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Film: Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
Year: 2013
Director: James Nguyen
Writer: James Nguyen
Starring: Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore and Thomas Favaloro
Review:
This movie, much like the original one, I wasn’t overly excited to check out. The reason was due to an October movie challenge where I needed to watch the lowest rated sequel that I could find. I should also preface here that I don’t like to pick apart movies if I don’t have to. I do want to be honest with my review though. The synopsis is a platoon of eagles and vultures attack Hollywood, California. Why did they attack? Who will survive?
We start this off with Bill (Thomas Favaloro) driving to a restaurant. He is sat down by Gloria (Chelsea Turnbo). He comments how beautiful she is and inquires about her. She informs him that she is an aspiring actor that hasn’t had her break yet. She has been in some indie projects and shorts. It turns out Bill is a director. He had a name for himself for winning at Sundance but has struggled since when his follow-up wasn’t as good. He is trying to get back on top with his next film. He wants Gloria to audition for his next project.
It turns out that Bill is friends with Rod (Alan Bagh) and Nathalie (Whitney Moore). The reason that they’re meeting is that Bill is pitching the idea of his next movie and he is looking for funding. Rod reveals that he’s made a lot of money and would be interested in funding part of the film for a million dollars. His ask is to cast Nathalie in a part. Bill agrees to this.
Bill runs into Gloria as she is trying to leave Hollywood. He convinces her to audition for the lead in his next movie, even going as far to offer a thousand dollars to get home if she doesn’t get it. Gloria agrees to this and goes up against Nathalie for a part.
It should also be pointed out that the events of the first movie made news. More events are happening with global warming though. There are a bunch of birds that fell dead in the Midwest. We also had the attacks in Half Moon, California. There is also this red rain that experts don’t understand.
When this rain hits the La Brea tar pits, a bunch of prehistoric vultures and eagles are resurrected. It becomes a fight for survival for our characters as their movie shoot is interrupted.
That should be enough to recap the story. Where I want to start with breaking this down is that it feels like our writer/director James Nguyen realized that his earlier movie wasn’t a masterpiece and not very good so he leans into that. It feels this time around he set out to intentionally make a bad movie, which annoys me personally. I’ve heard others talk about this and I agree with the sentiment. When movies were still on film, people set out to make a good movie and sometimes they came up short but there was a charm there. In this digital age, people try to capture that and it doesn’t work for me.
There are just some illogical things here. An example is when Rod acts like he doesn’t understand how the movie industry works, but then immediately says he will write a check for ten grand to option the screenplay. I’ve taken screenwriting classes and I wouldn’t say things like this, unless I was working for a studio.
To give a bit of a positive, I don’t mind the different route this one takes with our animals that attack. There is this red rain that falls down on the tar pits and we are getting a bit of the Jurassic Park aspect. They set up that full DNA is preserved in it. I’m fine with this. We aren’t very creative here though either. This movie borrows from The Birds and is heavy handed with it. There are posters, seeing Tippi Hedren’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I don’t mind paying homage and wearing it on your sleeve, but you need to do more with your idea to impress me. It isn’t creative and still has the heavy handed message of how bad global warming is. I’m fine with the message but be more subtle.
For sequels, you’re supposed to up your body count and the mayhem. This movie is shorter and has less attack scenes. We get one fairly early on, but much like the original we don’t get anything more until late in the movie. This one tries to be more creative with having zombies, bringing back cave people and doing some other things to be different. Since I’ve said that this one felt like it is trying to make a bad movie and this doesn’t do much for me. That campy feel is hard to mimic.
I’ll move to acting from here. Bagh and Moore are the same as what they did last time. They aren’t good and come off stiff again. I think some of this falls on them, but also on the writing. Favaloro, Turnbo, Thuan Luu and the rest are about the same. We do get some nudity in this one, but that doesn’t add much for me.
Then the last things I’ll go into would be the effects, cinematography and soundtrack. The effects are just as bad as the first time around. It is laughable actually. The practical effects they could have done a bit more of again and it is disappointing. The cinematography is fine, but nothing great there. The soundtrack is fine again. I am glad that they fixed the sound design here though. That was good to hear.
So then in conclusion here, this movie is even worse to me than the original one. At least the earlier one, they tried and failed where they set out to make a bad movie. The acting is once again stiff, but I also blame the writing. The effects are horrible. The soundtrack is fine and they fixed the sound issues that I had there. There was a chance to build on what they did here, but they decided to embrace what didn’t work and double down there.
My Rating: .5 out of 10