Having a messier a plot than the original Highlander, and having overly drawn out fight scenes that get especially boring for rewatchers, Highlander II deserves a lower rating than the original but is still just about watchable – generally worth watching sequentially after the original and before the third and fourth.
The best part of this movie is the re-appearance of Sean Connery in a strong supporting role albeit with a lot less screen time than Christopher Lambert, the star of the first four movies in this series. There are 5 movies in total, in the Highlander movie saga, and none of the sequels are as good as the original, but the 5th instalment deserves erasing from history altogether.
Michael Ironside does a fair job as the main antagonist in Highlander 2. Not a pleasant character – sick in every way – but respectable acting.
Virginia Madsen does a decent job as the main female in this movie. She makes a credible couple with Lambert.
The plot takes us to the future, to 2024 (considering the movie came out in 1991) where baddies have blanketed the sky with a “shield” (that looks like modern “con trails”, to use the less controversial name for them). This shield was originally installed to protect the earth from radiation of the sun, due to a hole in the ozone layer, but after it repaired itself, the bad guys left the shield in place for nefarious reasons without telling anyone that it’s no longer needed.
There are a few good scenes in this movie, but there’s a lot of slow & dull material here too. It’s mad how it had a budget of over $30 million – about twice that of the original, yet ended up in the state it did. The producers of Highlander II: The Quickening could hardly have done a worse job if they tried!