Simply Hollow
It's sort of ironic, when I reviewed "Hollow Man" I wasn't so impressed because the focus was on the special effects used for making Kevin Bacon turn invisible and the storyline played second fiddle. Well in "Hollow Man II" it is switched because the focus this time in this direct to video sequel is on the story and less emphasis is on the effects. But it is still not good because the storyline for the most is a rather dull story of a cop and a female Dr forced to go on the run from an angry invisible man as well as the military who are part of a cover up. It makes "Hollow Man II" something which borders on a monotonous bore only pepped up by the occasional expenditure on some special effects, which if you are sharp eyed you will notice that some of the special effects footage has been lifted from the first movie.
When a man is mysteriously murdered in a bathroom Det. Frank Turner (Peter Facinelli - The Scorpion King) is called in to investigate and what he finds leads him to Dr. Maggie Dalton (Laura Regan), except orders from high up in the chain of command take him off the case. But when Turner's partner is killed and he is attacked by an invisible being he is forced to go on the run with Maggie where he discovers all about the experiment to create the ultimate invisible assassin except there is a problem as the invisible assassin Michael Griffin (Christian Slater - Windtalkers) needs a further injection to keep him alive. The problem is that those funding the experiment want Griffin and anyone who knows the truth that they used him to kill political rivals dead.
There is no hiding from the fact that the storyline to "Hollow Man II" is dull, remove the aspect that Griffin is invisible and we have the bog standard story of a cop and a witness on the run from both the killer and the officials who are looking to cover up what has been going on. And as such it works through the playbook of this sort of story, we have chases, escapes, fights and of course Turner and Dalton being put on the wanted list so the public are also looking out for them. There is absolutely zero imagination to this story and when it comes to the twist at the end, yes we have a twist, not only is it telegraphed but also as boring as everything else which went on.
Now this routine storyline wouldn't have been so bad if it was fully of terrific action and special effects but unfortunately it isn't. People getting thrown all over the place by the invisible Griffin ends up quite boring even when he kills them in some dramatic way and chase scenes are just rudimentary. And as for the actual special effects, well there is nothing which has the wow factor, not when we see Griffin's veins show when he gets hurt nor when we get a battle in the rain involving the invisible man. The fact that they recycled some of the special effects footage from the first movie demonstrates a lack of budget and ambition to try and improve on it.
I suppose one thing which may get some people watching is that Peter Facinelli stars as Det. Frank Turner, but in truth Turner is such a routine character that Facinelli doesn't really do much with him. The same with Laura Regan who plays Dr. Dalton with a job of looking beautiful and also frightened. And as for the fact "Hollow Man II" stars Christian Slater well he only actually appears in two scenes which are both very short and otherwise he lends his voice to the invisible Griffin.
What this all boils down to is that "Hollow Man II" is both a poor sequel and a poor movie using a routine storyline and failing to deliver the wow factor when it comes to the special effects. In truth it never needed to be made and was always fighting a loosing battle as whilst "Hollow Man" wasn't great it had great special effects and atmosphere both of which are lacking this time around.
