Cyborg 2 (1993)

Let me get right to it, I have no idea why people LIKE this more then Van Damme's film. At best this is alright but it isn't that much better. What I mean by that is, this film doesn't have a lot of action, which it should have.The design of the world is kind of cool but it's not that inspiring, it feels a bit cheaper then the first film which honestly felt a bit more convincing, and the first film had an edgier look. But for it's budget they did an OK job.Angelina is pretty good in her first film roll; she is how they say, a natural, she plays Cash Reese, as a cyborg (but really a ROBOT because she was not born, she was manufactured). This film really gets confused on that, she is a MACHINE built by the Pinwheel corporation. Ellis Kotas is good as Colton Ricks a human soldier who protects her from the corporation that manufactured her and now want her dead or in this case disassembled. Because of this, she leans they want to use her to infiltrate some other robotics corporation and injected her with a liquid explosive code-named "Glass Shadow", Mercy played by Jack Palance is, I think a human augmented with cybernetic parts that was a naval captain and has escaped from Pinwheel a couple of years before. Anyway he tips off Cash(Jolie) about her fate, she and Colt make a daring escape from Pinwheel.I first seen this on late night TV back on Sci-fi channel in 2004, at first I was kind of EXCITED to see a sequel to the first Cyborg, but after, I just thought it was OK, I felt a little LET DOWN by it. Then by a stroke of luck back in 2007 I found it on DVD at a flea market so I bought it because I had forgotten mostly about it. I brought it home and put it in and found it about the same, it's just ALRIGHT.I do think the movie has it's MOMENTS but this isn't my favorite, I still enjoy the first film better, it was made BETTER and it was shorter (the original cut not the director's cut), and the action scenes are a lot more FUN, you get more of an ADRENALINE RUSH from the first film, this one has very improvised fights with weak choreography which isn't that much fun. But it's serviceable at best. Overall, a very weak sequel to the original Cyborg film, it was OK, I DON'T HATE IT, I think it can be watched ONCE AND A WHILE but I don't see how this film is WAY better.I give it a 3/10. It's just alright, but MORE care should have went into this, but I do think it's WAY better than the third film. However if your curious about it? I do recommend to give it a look, it's not bad, it's OK.

Although set in the same world as the Van Damme original, CYBORG 2: GLASS SHADOW is a low rent, low budget B-movie that has very little to do with the story, look, or feel of that action film. Instead this is a movie that models itself closely on BLADE RUNNER, with a dark and moody look of shadowy buildings, rain-lashed streets, and fluorescent lighting.The erstwhile hero of the piece is a youthful Elias Koteas, who finds himself on the run with a young female cyborg when she's assigned a suicide bombing mission. Angelina Jolie plays the cyborg, which will be the most interesting thing for today's viewers; this was her debut adult role and she's surprisingly decent playing a robot conflicted with human emotions. This is a Jolie before she was encumbered with extensive tattoos and plastic surgery; at 17 years old she brings a breath of freshness to her role, one which would be missing just a few years later in her career.Sadly, the usual shortcomings of the B-movie genre are here: action scenes ruined by poor choreography, a clichéd story, poor dialogue, and a general cheapness to the production. Koteas gives an assured performance but it's not enough to save the film. There are supporting parts for familiar players like Ric Young, Arnie double Sven-Ole Thorsen, and the underrated Billy Drago playing a typical villain. Jack Palance is also here, albeit briefly, chewing up the scene in an over the top cameo. Fans of robotic stuff will find the sci-fi elements kept to a minimum although there's at least one good fight scene to enjoy when Koteas and Drago go mano-a-mano late on in the proceedings.

Earth, 2074. The field of cybernetics is dominated by two corporations – Kobayashi Electronics & Pinwheel Robotics. The execs over at Pinwheel plan to destroy Kobayashi by sending in Casella 'Cash' Reese, a female cyborg containing 'Glass Shadow' (a powerful plastic explosive), to a conference & detonating her. With the help of Mercy, a mysterious cyborg who projects himself onto TV screens, Cash & her human combat trainer Colton Ricks escape the compound & flee across the city. With Pinwheel troopers & a psychotic bounty hunter after them, they attempt to make it to freedom.CYBORG was a low-budget, mindless post-apocalyptic martial-arts flick that featured Jean-Claude Van Damme taking on numerous thugs & trying to rescue a female cyborg. It became a cult film & inspired two sequels.While the first film was nothing more than a series of watered-down heroics that had almost no plot, "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" is the complete opposite, a futuristic sci-fi film with an intelligent storyline & a Cyberpunk atmosphere. It is also the rare occasion where a sequel proves to be better than the original."Glass Shadow" is set sometime after the events of the first film, although the continuity is somewhat screwed up (society had collapsed in the original & a nasty plague had swept through the world). The society here is akin to a corporate-run city, nothing like the original (there are a few clips taken from the original shown on TV screens). The storyline is quite simple – female cyborg is created as a walking bomb, said cyborg tries to flee her fate, her creators send in bounty hunters to catch her – but done in an intelligent manner.The acting is superb, with due credit given to Jack Palance, who gives one of his best performances, as the cyborg warrior / poet who appears on TV screens like a ghost; Elias Koteas, who plays his role in deadpan fashion & Tracy Walter shines in a cameo as a doctor. Angelina Jolie, in the days before she became a superstar, gives a robotic performance as the cyborg Cash, although this fits in with the rest of the film. The visual effects in this film are excellent, most notably the opening scene with a cyborg being built, some prosthetics work & an exquisite model city.

It's a kinder, gentler Cyborg movie with a love story. Awww. It's not as bad as it sounds. The action, when it is there, is decent and Jack Palance, Elias Koteas, and Angelina Jolie are always dependable. It's the fact that this is a sequel to the terrible Jean Claude Van Damme film, or is that the capper to the Masters of the Universe trilogy? I'm still confused about that. Either way, there was really no need for this movie. What was there a need for? Angelina Jolie. She may play an assassin robot that can explodes mid-coitus, but, what a way to go and even though this is her first movie, she still has the presence that made her an award winner.