Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
AN ORIGINAL IDEA, 6 Aug 2007
Lost at sea, husband and wife Jason (Greg Cromer) and Alexandra (Stephanie Niznik) are rescued by Captain Bigelow (Daniel Quinn) aboard his ship. Finding the rat-infested ship good enough shelter till they return home, Alex and Jason find they are hits with the crew. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Grabec, (Richard Moll) a disgraced scientist is on board. He thinks Jason is a perfect candidate for his next experiment. During dinner, he slips a pill into Jason's drink, making him become seriously ill. Since he is the only doctor on board, Grabec has an opportunity to give a giant spider a chance to impregnate Jason with special DNA to bear a genetic breed of spider. Over the next several days, Alex becomes concerned that Jason has started to act strange. Captain Bigelow simply dismisses her claims as he having a rare strand of a sea flu. As Jason becomes even stranger, Alex begins to suspect that Grabec has poisoned Jason. Trusting her instincts, she snoops around the ship and witnesses Grabec and a guard loosing control over a spider. She sneaks Jason out of the room and finally learns the truth about the experiment. By then, Grabec has lost all control over the spiders and they over-run the ship, killing off all the crew but Grabec. On the top level, Alex and Jason stop to relax a minute. Grabec appears and lays the entire extent of his plan before them. A spider takes him away, and Alex returns to the bowels of the ship to retrieve the vaccine needed to cure him. Finishing off several more spiders, they escape the ship and are rescued by the Coast Guard.
The Good News: The film is a pretty good film. It does have a few moments were it did drag a little, in terms of on-screen action, but it still holds your interest. The movie does have an undeniable point of genius: moving a monster movie out away from the land and keeping it solely on a ship. Despite the fact that the premise had been done months earlier in `Ghost Ship,' Spiders 2 now makes it a monster movie with a mad scientist doing secret experiments, placing it slightly reminiscent of the 50's monster movie category. This is certainly a refreshing move, considering the new plot lines in modern monster movies. There is also a surprising amount of gore in the movie, another refreshing change of pace. Despite the high gore, there are very killings on-screen, consisting of only Grabec, Bigelow, and two guards on board. More violence happens to the giant spiders than to the people. The film at first plays out like a mystery movie revolving around the origins of the strange Dr. Grabec and his experiments. Once the experiments have been found out, then it shifts gears and becomes a huge gore-fest. The film does attempt to wring in some suspense, as the one scene where Alex disembarks the elevator to find the entire doorway is covered in spider webs. Her slowly moving through the webs and into the lab is very suspenseful. The ending is not the complete surprise it should've been, as plot formula dictates the scene. The action scenes combating the spiders are easily the films' highlights.
The Bad News: The film has a low budget, resulting in the majority of the spider's scenes being computer generated. This makes the spiders look increasingly different in the same scene as they go from being a mechanical creature to being a CG created image and then back. It does distract from the overall look and feel, as the mechanical spiders do look convincing and menacing. Had they kept that look throughout the film, it would look ten times better and more expensive. On to the humans, who give simply dreadful performances. Moll is capable as the mad scientist, a role he seems to relish and yet feels a tad out of place. He has a reformed gangster look to him that makes him the perfect choice for mobster movies or heavy's, and while he way no have had scientist roles before, it oddly suites him. Niznik is a minor find in the action heroine role, but everyone else is awful. The ship's size does change frequently, as in certain parts it looks too small to carry the huge labs and spiders inside it, keeping in mind that the crew does need space to sleep and eat.
The Final Verdict: The slow beginning will deter some viewers, who claim that not enough is happening to warrant a complete viewing. Those that watch the whole thing will find a movie that has plenty of gore, a few clever scares, and many genius scenes throughout. Recommended to those who like seeing old ideas brought to new life in the present, as well as those who like old-school monster movies.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
SPIDERS 2: UTTER RUBBISH!!!, 23 Jun 2009
Ok, so i knew it wasn't going to be great, but i thought it would be atleasr bearable to watch! The first film was bad but it was still funny cheesy film. At least you could actually watch it. This film is very very dull and the plot is awful. Acting is bad and The CGI is dreadul. The ld Godzilla films had better CGI!
Good Points: Even though the story sucks, it is original.
Bad points: CGI is awful. When the spiders attack the people, it is obvious the victim is a craboard cutout and the spiders are small and all loook exactly the smae. It seems as though the crew decorated a glass tank, put a spider in it and filmed it, thinking it looked amazing! The whole CGI is a total fail! The acting is very poor, way to cheesy and the story line is laughable, but th eoverall film doesn't even make you smirk. The ending is terrrible as well as the start. You may fall asleep at some point.
BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK. This isnt worth any amount of money and it shouldn't be shown on TV. And as for the 15 rating, I have seen Pg films with a more scary plot.
AWFUL FILM!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good and Bad at the same time (Contains spoilers), 16 Feb 2008
I'd like to start by saying this film really isn't the best out there. The first is brilliant with great effects, but this just doesn't make the grade for me. The spiders emerging differs from the first film and looks like the Alien scene, and the ending where the biggest spider gets blown up really doesn't build any tension. The spiders looks and sizes differ, and you don't even find out where they get the god damn giant spider in the first place. But I must say it has good acting and a great story line, but if they need to be backed up by the effects and blood, sorry, but its on its own.
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