Bullet Points: Xtro II: The Second Encounter
I freaking love a good Aliens rip-off! If I had an endless supply of money I would spend the next ten yeas developing a franchise about a group of mercenary spec ops guys in the vein of The Expendables. I wouldn’t have all the legends like Sly does but I’d cast a whole bunch of guys who could legitimately kick an ass or two before dying in a memorable fashion. That is really all I want from my Aliens rip-off. The whole reason I even watched Xtro II is because I googled “movies that rip off Aliens” and it appeared to be a consensus top 3. Let’s just see about that….
Synopsis: A group of scientists discover and send a team into an alternate dimension. When the team is attacked and only one member returns, she begins to exhibit terrible symptoms that unleash a killer creature into the facility. Locked into the building with a murderous monster, the remaining scientists and a team of mercenaries try to survive long enough to escape from the bunker before it self-destructs.
- Sequel: I started Xtro 2 having never seen the first film in the franchise. I wasn’t worried much about my lack of knowledge, however, because I read that this movie doesn’t keep much from the first film and almost completely treads a new path. I saw some good things about the first movie but this one only has an IMDB rating of 3.1. That’s usually not a good sign.
- Strike Team: The one surviving scientist returns through the portal and might as well have just coughed AIDS all over everyone. She is clearly sick with something and yet no one thinks to quarantine her before she unleashes some serious shit all over that place. They eventually call in a strike team in order to rescue the other scientists who are still in the other dimension. The team barely makes it into the bunker before the creature begins killing people and their rescue mission turns into a mission to survive.
- Ain’t nobody got time for that: Not only are they trying not to get killed by this other-worldly monster, but now the entire bunker is about to be wiped off the map. You could easily say that this movie “borrowed” a great many things from Aliens. The whole countdown to death thing isn’t original to Aliens, of course, but it isn’t the other noticeable similarity…
- That gun from that one movie: I’m talking about that giant gun! You know the one that Vasquez and Drake carried around in Aliens? Somehow the makers of Xtro 2 got a hold of a prop that looks remarkably similar. It’s cool too because they treat it like it’s a big deal. The leader of the strike team even wields it with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. If he had been wearing a leather jacket he would have nigh invincible!
- Damn you slow: Besides for the creature’s complete lack of dexterity, the speed at which it moves is probably its biggest flaw. The fact that it kills anyone is incredible. To be honest, slowly sneaking up on its victims is much easier when its small but as it eats and grows to be large it gets harder to move and the going is much slower.
- The doctor is in: The team of scientists call in Dr. Shepherd. He was apparently the only man who survived the events of the first meeting with the creatures which is total bullshit because the character wasn’t even in the first movie! Like I said, I didn’t watch the first movie but I can read a cast overview and I don’t see Jan-Michael Vincent or anyone named Dr. Shepherd anywhere in sight. Lucky for the crew of Xtro 2, Vincent had been preparing to turn over his lab coat for an assault rifle because his presence pretty much single handedly saves the people from being eaten alive.
Why would anyone ever want to go through a shady looking portal into another dimension? I’d rather sit around, eat Cheetos, and find more movies that remind me of Aliens.
- I love it when all the scientists start getting angry at one another and begin shouting random science-sounding words.
- Splitting up is never a good idea.
- The most cringe-worthy moment is when one of the strike team guys tells a joke about the World Trade Center blowing up. Ouch…
The Verdict: Xtro II: The Second Encounter wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. It certainly doesn’t deserve a 3.1. It is by no means a work of art but it does have a few things going for it. None of the characters are too dumb. You know how there are always really stupid people in movies like these? Well, Xtro II is essentially a bunch of smarty scientists who actually come up with some good ideas on how to survive. They have a few military goons with them too but even they aren’t too annoying. The massive gun looked awesome but I would have preferred the mercenaries to be wearing something a little more military-looking. The movie does take way too long to show the creature or any of its devastation but the same could be said for Alien. Sorry… this movie isn’t handled anything like Alien. Xtro II: The Second Encounter is one of those movies that you should watch late night with a few beers and some nostalgia for Aliens rip-offs. I’ll probably never watch it again but it wasn’t a total waste of time.
“The doctor is in: The team of scientists call in Dr. Shepherd. He was apparently the only man who survived the events of the first meeting with the creatures which is total bullshit because the character wasn’t even in the first movie!”
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Hey, dude, you obviously didn’t get it. X-tro 2 is designed to be something like “twilight zone” or “The X Files”. In other words, each X-tro movie is independent of the others. Since X-tro 2 has nothing to do with the first film, it has its own background. In the prehistory of X-tro 2, Ron Shepard was already sent to the parallel universe. We have not seen this moment because it is part of the prehistory of X-tro 2 and this moment is not shown in X-tro 1, also not show in X-tro 3. X-tro 2 have his one story line. So if we must develop story line of X-tro 2 “second encounter”, we will put “second encounter” like movie part : 2 and we will show movie 1 ho will contain the Ron Shepard story travel in parallel universe.
Where you read the name of the main character Ron Shepard, I meant Shepherd. I did not write his name correctly.
Ron is right. But Shepherd wasn’t.
The Verdict: Xtro II: The Second Encounter wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. It certainly doesn’t deserve a 3.1. It is by no means a work of art but it does have a few things going for it. None of the characters are too dumb. You know how there are always really stupid people in movies like these? Well, Xtro II is essentially a bunch of smarty scientists who actually come up with some good ideas on how to survive. They have a few military goons with them too but even they aren’t too annoying. The massive gun looked awesome but I would have preferred the mercenaries to be wearing something a little more military-looking. The movie does take way too long to show the creature or any of its devastation but the same could be said for Alien. Sorry… this movie isn’t handled anything like Alien. Xtro II: The Second Encounter is one of those movies that you should watch late night with a few beers and some nostalgia for Aliens rip-offs. I’ll probably never watch it again but it wasn’t a total waste of time.
