War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave |
  • USA • 2008 • 87m •   • Directed by: C. Thomas Howell. • Starring: C. Thomas Howell, Christopher Reid, Kim Little, Jonathan Levit, Danna Brady, Fred Griffith, Darren Dalton, David Regal, Leslie Gomez, Zack Beseda, Jason S. Gray, Jonathan Nation, Murray SawChuck. • Music by: Ralph Rieckermann.     Two years after the Martian invasion, George Herbert's worst fears are realized: The Aliens have returned. As a second wave of Martian walkers lay waste to what's left of Earth, an alliance of military forces prepares a daring attack on the Red Planet itself. Once again, the future of mankind hangs in the balance.
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Review:
Directed by & staring C. Thomas Howell who at one point was a promising up & coming young actor who appeared in films such as the excellent The Hitcher (1986) but who since the early 90's has gone on to star in countless low budget action & horror flicks. Here we have the follow up to The Asylum's 'mockbuster' War of the Worlds (2005) which was direct rip-off of Steven Spielberg's mega budget Hollywood take on the novel by H.G. Wells & as such War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave has absolutely no connection to Spielberg's film & is not a sequel of any kind to it. I have seen the original War of the Worlds with Howell again staring but cannot remember anything about it other than it was rubbish & in that regard this sequel pretty much lives up to it's predecessor. I will admit thar War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave is quite ambitious with dog fights between Martian spacecraft & modified fighter jets in outer space, alternate realities, a full scale invasion of Earth, Martian Squid Walkers rampaging throughout the US & one man's search for his son who looks like a girl. Unfortunately neither the budget nor the script is here, the effect sequences are short, bitty & look pretty cheap while the script is a mess. If human blood is so vital to these Martians what did they do before they invaded Earth? What's all this rubbish about an alternate reality inside the Martian mother ship that looks like a US city? There's also one of the most confusing & baffling ten minutes stretch in a film ever, two scientists talk to George & the amount of technobabble is astonishing, from time travel to wormholes to a deadly virus to living spaceships to special frequencies to lots of other stuff that most viewers won't be able to keep up with or particularly want to for that matter. The character's are poor, the pace is alright even if it's not that engaging or exciting & overall it's a fairly cheap feeling low budget Sci-Fi flick with little if nothing to recommend it.
The CGI computer effects are a mixed bag, any effect involving real people or real locations look awful yet the 100% CGI scenes like the space battles actually look alright. Apparently the budget for War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave was half that of the original. There is no gore, blood or violence whatsoever & apart from one or two brief spaceship battles no action or excitement. This is very tame & pretty much 'PG' stuff all the way & I think any higher rating is due to bad language.
With a supposed budget of $500,000 the production values aren't the best, the sets, locations, effects & costumes are far from the best either. Both Howell & his son return to reprise their roles from the original as does Kim Little but this time around she plays a scientist with a really bad Southern accent while Christopher Reid as the comic relief partner Pete is annoying.
War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave is a poor uneventful Sci-Fi sequel that nobody wanted, I really can't think of anything good to say about it other than it has one or two mildly impressive CGI space battle shots.
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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