The original 1984 film is a little cinematic miracle, a neat adaptation which mostly captures the spirit of the rich, imaginative fantasy novel by Michael Ende. The NeverEnding Story featured excellent direction, lovely practical effects and sets and an effective script, but famously covered only about the first half of the book.
A few years later came The NeverEnding Story II to finish the job... badly.
Positives first. If we forget this is an adaptation, it's a run-on-the-mill but watchable fantasy yarn. Visuals are competent; they lack the beauty of the original but a few sets (like the Silver City) look nice.
Script-wise, however, this is a misguided adaptation.
Ende's novel is more sophisticated than it's usually given credit for. While the whole book is a love-letter to fantasy and creativity, and in the first half the looming threat of the Nothing is a metaphor for loss of imagination in our society, the last act takes a darker turn: it's a cautionary tale against going too deep down the rabbit hole.
Fantasy worlds and imagination are wonderful gifts to enjoy, argues the novel, but losing yourself in them to the point of neglecting your real life is a tragic mistake. This is thorny stuff which mainstream fantasy gleefully shies away from.
(Incidentally, one of my few beefs with the first movie is the very ending. Yeah, it's a crowd-pleaser which I loved as a kid, but in retrospect it doesn't really work thematically).
This second film glosses over any complex theme. Bastian's (Jonathan Brandis) rejection of reality, memory loss and power trip here are instigated by evil sorceress Xayide (Clarissa Burt). In the book Xayide had a less significant role, as she simply exploited a situation she did not create. Here Bastian's arc becomes about "overcoming his fears", a bargain bin character goal which doesn't fit the story.
This is a staggering (and possibly intentional) failure to convey one of the main themes of the novel. I've always argued good adaptations can safely ignore minor subplots and characters but should be very faithful as far as themes go. I don't care if you cut Tom Bombadil from the Lord of the Rings, but you cannot have Frodo use the Ring to defeat Sauron.
That's more or less what happens here though. It seems the late Michael Ende was unhappy with the first movie; I shudder to imagine what he thought of this one.
And no, I haven't seen the third film, although I hear it makes this second chapter look so much better by comparison. I remember watching the trailer as a kid and going "Nope!" - possibly the first time in my life I chose to avoid the sequel of a franchise I liked because it looked terrible.
Maybe one day someone will make a worthy sequel to the first film and a good adaptation of the second part of Ende's novel. But that's another story and shall be told another time.
5/10
A few years later came The NeverEnding Story II to finish the job... badly.
Positives first. If we forget this is an adaptation, it's a run-on-the-mill but watchable fantasy yarn. Visuals are competent; they lack the beauty of the original but a few sets (like the Silver City) look nice.
Script-wise, however, this is a misguided adaptation.
Ende's novel is more sophisticated than it's usually given credit for. While the whole book is a love-letter to fantasy and creativity, and in the first half the looming threat of the Nothing is a metaphor for loss of imagination in our society, the last act takes a darker turn: it's a cautionary tale against going too deep down the rabbit hole.
Fantasy worlds and imagination are wonderful gifts to enjoy, argues the novel, but losing yourself in them to the point of neglecting your real life is a tragic mistake. This is thorny stuff which mainstream fantasy gleefully shies away from.
(Incidentally, one of my few beefs with the first movie is the very ending. Yeah, it's a crowd-pleaser which I loved as a kid, but in retrospect it doesn't really work thematically).
This second film glosses over any complex theme. Bastian's (Jonathan Brandis) rejection of reality, memory loss and power trip here are instigated by evil sorceress Xayide (Clarissa Burt). In the book Xayide had a less significant role, as she simply exploited a situation she did not create. Here Bastian's arc becomes about "overcoming his fears", a bargain bin character goal which doesn't fit the story.
This is a staggering (and possibly intentional) failure to convey one of the main themes of the novel. I've always argued good adaptations can safely ignore minor subplots and characters but should be very faithful as far as themes go. I don't care if you cut Tom Bombadil from the Lord of the Rings, but you cannot have Frodo use the Ring to defeat Sauron.
That's more or less what happens here though. It seems the late Michael Ende was unhappy with the first movie; I shudder to imagine what he thought of this one.
And no, I haven't seen the third film, although I hear it makes this second chapter look so much better by comparison. I remember watching the trailer as a kid and going "Nope!" - possibly the first time in my life I chose to avoid the sequel of a franchise I liked because it looked terrible.
Maybe one day someone will make a worthy sequel to the first film and a good adaptation of the second part of Ende's novel. But that's another story and shall be told another time.
5/10
