A Delta Force unit is sent to an area of clashes between Russian forces and terrorists. The objective is to find and "bring home" a famous scientist who, in order to finance his experiments, has turned against his country. What the Deltas do not know is that that area is guarded by something very very dangerous that they never thought they would have to face..........
To begin with, it becomes apparent that there is no real common thread between this "Bats 2" and the previous "Bats": the only common element is the presence of genetically modified bats (however, the reasons for such mutations are different, although in one way or another they always center on the usual government projects). The stories are completely separate and different, unrelated to each other. The first film emerges as a good beast-movie: nothing exceptional, but, nevertheless, shot with a steady hand, without virtuosity, with some good suspenseful moments, some decent action sequences and tricks done partly with cgi and partly with the "old way" (so a good mixture of techniques that displeases no one). It also features a respectable cast (with a credible Lou Diamond Philips, something not repeated in the sequel, where the cast is about as bad as you can imagine). This second installment appears very crude and poor value (one could then consider it more of an action film than a full-blown horror film). The subject matter is business as usual; there is not even a twist that is one; it looks like a flat electroencephalogram. There are a lot of action scenes (actually there is constant fighting) but this in the long run tires one out, especially if such scenes are not very well done (for example, the ambush sequences by the locals, all strictly in balaclavas, are unquestionably ugly and badly done, actors falling like sacks of potatoes, slow-motion movements, blatantly blanks guns; one could prolong the list a lot, but it certainly does not seem the case to dwell on certain details, on such a saraband of sadness). As for the bats then, absolutely nothing is explained about their "presence": certainly one is not looking for a Piero Angela explanation, but perhaps for something a little more substantial and acceptable than the four seconds of the film devoted to such clarification. By intuition one arrives at the most logical conclusion: "monsters" created to make an area "inhospitable" to the enemy, so that it can be very easily controlled. The special effects related to the mutant bats are extremely poor: all the animations are done in mediocre CGI, which displeases to the highest degree (one then wonders why there are few night sequences, despite the type of animal featured in the film). Instead, noteworthy is the make-up of the bat victims: deep wounds can be seen (see medical officer severely wounded in the leg) and quite a lot of blood flows (the death of a Delta due to a landmine is noteworthy). Another disappointment is provided by the setting: that forest of mysterious and eerie does not even have the name, rather it looks like a tourist place for family Sundays. The dialogues represent, without a shadow of a doubt, the summa of crudeness and unintentionally comic (as well as the lowest point reached by the film in question): there are some to write on city walls: ... "We are Delta"; ... "If I had been there in Afghanistan before 9/11 everything would have been different." There are too many pearls to list below, but we could say that these alone would be enough to make even a very depressed person smile. Returning for a moment to the cast, one detects a "battery" of subjects one worse than the other: the first prize, however, deservedly goes to David Chokachi, already "admired" in Baywatch; his presence is a good guarantee for total lack of acting. Also noteworthy is the presence of "old" Tomas Arana, in the part of the Mad Doc on duty (if nothing else he tries to act, but unsuccessfully in this case). Certainly in the "killer bats" genre (in which we count discrete products such as "Wings in the Night," passable such as "Bats," watchable but without functioning brains such as "Vampire Bats"), this film has of merit the last useful place, and only because of the plot. All in all, a poor little film, to be seen only for compilation purposes in order to have in mind all the titles in the previously mentioned strand.
Review by Decker
