Movie Review: Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011)

The stellar 2007 infection film [REC] spawned a Hollywood remake, Quarantine, that was damn near the same film. Both films now also have sequels but the Quarantine sequel took the story in a much different direction than [REC] 2, which is a good thing in this case. And while Quarantine 2: Terminal is not nearly as good as either of the original films, it's not exactly a complete failure either.

On the same night as the quarantine in the apartment building from the first film, passengers and crew on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles are forced to land prematurely when one man shows symptoms of the same deadly virus. They think they are safe when they make it to the airport terminal, until the government quarantines them inside as well. As the infection spreads, the survivors try to find a way to escape the terminal.

So for this sequel, the filmmakers have completely done away with the found footage style, which was a welcome relief. It would not have made any sense for this situation and would have made the movie seem too gimmicky. Instead, they go their own way with the story while still answering the main question from the first movie which is what is this virus and where did it come from? The reasoning they came up with was not exactly what I expected nor does it make all that much logical sense but who would watch this movie for the amazing writing anyway? We want to see infected dudes and dudettes eating other people.

The first third of the movie is on the airplane and centers around a young flight attendant named Jenny, who later becomes the reluctant leader of the survivors. When a fat guy gets sick and pukes all over her, that's when the fun starts. And this wasn't in a 747, either. The situation is made more claustrophobic by the setting on this tiny plane with only one aisle and few passengers. The audience is glad to finally see them land and give the characters more room to move around - and therefore make it easier for them to fight off the crazies and escape being infected.

Sadly, most of the gore work is simply okay. There's lots of blood and neck ripping and biting, and even a part where an infected kitty cat bites an older woman, but there's nothing really new or exciting. Actually the freakiest part of the whole movie has nothing to do with the infected. It's when the bad guy, Henry, first puts some drops into his eye to numb it (you even see him pat his open eyeball with his finger - without blinking!) and then sticks a needle into his bottom eyelid. Yeesh. For those of you who don't like eye trauma, this might be a good scene for you to close yours!

The part I liked the most is the end when Jenny and young George are crawling through that tunnel, with George using the thermal vision goggles to see where they're going. It's quite suspenseful, especially when George looks back one time and sees the bite mark on Jenny's side. This is really the only suspenseful part of the movie as the rest is your standard fare of people running and fighting and getting bitten and infected. The survivors get into a lot of unnecessary fights and their characters are severely underdeveloped. You only really get to know Jenny and George, but only in the most basic way.

I can't completely recommend Quarantine 2: Terminal because really, if you don't see it, you're not missing a whole lot. But you won't be totally disappointed if you do see it either. It's better than I expected for a straight to DVD sequel even though I'd much rather watch the original, and even more than that, I'd rather just watch [REC].