First of all in this review I would like you to meditate on the title for just a second(Darkman 2: The Return of Durant). If you have seen the first Darkman you would know that Durant dies in a fiery helicopter crash. But in this sequel somehow he survives with only a few barely noticeable scars. I was expecting at least third-degree burns but I let that go and focused on the movie as if the explosion never happened. Arnold Vosloo is the new Darkman and he does a fairly poor job at portraying him. Liam Neeson seemed to be a more powerful Darkman with extreme emotions. Arnold Vosloo seemed shallow and lacked the presence of Liam. Considering it's the second movie, I was expecting more action out of Darkman but there's virtually no action from Darkman till the end of the movie and Darkman has nothing very good to say through the entire movie. The plot was also dull and generic which really made me wanna yawn. Darkman 2: The Return of Durant is just a sorry cash-in sequel and a disgrace to the franchise.

Only very recently I found out there's a second - and even a third - Darkman movie available on the rental market. Another member of the horror forum on this website reviewed all three of them a couple of months ago, and it was through his thread and directions I found my way to "The Return of Durant" (part two) and "Die Darkman Die" (part three). Talk about anonymous releases! It's not too surprising, since the original Sam Raimi film was fairly successful and definitely showed sequel potential, but it's still weird the producers opted for such a modest and inconspicuous release. Anyway, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to track them down, but I was remotely interested in the first sequel because Larry Drake reprises his glorious role of the mega-malevolent but ultra-cool villain Robert G. Durant. Partly because he was one of the main attractions in the original but mostly because I was curious to see how exactly they would bring his character back from the death, since he died pretty nastily in a helicopter crash at the end of the first "Darkman". Here I was imagining possible scenarios where Durant would get cloned or perhaps even resurrected through using some of the advanced scientific research Peyton Westlake was researching, but nooooooooooooooo! The almighty Robert G. Durant awakes from a three year coma from one moment onto the other! How freaking unimaginative and in fact quite impossible if you remember the images of that helicopter crash. Darkman himself transformed from Liam Neeson into Arnold Vosloo (a horrible actor with the most random face) but you're not supposed to notice that and his whole romantic background with Frances McDormand suddenly vanished as well. Other than that, "Darkman II" carries on where Raimi's film finished, as Peyton Westlake still alters scientific research with prowling the crime-infested streets as an avenging angel. He finally found a partner who's able to help him with the fine-tuning of his synthetic skin development, but this doctor then gets killed by Durant and his accomplices because he's laboratory is the ideal factory to construct illegal weapons. More than reason enough for Darkman to go after Durant again and finish him off for good this time."Darkman II" isn't as disastrous as it looks, I have to admit. It's a textbook and completely unsurprising B-movie, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. There are several grotesquely absurd action scenes with big guns and nasty falls from great heights. This franchise has a thing with characters falling from heights, for sure! The stunts and make-up effects are obviously less impressive here than in the original, but the budget was restricted and director Bradford May indisputably isn't playing in the same league as Sam Raimi. The film's main trump is Larry Drake and, of course, his sadistic one-liners and grim facial expressions. The entire movie revolves around him, and that's quite logical since Arnold Vosloo is a terrible actor. B-movie beauty queen Kim Delaney is a joy to behold as well, but her share in the script is sadly too small. Not bad if you have an hour and a half to waste, but forget everything you know about the violent and comic-book styled original masterwork.

The first movie "Darkman", directed by Sam Raimi, was also already made in a B-movie kind of style but in the fun and comic book type of B-movie. The kind of style all Sam Raimi movies till some extend have in them. But this movie is just made in a bad B-movie kind of way, with some horrible dialog, lacking editing and simple camera compositions. It actually shows how uniquely talented Sam Raimi is, with his hard to copy style.And how is Durant still alive in this one? I remember that the helicopter crash from the first "Darkman" movie in which Durant died was one of the most fatal looking once out of movie history. It exploded like a balloon, with an enormous blast. No way that it's credible that anyone walked away from that one. But yet somehow had the bright idea for this sequel to let Durant return. And come on, he wasn't even the 'main' villain in the first "Darkman" movie but yet they show him in this movie as one of the biggest crime bosses in the country. But of course the Durant character is Larry Drake's greatest role and he is one of the bes movie villains out of recent movie history. So it didn't mind seeing Larry Drake reprise his role from the first movie, although I would had of course preferred a more creative solution to let his character return.The story as a whole was a disappointing aspect of the movie. I was shocked at how simple and without ambition it was. It somehow even features a group of Neo-Nazi's and a crazy professor. The most thrilling aspects in the movie are the recycled sequences from the first movie, in which Westlake takes over the identity of the henchman of Durant. What I did liked about the movie was that it showed more as a crime fighter with morals this time. It was not just a revenge movie this time.The movie and its characters are still all portrayed in an over-the-top comic book kind of way but it this time doesn't really work out as good as in the first movie, which is I think also partly due to the obvious lower budget of the movie.With this movie Arnold Vosloo shows he's a good actor, although his South African accent is too notable in the movie. It's good for most of his roles but just not suitable for Dr. Peyton Westlake. He is fine as Darkman though and he obviously carefully looked at how Liam Neeson played the character previously. Also Larry Drake shines again although he also was struggling with delivering some of the badly written dialog. Not even he could make it sound good and believable. Most of the other new characters are all mostly just disappointing ones, not to mention the horrible actors that portray them all.A disappointing movie that could had worked but just doesn't ever does so, which can for most part be blamed on the script.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a good sequel and better then the original in my humble opinion. While it may not be as flashy or visually spectacular as the 1st, i found it more entertaining and i preferred Arnold Vosolo over Liam Neeson, i just dig him more now Liam was awesome as Darkman, i just liked Vosolo's performance better. Larry Drake is awesome as the main villain once again, and, this was much more violent then the original. For a Direct to video film, this movie is top notch in a lot of aspects, i enjoyed Darkman but enjoyed this one a bit more, due to better pacing, and better performances (in my opinion). It's also a bit more interesting, and not so grim, plus Vosolo was kinda more mysterious and creepier then Neeson as well. The Direction is very good. Braford May does a very good job here, while not as flashy or as stylish as Sam Rami, he still has a few little camera tricks of his own, with slick camera angles, some cool POV shots of Darkman, and overall keeping the film at a very good pace!, very good job. There is a bit of gore. We get some bloody car crash victims,a few bloody gunshot wounds,nasty facial makeup,someone's teeth are knocked out with a golf club,harsh bloody beating a bloody gunshot wound to the head, and some bloody corpses. The Acting is very good. Arnold Vosolo is awesome here as Darkman, he is very convincing likable, had some cool one liners, and was a lot of fun to watch!, i really dig this guy. Larry Drake is also awesome here as the main villain, he is very menacing, very convincing, and was also a lot of fun to watch. Kim Delaney is hot and was decent as the reporter. Renee O'Connor is good with what she had to do, and was decent looking. Lawrence Dane is good as the quirky doctor. Jesse Collins is good and wished he didn't go so soon. Overall i highly recommend this sequel! ***1/2 out of 5(barely)