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Mimic 2
The Film :
Among all the so-so films that rode on the coattails of million dollar
publicity campaigns in 1997, there was a striking, low-publicity, underdog
thriller called Mimic. Starring Mira Sorvino in the lead, it
involved an insect scientist named Susan Tyler (Sorvino), who alters the
DNA of the common cockroach, to allow it to consume the source of, and
otherwise help defeat, a possible plague
developing in the sewers. Unfortunately, the DNA splice went haywire, and
as the months progressed, the cockroaches keep mutating into something a
lot larger...and more menacing. You can predict the ending, given that
there was reason enough for a sequel...however, when the sequel could only
be distributed as a direct-to-video release, can Mimic 2 be
as well done as the first? For
starters, let's go over the most important aspect of a satisfactory
sequel; you have to have some, remote connection to the original. With
that in mind, where's Sorvino? Not even her character, Dr. Tyler, is
present; the Mimic 2 story revolves around a bug-loving
school teacher named Remi (Alix Koromzay). The
story implies that the insects chose this particular spot because Remi
participated in the creation of these insects. Not according to the first
film; Susan Tyler helped create these insects, not anyone named "Remi."
Okay; whatever. On to the rest of the storyline... Conveniently,
the newest monster-insect has taken up residence just underneath Remi's
school, though the reasons for this seems a bit
shaky. You're left with Remi, after school hours, in a darkened school,
with two boys from her class (the reasons they are there are similarly
shaky), as they discover the insect threat, and try to escape from it.
Along the way, Remi must also deal with a hunky detective who's trying to
figure out why men close to Remi wind up dead --as you'd expect, he thinks
she may be a serial killer-- and the typical shady government guys, who
want to bury the evidence of this giant insect, by any means necessary. Plot
weakness aside, the actress playing Remi, Alix Koromzay, is extremely
likeable, in a Penelope Ann Miller sort of way (you get the feeling the
casting agent saw The Relic just prior to casting this
film). It's a borderline travesty that she has to be in such a lackluster
script as this, that insists on putting her in close quarters with bugs
more than any love interest...including the detective. Bummer. I
think the biggest letdown for a sequel such as this, is to show so much
promise, yet fall even lower than "totally flat." There are
scenes, low-budget FX notwithstanding, that are perfectly shot. You can
even forgive the way they make a school at nighttime look like there is a
foggy mist in the halls, like something out of Alien
(doesn't this school have a dehumidifier?). Some scenes even remind me of
an interactive thriller back in the days of text adventures, called The
Lurking Horror, which also involved a school (a college,
actually) with a foreboding feel to its halls. Unfortunately, even a few rays of hope
such as this cannot make this film shine
at all; a solid thumbs down from me... The DVD :
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bonus material on this DVD is --not unlike the film
itself-- it's odd. Take, for example, the behind the
scenes footage, titled "5 Days of Mimic 2." Does that mean that
the film only took 5 days to shoot? No; they only decided to film
behind-the-scenes footage for 5 days. You get to see footage from Day 12,
all the way to Day 28, with three days in between. Um, okay, whatever... Deleted
scenes are similarly odd. In short, let's just say it is no wonder they
were deleted. Like the scene that implies that Remi may be chosen by the
bug-creature to be the new queen. No matter how you look at it, that's pretty
gross. It's also probably the script element that made Mira Sorvino leave
skid marks from this sequel, presuming she was polite enough to read the
script at all. Other deleted scenes (4 of them) aren't as gross, though
aren't very interesting, either. The same can be said for the remainder of
the bonus materials as a whole.
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