I was worried that Steven McKay’s follow up to Sam Raimi’s original pulp tribute would stink, but thankfully it’s a very good sequel. It not only keeps to much of the formula from the first film, but increases the pulp aspects of the story. There’s the return of an old villain, a mad scientist, a super secret weapon, underground lairs, intrepid reporters, and our dark anti-hero who mainly keeps to himself. Arnold Vosloo takes over for Liam Neeson as the character of Peyton Westlake, who is now living in a large underground subway.
During the nights, he destroys operations from local gang members, busting them, but seizing their narcotics to re-sell to other dealers, thus allowing him to fund his research. Westlake is trying to break the ninety nine minute limit on his skin masks and is reaching dead ends. That is until he discovers another scientist is working on a similar formula for burn victims, and may have found a way to make the skin masks permanent. The writers justify Vosloo’s replacing Neeson offering the idea that Westlake changed his appearance to remain incognito. Which more than makes up for the fact that Robert Durant is suddenly back and in mint condition considering he blew up in the first film.
Durant’s big plan is to take over the city once more by using a mad scientist to build a massive weapon that he plans to sell to the US military, allowing him to re-build his empire. Larry Drake is still as slimy and vicious as ever, never really missing a beat in his return to the character. Vosloo is a very good replacement for Neeson, playing a much more subdued and dashing Westlake, countering Neeson’s more over the top average Joe qualities he brought to the role. Most of “Darkman II” revolves around Durant building an empire, while Westlake attempts to save the scientist who becomes the target of Durant’s violent tirade, stifling his efforts to advance his technology time and time again.
One really apparent flaws is that we’re never quite sure what Westlake’s motivation is as this character anymore. Does he want to end Durant’s reign of terror because he’s evil, or because he’s impeding his progress in advancing the skin technology? Is Westlake intent on saving the scientist’s widowed sister because he wants to protect her or get the research he left behind? Despite its flaws, “Darkman II” is a very respectable and entertaining successor that doesn’t quite match the maniacal tone from Raimi’s film, but sticks true to the neo-pulp whimsy that the first film paid tribute to. It’s a really good continuation to Darkman’s journey, and one I had a lot of fun with.