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Yes! I also think that X-tro 2 is not that bad! He has some very good ideas that I personally would have developed if I had worked on this film. I would definitely do a remake of this movie, only with a more budget.
One of these ideas is a journey into a parallel universe! This trip was later used in Half-Life the game.
About the Huge weapons in the X-tro 2 (the same ones that Vasquez and Drake carried in Aliens 2) were better designed and displayed than they were shown in Aliens 2. In Aliens 2, these weapons were very vaguely displayed – there was no detail focus on them.
About the creature design- you may laugh, but in Xtro 2 i like some things on creature design more than Alien Xenomorph design.
About Xtro 2 the creature abilities – i think his low speed is not accidental. I think the creators thought it would be Xenomorph similar in feel, but different in combat skills and capabilities. This creature is the opposite of Xenomorph abilities, where the Xenomorph is fast and easily mobile but easily vulnerable. The creature in X-tro 2 is slow but very resistant to damage ( they kill him many times (especially the explosion in the elevator shaft) but the creature always came back!). Unlike Xenomorph where he relies on speed, ambush and backlash, the X-tro 2 creature fights openly. He is slow, cumbersome, but also highly durable. At the end of the film, before Dr. Shepherd blew up the creature with a rocket, he emptied the whole huge weapon arsenal against the creature but creature was still alive! By comparison, Xenomorph creature dies barely touched by the first bullet from a this large weapon.
And also that X-tro 2 creature is very strong as well. With a single blow, it broke a piece of concrete wall! I haven’t seen Alien Xenomorph do this!
So I think the creators of Xtro 2 have given a lot of thought to this project! He has potential!
Thanks for the comments! I really enjoyed reading them and it seems you have a deep love for the film.
” I really enjoyed reading them”
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Ha-ha-ha-ha thanks man. I’m glad! And I thank you for making this article dedicated to Xtro 2. Which was done with respect.
I just was worried if I’m make spam with so many comments, one after another but i always forget mentioned something that was in my mind. 🙂 Even now! 😉 But i will not spam anymore.
But yes, it’s like love. You felt it right! But maybe not specifically X-tro 2, but the idea for military, space sci-fi. You know – soldiers, secret military bases/facilities, starships, battles and Alien Xenomorph like creatures. At the first when i watching X-tro when i was at very young, a child, more specifically, I had difficulty accepting it. There was something depressing and cold about him. It’s just like a cold murder without love. Just murder. Like murder without motive. Just of love for violence, you know. It’s weird how the monster gutted that woman. It wasn’t like Xenomorph Alien where he came out fast. Painful, but fast. X-tro monster came out slowly and very painfully. This thing tore this woman apart so brutally and slowly. So violently. It was disturbing. The very feeling of the film is like that- so violently. I remember I felt this back then when I was watching X-tro 2 for the very first time. And I didn’t like it. But maybe I was drawn to the idea of Alien Xenomorph like creature. So I gave it more and more chances and after all, here I am today, when I watch this movie almost every day. You know – not the whole thing, because I know it by heart, but I watch individual moments from it over and over again.
In fact, similar like you, I had lost his tracks. And I found a hard time to find him. Nowadays it is easier to find him ( and almost everything else). Even on Google you can find his posters by writing his name.
But just years ago, the beginning of the I-net, was difficult. Many things have not yet been uploaded to the web.
Because I watched it on videotape as a kid. Maybe 16-17 years later, when the Inter-Net time came I started looking for him. And for a period of several years I did not find him. And then accidentally I found him. I couldn’t believe it! I was crazy with happiness. It took me days to download the movie. Back then, everything download for days. And when in the middle of the night I got out of bed I saw the tracker showing the movie was finally downloaded! Again I was crazy with happiness. But this was not the X-tro I was looking for. It was the first X-tro movie. Hell, I was so disappointed! Not because I was against watching something new related to the X-tro series. But because I longed to see that old like Xenomorph Alien movie again. So i continue searching. And the rest you can guess – in the end I found him.
But I still think the X-tro is underrated. It has something of its own – its own original radiance. Back there, so many movies were plagiarized by Alien. I didn’t like them, and I didn’t give them any more chances. Because they were really flat made just for money or on a elementary Alien fan base. But X-tro was different. He contained more. I respected even creators decision to get the alien out of victim’s chest just like Xenomorph. Damn, it was a completed chest bursting scene just like Xenomorph Alien creatures do! They had made this creature be a parasite, just like Xenomorph Alien and I loved the idea. As I mentioned, the creature has its own unique handwriting. His behavior was pure, specifically, we can analyze him. In most Alien-based movies, the monster was a mess, nothing specific, with no clear behavior, in the end you can’t understand how this creature behaved. Xtro has its own attractive darkness.And he even gave me something to think about. For example, what did Ron Shepherd see in the parallel universe? If we do this script in a movie what will we see back there in that parallel universe? Another example – what was this woman who appeared on the screen at the end of the film ? She looked like the woman from whom the alien came out. I couldn’t understand that moment. Was this woman still back there in that parallel universe? But if so, how was she there after she died. If that woman was not the same, then who was she and what was she doing in a parallel universe? Maybe she was on the first team – Shepherd’s team caught there in that place? And interestingly, she was illuminated by red light, which shows us that the light in that dimension / or planet / is red, not blue, as we can be mistaken because of the recording, when at the beginning of the film the travelers showed on their cameras. Everything looked blue on those cameras there, but in fact it was probably red except blue.
p.s.
Oh, sorry, I made new spam! 😀