Highlander II: The Quickening

Highlight Film | Release Date: November 1, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

31	METASCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Kevin Thomas

It makes clearer much that was so vague in the original; it even jokes about how confusing its premise is. In short, audiences who made the first film successful enough to warrant a second will be getting a bit more for their money. Read full review

Rita Kempley

With its fancifully moldering sets and technical effects, Highlander 2 is little more than a barbarous arena, a Conanistic return to paganism for those among us who still laugh at violence. Read full review

Mark Caro

Mulcahy has toned down the fancy, self-conscious camerawork of the original, which he also directed, and pushes the story forward with enough flash and pop to divert viewers from the shaky premises. [01 Nov 1991, p.F]

John Stanley

Someday, one hopes, Mulcahy will make his masterpiece blend of action and story. Until then, Highlander 2 will have to be considered a steppingstone. [01 Nov 1991, p.D7]

EmpireKim Newman

No plot, no real story, no point really. Read full review

R.L. Shaffer

The problem is – the film plays more like a brainstorm exercise than a feature length film. There are gobs of great ideas here, but none of them connect in the way fans likely wanted. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Audiences unfamiliar with the first film will be hard put to follow the action as it incoherently hops about in time and space. Read full review

Louis Black

The acting is terrible,with Connery, at his lowest common denominator, stealing the show. For those of you who worry that MTV video art will destroy cinema, the ineptitudes of this film vividly detail the radical difference in forms. It sucks. But it would have made a great comic book. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Highlander 2 is beautiful. But it's largely incoherent. The film is desperately overplotted; events and years rush by and pile up like cars in an interstate wreck. It's also terribly overexplained. Read full review

Matthew Gilbert

The dullest and shoddiest action-adventure flick of the year, with only a few cute Sean Connery moments to rescue it from total, sheer and utter bogosity. [01 Nov 1991, p.29]

Juan Carlos Coto

The plot gimmick not only makes the sequel unworthy of Highlander, it nearly destroys the charm of the original, which was its worldliness, the idea that these guys were chosen humans. [05 Nov 1991, p.C7]

H.J. Kirchhoff

Unless you are a Connery fan - or a special effects fan, or perhaps a broadsword-fighting fan - the profoundly silly plot sinks this film beyond redemption. [04 Nov 1991]

Staff (Not Credited)

Leaden, laden with effects, short on imagination. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Highlander 2: The Quickening is the most hilariously incomprehensible movie I've seen in many a long day - a movie almost awesome in its badness. Read full review