Film Review – Scanners II – The New Order (Blu-ray)

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When David Cronenberg makes a movie normally you don’t really expect a sequel and if you do it won’t be directed by him.  Scanners is a film that arguably didn’t need a sequel, even if you do take the ending as being a teaser for the continuation of the story.  I’d argue it’s not, it’s more of a shocker to get you thinking.  Whatever our thoughts on that subject Scanners II: The New Order exists, and while it may not be the worst sequel ever made, it’s also not up to the standard of the original.

Scanners II: The New Order once again starts with a lone Scanner, but this time he manages to live in society like a normal person.  Everything is going fine until he is caught up in a store robbery where his Scanner powers allow him to defend himself.  This catches the eye of the police commander who has been collecting Scanners as a secret army, with an aim to taking over the city.  As David escapes the clutches of the Commander he soon makes discoveries about his past, what his powers are and why he is important to the city.

Scanners II: The New Order is a good concept that in ways is weakened by the fact that it can’t live up to what Scanners was.  Where Scanners is quite cerebral and had subtexts about government control and the power of the mind, Scanners II: The New Order is more interested in the instant action and how Scanners are a weapon that can be used to create some nice gory effects.  This is entertaining and I would actually argue that the story is strong for the average eighties horror (although this was released in 1991, so close enough).  I’d also argue that the idea of a Scanners army is also a good idea, but it never really comes to fruition, though this is an element of the story and not a weakness of it.  It would have been interesting though to see an all-out Scanners battle, but maybe we get that in the third film? (Which I’m strangely enough going to review as well).

When it comes to the actors, David Hewlett is quite good as David Kellum the Scanner which the film focuses on.  He builds the character up as just being a small town guy in a big city, quite innocent in the way he just goes on with his life like he’s nothing special.  He is the total opposite of his main opponent Peter Drak played by Raoul Trujillo, who somewhat overacts at times as the Scanner who fully understands his power and relishes the way he can use it as a weapon.  Then of course we have the commander, played by Yvan Ponton who plays his role as the typical eighties bad guy, arrogant and megalomaniacal.  It’s fair to say that although some of the actors do portray their characters somewhat heavy with the cheese, but as a whole they get the job done.

Scanners II: The New Order may have flaws that are blatantly obvious and as a sequel to Scanners it is quite inferior it still is watchable and very typical of eighties horror.  The story doesn’t really take any risks in what it presents and sticks to a formula that you’ll see in many films of the time but it does add a few interesting titbits to the original story.  It could be argued that this is one for completest so they can have the Scanners trilogy, but I’d argue that would be quite a disservice to be fair.  Scanners II: The New Order can be watched without having to watch the first film and is quite easily picked up, in fact people who have not seen the original and don’t have high expectations may actually like it all the more.  As with the Scanners Blu-ray the Blu-ray release of the sequel has good picture quality and audio, but similar to the Basket Case trilogy release the sequels lack the special features that come on the first films disc.  This is a shame but I’m sure we can get over it.  Now onto reviewing the Scanners III: The Take Over Blu-ray.

Scanners II: The New Order is available on Blu-ray now courtesy of Second Sight.

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