A giant octopus takes up home in the New York City East River. It immediately starts killing people. A Harbour Patrol cop then has serious trouble convincing his superiors that there is a giant killer mollusk living nearby.
The storyline for Octopus II is yet another that uses the clichéd Jaws (1975) template plot. Giant sea creature kills locals, a policeman knows it's out there but his superiors don't believe him, while politicians think it'll get in the way of their own plans. But let's not get carried away. This movie is seriously far removed from the quality of that Spielberg classic. However, what can be said in its favour is that it is at the very least better than the original film which focused on a boring action-thriller plot on a submarine. The octopus was hardly in it. This movie at least brings the creature more into proceedings – there's even some decent physical effects at times too – and the NYC harbour setting is much better too. There's no actual connection between the films beyond a giant octopus and this one doesn't even bother to come up with an excuse for the gigantic size of the title creature. Although, frankly, this hardly matters.
Unfortunately, it's still pretty far from a decent movie. It does begin reasonably well, including an agreeably nuts dream sequence with the monster climbing the statue of liberty. But sadly it can't maintain its relative promise – these types of films seldom do – and gets badly bogged down with a disaster movie final third where a bus of school kids get trapped in a underwater tunnel. It gets kinda boring to be honest, and these movies should really know better by now that the focus should really be on the monster. As far as acting, effects and originality are concerned, it's strictly as limited on all fronts as you would expect. So, all-in-all not good, but better than the original.
The storyline for Octopus II is yet another that uses the clichéd Jaws (1975) template plot. Giant sea creature kills locals, a policeman knows it's out there but his superiors don't believe him, while politicians think it'll get in the way of their own plans. But let's not get carried away. This movie is seriously far removed from the quality of that Spielberg classic. However, what can be said in its favour is that it is at the very least better than the original film which focused on a boring action-thriller plot on a submarine. The octopus was hardly in it. This movie at least brings the creature more into proceedings – there's even some decent physical effects at times too – and the NYC harbour setting is much better too. There's no actual connection between the films beyond a giant octopus and this one doesn't even bother to come up with an excuse for the gigantic size of the title creature. Although, frankly, this hardly matters.
Unfortunately, it's still pretty far from a decent movie. It does begin reasonably well, including an agreeably nuts dream sequence with the monster climbing the statue of liberty. But sadly it can't maintain its relative promise – these types of films seldom do – and gets badly bogged down with a disaster movie final third where a bus of school kids get trapped in a underwater tunnel. It gets kinda boring to be honest, and these movies should really know better by now that the focus should really be on the monster. As far as acting, effects and originality are concerned, it's strictly as limited on all fronts as you would expect. So, all-in-all not good, but better than the original.