Wednesday 25 June 2014

Black Scorpion II: Aftershock (1997)




















The vigilante crime fighter is back only this time she is also back on the force. This however does not stop her double life as the kinky fishnet wearing crime buster as she is called into action once more to stop two villains this time...yes two. The original concept was clearly a homage to more easy going comicbooks and the classic fun camp TV show Batman and Robin starring Adam West...albeit with a slightly adult edge. This time the shameless Batman rip off goes into full force as we get a Joker-esque bad guy and a female that transforms herself into a supervillainess in her very own tight kinky outfit ala Catwoman.

A female scientist is creating a machine that can predict and stop earthquakes on the west coast of the US. This gets sabotaged by the naughty LA Mayor who needs earthquakes because it brings in vital revenue for him from various sources. At the same time the leading female scientist gets injured or shell shocked (unsure really) during the meltdown of her machine and transforms herself into the supervillainess 'Aftershock' to wreak revenge on LA and Black Scorpion, yet strangely not the Mayor directly. Aftershock hires the assistance of petty criminal 'Gangster Prankster' to aid her with her plan to destroy LA with a massive quake.

So this time around as I already said the film really goes down the 60's Batman and Robin route with overall campness and silliness. Gone is the slightly adult theme of the first film (although there is still a small hint of tits n ass) as its replaced with the kind of daft lunacy you'd expect in a cartoon. Its like a blend of DC character rip offs and a Saturday morning cartoon for kids. The two main baddies are clearly heavily influenced by certain DC characters (The Joker, Two Face and Wonder Woman) and their main evil plot is so stupid it stands side by side with Shark Repellent Bat Spray.

Admittedly I did quite like Gangster Prankster as a villain due to his freaky twisted visage, slutty stripper girlfriend and playhouse lair. The whole concept is totally cliched and just slightly unoriginal but it does work for this movie (when do twisted evil clowns ever not work?). The villainess is the head baddie but doesn't really have much impact aside from having a really nice ass sealed up in latex. Her outfit is much more basic and cliched along with many other standard superhero designs but the fact she's a blonde with thigh high boots is obviously for the young male audience. Aside from that its business as usual with pretty much everything else really...same transforming Scorpionmobile with the same poor CGI effects, same lame looking punch ups, same attempts at humour and visual gags but amazingly the same cast also which does deserve kudos.

The whole thing descends into the same dull predictable formulaic plot process you have come to expect from superhero/action flicks. A loved one gets kidnapped, someone gets blackmailed into doing something against the hero, tip offs, inept police, police still against the main vigilante hero despite the good they are doing and a big showdown where everything gets sorted out with a nice neat bow on top. Yet there are still some nice moments, the sequence where Gangster Prankster gets his comeuppance is actually quite well done on a clearly small budget, and lets not forget the odd semi decent car wreck too.

The only real reasons to watch this Corman gem are for the insanely silly characters on display, some cool tacky effects, tight ass in tight latex and of course Black Scorpion fighting Aftershock in a pre-teens wet dream of tight ass in tight latex (and fishnets)...hell it was good enough for me! Not to be taken seriously and of course everyone involved knows just that, hence the film does work as a fun wacky tacky piece of superhero fluff just like the first, although not quite as good methinks.

6/10

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