Producer Roger Corman, who was once famed for being able to turn low budgets to his advantage, tries and fails to do so with this hyperactive sequel that will give a headache to any of the brave viewers able to sit all the way through it. The film premiered on the Showtime network before
it was released to home video.
With the aid of her high-tech car, police detective Darcy Walker (Joan Severance) continues to fight crime in her guise as the Black Scorpion, despite the opposition of crooked City of Angels Mayor Worth (Matt Roe). Her newest adversary is the Gangster Prankster (Stoney Jackson), a masked joker
who uses a bomb threat to rob the police station. When Darcy saves her partner Rick (Whip Hubley) from the Prankster's clutches, he falls for the superheroine in a way he never has for his partner (of whose double identity he is unaware).
Joining the Prankster as a threat to the City of Angels is Ursula Aftershock (Sherrie Rose), a seismologist driven insane when Mayor Worth sabotages her antiearthquake machine. An earthquake destroys Rick's apartment, so he accepts Darcy's offer to stay at her place (made out of her lust for her
hunky partner). Aftershock and the Prankster plan to use her ability to cause earthquakes to frighten away the residents of a wealthy suburb, leaving the neighborhood open to looting. Rick succumbs to Darcy's attentions, but when she leaves in the middle of the night to track down a theory about
Aftershock, Rick suspects Darcy of emotional cowardice to match what he feels is her professional cowardice. After a crisis of faith in her abilities, Darcy recovers and, as Scorpion, kills the Prankster. She finds Aftershock just as she has set her machine on the countdown to an earthquake that
will destroy the city. With sisterly understanding, Scorpion pierces the insane frustration of the scientist, who relents and stops her machine--but at the cost of her own life. Rick is taken hostage by Mayor Worth, who had been counting on stealing the earthquake relief money. As herself, Darcy
saves Rick and regains the respect of her partner, her colleagues, and herself.
Events in the absurdly overplotted BLACK SCORPION II fly past in less time than it takes to describe them, as if it were only a sketch for a film. This is annoying enough, but what really makes the movie unwatchable is its attempt to cover up its minimal budget with gimmicky camerawork, rapid
editing, and incessant close-ups. (Director Jonathan Winfrey was apparently absent from film school on the day they covered "establishing shots.") Craig Nevius's script is derivative of the BATMAN movies to the point of parody, though the intentionally camp scenes are the film's most painful. Even
Severance's preposterous but well-filled costume is insufficient reason for her fans to bother with this. As an example of the film's devotion to coherence, it should be noted that although he is credited at the end as playing "Michael Russo," the name used in the first BLACK SCORPION (1995), the
character played by Whip Hubley is referred to as "Rick" throughout the film.) (Graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.) leave a comment
