Highlander 2: The Quickening

Highlander 2: The Quickening is the sequel to the 1986 cult-hit “Highlander” and begins in 1999 with Connor MacLeod, now the last Highlander around and, hence, mortal, sparing the planet Earth from a dismal future by creating a shield which covers the globe, protecting it from the deteriorating ozone layer. At the time he is considered a hero, but 25 years on the shield has become the bane of everyone’s life: gone is the sun and all that is left is heat and humidity, resulting in the lowest morale the planet’s population has ever felt.

While trying to get on with his life until the time when he dies, Connor, now an old man in 2024, gets the feeling that things aren’t going to go to plan as an old enemy, Katana, wants to finish him off once and for all, first by sending two of his henchmen and then when they prove ineffective, he makes the trip to Earth himself. As he says, “It’s so hard to get good staff these days”.

On his own and in desperate need of assistance, Connor knows that all he has to do is call on Ramirez for a helping hand, as can especially be seen in his final scene. They are brought together by the Quickening – the eponymous, magical power which unities Ramirez and MacLeod in a way that can never be broken. This “Quickening” is highlighted early on in a flashback to old times 500 years ago when the pair were exiled from the planet Zeist.

The love interest is provided by Louise, a young girl who is part of the Cobalt team, a bunch of latter-day eco-warriors who are out to destroy the shield and restore the planet to the way it was.

One good reason for doing this is given in chapter 16, “The Ultraviolet Radiation above the shield is normal”, in which that information is revealed to Connor and the ozone layer is starting to repair itself. It seems strange that they had to wait until 2024 to discover that as a friend of mine from university who did an undergraduate and a post-graduate degree in Chemisty told me three years ago that this is already happening. Still, the film doesn’t like to concern itself with technicalities like that…

If it sounds like this film completely ignores the story told in the first outing, then you’ve read it correctly.

The casting of the film is very good in the most part, as much as they are required to ham it up for this sequel. In addition to Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod (of the clan MacLeod – a phrase uttered several times in film one, but never in film two) and Sean Connery as the Spanish swordsman, Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, the two best performances come from the newly-formed partnership of The Shield Corporation.

Michael Ironside, as Katana, spends the film being sarcastic and doing his best Jack Nicholson impression and the always-welcome John C. McGinley fulfils his usual simple-minded and easily-led character role in the form of the TSC’s boss, Blake, until Katana makes a takeover bid.

Virginia Madsen, sister of Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr. Blonde) plays the love interest, such that the part is and Allan Rich is Dr. Alan Neyman who created the shield with Connor in the first place, but certainly isn’t reaping the rewards from it.

What is most disappointing about this release is that it is not in widescreen. Then again, the theatrical version of this film, as this is, has never been available on video in widescreen. Even on NTSC Laserdisc this was only released in pan-and-scan until May 1997 when a 109-minute director’s cut was released, known as the “Renegade Version” and as well as being widescreen, it came equipped with Dolby Digital AC3 sound and the film itself was drastically re-edited version with 19 minutes of new footage and several scenes from in the theatrical release either deleted or rearranged. The disc also features an audio commentary by the director and producers, plus trailers, behind-the-scenes photos, production sketches and publicity stills and a 22-minute documentary on the making of the “Renegade Version” including new interviews with Russell Mulcahy and some of the cast.

Widescreen for this film is definitely a must since it was shot in a hard-matte variant known as “J-D-C Scope” also used in Rob Roy, Rambo 3 and Return Of The Jedi. If the film is shown in anything less than it’s intended 2.35:1 ratio then you can only lose picture quantity, which is a shame as the film is chock-full of special effects and fantastic visuals. This makes a mockery of the description on Pioneer’s own Website that “This Laser Disc release is a Director approved full frame release as per the theatrical release”, which is quite frankly, absolute rubbish.

The quality of the picture itself varies from average to grainy in the most parts, but on occasion it can be very good. This suggests that it is the video quality that is at fault and the pan-and-scanning process just zooms in on the video transfer thus magnifying any defects in the print and making the picture look very unbalanced. Hence, the transfer from print to laserdisc is as good as it’ll get and only looks sharp and excellent during the opening credits which are letterboxed very close to 2.35:1 up until the moment after the title appears when they become exactly 2.35:1, presumably to cope with the credits which occupy the extreme left and right of the screen.

Two things that are worth shouting about are firstly, the excellent surround sound which is given a workout in the battle scenes, any sounds of the shield above the city as it crackles and spits back at the planet’s population. Two other elements also worthy of note. Firstly, the scene where Connor and Ramirez give new meaning to the phrase “drive-by shooting” as they infiltrate the shield complex. Secondly, the number of chapters supplied here as there are 38 spread throughout the film’s 86 minute running length.

One missed opportunity was to encode side 2 in CAV, considering that side 1 lasts 57 minutes, leaving 29 minutes for the flip-side. There is a good sidebreak though, as Blake gets Neyman out of the way with a click of his fingers which immediately signals the end of side one.

Overall, I liked this film despite the fact that it barely receievd any critical acclaim. The whole film plays very much with it’s tongue firmly placed in its cheek and when compared to the first film, it could almost be described as “Carry On Highlander”. Sadly though, the fact that the film lacks the widescreen treatment far outweights the sound and chaptering qualities – and as such I cannot recommend it.

Perhaps Pioneer should have only released this film if they had been able to get the rights to the “Renegade Version”, as when it comes to the number of aspect ratio formats that the theatrical version is available in, unfortunately “there can be only one” – and it’s not widescreen…

Film: 3/5
Picture: 1/5
Sound: 5/5

Check out Pioneer‘s Web site.

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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