan of The Neverending Story the book. This movie did not live up to my expectations at all (when I saw it again recently)

The movie covers part of the book's story, with Bastian meeting Xayide. Although part of it is followed closely, Nimbly did NOT work for Xayide, there was no Memory ball thing (AURYN made Bastian lose his memories on its own) and the end was a cheesy replacement for the Fountain of Life.

In the original story, there was much more substance.

And the thing that annoys me most: If Bastian met the Childlike Empress in the last movie, why did she appear to him in this one? If they had only researched the story better, they would have discovered that you can only meet the Empress ONCE. No matter how many times you meet her, she wil have no memory of you ever meeting her previously.

The original is one of my all time favourite movies, beautifully designed, well acted and had the sense of wonder that enthralled me when I was a child. I saw Neverending Story 3 recently, and thought it was absolute garbage with next to no redeeming qualities. NeverEnding Story 2: The Next Chapter wasn't terrible, but I will admit I was disappointed.

The film does look spectacular, with lovely costumes and sets- the image of the silver boats on the river was a beautiful image. The music by Robert Folk was gorgeous, very lyrical and atmospheric. And I did think Xayide was a pretty good villainess and Clarissa Burt was superb playing her, and that Ken Morrison did a worthy job replacing Noah Hathaway as Atreyu. I do admit Hathaway was better, he was born to play the part. Falcor wasn't too bad either, if not as wise as he was in the original movie.

There are flaws however. The plot is disjointed, and there are a lot of unfocused moments in the screenplay. Also that big bird was really irritating. Not to mention some contradictions in comparison to the original, then again NeverEnding Story 3 had a lot more contradictions, and did do an even worse job than this film. Barrett Oliver as Bastian was great in the original, and I do appreciate that they made him older and wiser here, but I did think as the hero Jonathan Brandis was rather feeble, but he did try his best with superficial material.

Overall, disappointing, but it wasn't that bad. If anything I think it is average, so I will give it a 5/10. Bethany Cox

THE NEVERENDING STORY II is a wonderful and breathtaking familiar film with adventures and imagination but inferior to excellent original. A lonely and grieving little boy named Bastian(the sadly deceased Jonathan Brandis substituting to Barret Oliver) is only living with his father( John Wesley Shipp in similar role to Gerard McRaney)but his mother has deceased.He seeks refugee in the library where meets a bookkeeper and is taken a fantastic book .Thus, again he enters the storybook world of Fantasia through the ¨Neverending story¨ tale . This time Batian is really in the flick the complete time instead of outside of the pages but happens that with each wish he lost records. There, he goes to Silver City and he meets the young valiant warrior named Atreyu( Kenny Morrison replacing Noah Hathaway)as he must save the magic world of Fantasia threatened for the destruction by the advance of Nothing that will eventually wipe out all the things and rescue the imprisoned childlike Empress . She is detained by evil sorceress Xayide (Clarissa) supported by his large mechanical beetles. Xayide has a dark scheme for Fantasy world and the Childlike Empress. They'll have to fight a magical army of giant bugs on two legs that threaten our friends.

The story is an enjoyable fairy tale with great charm from the original novel by Michael Ende,trying to incorporate too much dreamland with fantastic beings like a giant bird named Nimbly, the large flying pink poodle dragon named Falcor ,among others weird and bizarre creatures .They have been made by big puppets and no by means of computer generator effects but at the time had not been invented. The visual beauty of the impressive scenarios give the movie a real sense of wonder.The production design and sets are visually rousing and appealing.The film contains an agreeable moral message about reading books.It's followed by a new sequel, the third part titled: ¨Escape from fantasia¨(directed by Peter McDonald)with Jason James Ritcher. Besides followed by a Television cartoon movies. The movie contains spectacular musical score by Robert Folk and colorful cinematography by David Connell. The motion picture filled with imaginative moments is professionally directed by George Miller though with no originality because takes too many elements from previous film. Miller is an Australian director usually working for television (Tidal wave, Journey to the center of the earth,Attack of the Sabretooth) and occasionally for cinema ( The man from Snowy river Zeus and Roxanne,Robinson Crusoe ). Rating : Passable, acceptable, 5,5.

Good movie. The thing that bugged me the most was that they went through all the trouble to do a sequel to cover the other half of the book, and then left out HUGE rather important chunks and put other junk in. If it could be done right, I would love to see the book done as a mini-series covering EVERYTHING. For a sequel, I give it high marks. As the other half of a wonderful book, not so high.