When Hollow Man was released in 2000, the reception was negative to say the least. However, there were redeeming qualities about it to be certain. A lot appreciated the special-effects, including myself. In-fact, it received an Academy Award nomination for them. Kevin Bacon even offered a decent performance. Unfortunately, before long, the film transitioned into a dysfunctional and incoherent horror film. Before the credits rolled, it lost almost everything that was worthwhile about it and traded it for mediocrity.
The movie had a ninety-five million dollar budget, which seems astronomical when you consider that Hollow Man isn’t the kind-of movie that you’d expect to have much of a backing. As said, while the movie didn’t receive high marks, it did manage to make twice its budget.
I don’t know how much money should be considered for advertising and that jazz. I mean, The Lone Ranger successfully matched its budget, but is considered more than a box-office flop because they also spent over one-hundred million for marketing.
Either way, I can’t imagine that it was so much to find the logic in there being a sequel released direct-to-video. The film industry does this a lot, even with movies that were technically a success. (American Psycho 2 and Butterfly Effect 2 and 3.)
The only difference between them and Hollow Man is the fact that Hollow Man’s concept actually seemed sufficient for a sequel.
Nevertheless, and for whatever reason behind it, they eventually did in-fact make a direct-to-video sequel to Hollow Man.
Hollow Man 2 is a science-fiction horror film directed by Claudio Fah, perhaps known for his later movie, The Hole. (Not the one with Keira Knightley.) The movie stars Peter Facinelli, Laura Regan, as well as Christian Slater. I don’t know much about Facinelli, however, Laura Regan actually appeared in Dead Silence and How To Be a Serial Killer. While neither of those movies were tremendous, I took enjoyment in both of them.
It is based on the very first draft of the first film, and finds itself deciding against everyone of the few redeeming qualities about the first film. For starters, while Kevin Bacon’s character wasn’t exactly brilliant in-terms of portrayal, there was a certain amount of wit and depth to the character in-comparison to what we usually see in horror movies. Unlike the first film, Hollow Man 2 starts out as a nonsensical horror-film and never really pokes its head out from the hole.
The characters come across without much in the way of flushing out, a detective and a female scientist with oh-so precious information about something or another. Meanwhile, the military is trying to them and a mysterious ghostlike man wandering around wreaking havoc.
The characters feel cookie-cutter and their acting doesn’t have a lot of heart in it.
All of this is certainly be expected when you consider that the movie had a decreased budget, but it is still saddening to see. The special-effects and neat looking transformations done by the invisible man have been completely discarded. It isn’t even the idea that the special-effects are terrible, because that could be worked around through wit and creativity.
There has certainly been other “invisible man” films that have done more with less, but this movie manages to do remarkably less than what the original film did. There is no fun to be had, and it just seems like a bad horror film with invisibility serving as nothing more than a minor wrinkle in the fabric.
In conclusion, not only does Hollow Man 2 fail at fixing some of the problems that were had about the first film, it actually takes all of the redeeming qualities that made it interesting in the first place. It’s a common-practice in sequels to take what was loved about the original and inflate it. Hollow Man 2 seems to take everything that I hated about it and magnified it a few times over.
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