Watch Xtro 2: The Second Encounter For Free

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Harry Bromley-Davenport returns with his first sequel to XTRO. But, it has nothing to do with the original and plays out with a completely different style than the 1983 gore show. Within an underground lab people have been sent to a parallel universe, can not return and they have only 12 hours of oxygen left. They turn to Dr. Shepard (Jan Michael-Vincent) who was the brains behind the original project and had been sent to this parallel universe before and survived. Sadly, just plays out as another Alien rip-off, which is too bad because it did seem to have some potential early on.

Apparently it takes no less than FOUR different people to script a piece of junk that looks exactly like the "Alien", only a lot less claustrophobic and suspenseful. Four people and a bunch of washed up actors to make a US sequel that has absolutely nothing in common with the British cult classic from 1983, but presumably just wanted to cash in on the awesome title. The original "Xtro" is a movie you either love or hate. I happen to love it, because it was totally unique Sci-Fi fodder that blended surreal elements with kitschy comedy, gratuitous nudity and gruesome make-up effects. This sequel has … nothing! Even the additional title is boring. "The Second Encounter"? Well duh, it's the second movie after the first movie. "Xtro II" is basically just a re-telling of Ridley Scott's legendary "Alien", only set in an underground research facility instead of a spaceship. Deep underneath us, unaware tax-payers, Doctors Alex Summerfield and Julie Casserly run a secret laboratory where they teleport three people to an alternate dimension. Only one of them returns, however, and she's carrying a hideous monster that explodes through her chest "Alien"-style. The whole facility becomes hermetically sealed off and inescapable, and it's up to an ex-scientist (Jan-Michael Vincent) and a team of macho soldiers (like in James Cameron's sequel "Aliens") to survive this ordeal. This film is completely unoriginal, derivative, uninspired, boring and forgettable. It's literally everything you expect it to be, with exaggeratedly big guns and muscled imbeciles climbing up elevator shafts etc… It seems as if Jan-Michael Vincent and Paul Koslo, both reasonably acclaimed B-movie veterans, are competing for who can deliver the most uninterested and cocky performance, whereas the rest of the cast tries real hard to do good but don't have the talent. Tara Buckman, for example, must have watched and learned a lot from Linda Hamilton in "The Terminator". The special effects are weak, actually, even though this movie falsely raises the impression of being gory and trashy. The gory bits are always over in the blink of an eye, the lighting is poor and – if you watch it in slow motion – the make up looks quite amateurish.

It must tell you something I went in thinking I haven't seen it, but hold on. Upon every scene and development it suddenly came back. 'Xtro II' is an unrelated sequel to 'Xtro' that's nothing more than a workable, but fairly lacklustre low-budget 'Aliens' clone. The chest bursting scene is a prime example. Well it seemed to share a lot of common ground with another film (which is a lot better) from the same year 'Shadowzone'. Anyhow I didn't find it to be as terrible as many to make out to be, but however it's just too formulaic to rise above its limited scope. Still I was entertained. The conceptual idea is something imaginative (exploring an alternate dimension and bringing something back), but director/writer Harry Bromley Davenport decides to stick with the copy and paste clichés and usual plot mechanisms. Everything is straight-forward (alien stalks and blandly picks off team one by one), rather than the bizarre and unconventional nature of the original.The acting by Jan-Michael Vincent (uninterested), Paul Koslo (over-the-top) and Tara Buckman is reasonably so-so, but their character's are poorly conceived. Nicholas Lea (best known as Alex Krycek in the 'X-Files' TV series) shows up in support. Not helping was that the script was shamelessly lousy in it's supposed toughness. The minor sets look cheap, and the misty blue lighting tries for moody atmospherics in the same-old set-pieces and the score is forcibly clunky. Pacing can stall too much. There's a little bit of splatter, but nothing truly worthwhile. Director Davenport's touch lacks the firepower, despite the weaponry on show. While the story is predictably colourless, the repetitive visionary on screen doesn't fair up any better. The alien doesn't look too bad, but there's a striking resemblance to the way its shot with 'Alien'.I don't think it's the pits, just too familiar and unfocused to be much effective.

XTRO II: THE SECOND ENCOUNTER is a truly dismal film. It is about as subtle as a thief in the night wearing a suit made of pots and pans. XTRO II is such a blatant rip-off of the ALIEN films (ALIENS mostly) that it becomes somewhat embarrassing. The pacing is just as bad. There is so much walking, searching and waiting for the "alien" that I fast-forwarded through much of the film. There's just nothing happening. The few times the creature decides to show up, I was extremely nonplussed. The downtime, and there is plenty, is occupied with washed up actors and soon to be washed up actors who deliver their lines based on dubious scientific precepts badly. It has been a long time since Jan Micheal Vincent has been on 'Airwolf', and has seemingly carved a niche for himself in bad science fiction and soft-core porn flicks.In conclusion, skip this film. Do anything else: learn another language, smash your toes with a claw hammer, watch the original ALIEN. Laying in an empty bathtub staring at the ceiling is more productive than actually viewing this film. I have not seen the first XTRO, nor have I seen XTRO 3 (!), nor do I plan to. How do films like this get made? And if given the chance, wouldn't most people make a better film? I don't know and I don't care. XTRO II is an abject waste of time. 1/10.