It’s damn near impossible to follow in the footsteps of Jeff Goldblum as his son, but Eric Stoltz did ok. He gives the right level of oddball stiffness to make it work. I mean, sure, you still want to punch his face (always), but he has the range to play a 5-year-old genetic abnormality genius as well as a nasty, falling apart fly monster. He’s versatile!

It’s also completely impossible to follow in the footsteps of David Cronenberg. While The Fly II manages to succeed in special effects and body horror, it completely misses the psychological darkness that Cronenberg nailed in the first one. The Fly wasn’t a story about teleportation experiments gone wrong, it was about the obsessions and perversions of a semi-mad scientist. This sequel doesn’t have any of that.

The best part is the happy ending. Yay! The kid survives and the evil CEO guy dies. Yay! The clowns who made this movie didn’t seem to understand the point of any of this.

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