(This review may contain spoilers).
Seeing midnight showings has become a normal thing for me to do and this was no exception.
I was very intrigued by the concept of an alternate present, built on a combination of human and alien technology. The first scene was intense enough to draw me in and I felt the rest of the film did a good job of sustaining the tension throughout.
It was really good to see the older versions of many of the characters and something of their lives, though there were some things I would have liked to see explained. For instance, there was little to no reference of David’s wife from the first film. And Steve’s absence was explained away with a throwaway line, which I felt was detrimental to the character.
I thought that the conflict between Dylan and Jake added some good tension to the movie and while I didn’t feel there was as much humour in this movie, there were a few parts that startled a laugh out of me.
It was good to have the opportunity to learn a bit more about the aliens and see how those like the former President were affected by the new threat.
There was a lot of good atmosphere in this movie, in particular inside the alien mothership. While a lot of the fighter pilots didn’t have developed personalities, I did care about those who were explored.
I would have liked to see a bit more of the relationship between Dylan and Jasmine. While there were small snippets shown and I guessed they were close, there wasn’t much in the way of their background. I did like seeing the path Jasmine had taken, though.
It was nice to see the family elements in this movie with the relationship between the former President and his daughter. I would have liked to see more of other relationships explored, such as the friendship between Jake and Charlie. It also would have been good to see more of how they’d been training, as the only details were about the young people flying the ships, rather than any weapons training.
This film was engaging and it had some good character arcs. If you enjoyed the first movie, I would suggest watching this. It also implied a set-up for a sequel at the end, which hopefully won’t be as many years in the making.
Ink of Blood 