The original Highlander (1986) is a film that truly has earned its cult following. Sadly, the story was made in such a way that trying to continue it in further installments would be downright mind boggling. Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) was reviled by fans due to its departure from the original story. Maybe that blunder would talk sense to the producers right? Wrong. Instead another sequel was made, this time further following original story. Initially...this could be promising, but why bother? Once Connor MacLeod won the prize, that was it. Yet somehow, he ends up not being the only one, completely undermining the story from the original. I think continuing the concept is fine...but the original seems to have made the story too perfect.
With a screenplay written by Paul Ohl, his first credit and directed by Andrew Morahan in his first film credit, this sequel is no better than Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). It's nice that everyone tried to approach this entry more faithfully than the last but even then, clearly bad decisions were made. Fans learn that before MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) moved to America but sometime after Ramirez's death, he was in Japan learning skills from another master by the name of Nakano (Makoto Iwamatsu) to fight against the deadly swordsman Kane (Mario Van Peebles), who happens to get frozen in a mountain. Now present day, long after MacLeod has "won" the prize, Kane awakes to finish what he started.
The writing is what really drags this potentially redeeming sequel through the mud. Ohl, deserves credit for at least trying to come up with a way to continue the original. But again, the original story seemed too perfect to continue to begin with. A vast majority of this feature is retreading familiar ground that happened in the original and even some of the first sequel. With Kane on the loose, MacLeod returns to New York where not only does he get pursued by a new cop Lt. John Stenn (Martin Neufeld) who is looking to jail him under his pseudo name of Russell Nash, MacLeod also crosses paths with another woman named Alex Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger) who's interested MacLeod's backstory. Also not to mention, he has an adopted son now too in the middle east named John (Gabriel Kakon).
There are parts of the script that acknowledge the past, like mentions of the first cops who were on MacLeod's tail and MacLeod’s first American love interest Brenda Wyatt, but that's it. Everything else is more or less repeated, including the line "there can only be one". Got it, thanks. This leads audiences to believe though character development doesn't really exist here if similar ideas are revisited. It really makes no sense. Continuity while ok in some places, is another issue in others. Characters are able to find one another with almost no issue....even if they're countries apart. How? As for action, it's slightly better than before, but not by much. For 1994, the special effects are about the same as the last sequel. It's nice to see a different cast of actors alongside Lambert but that's about it. Acting is just average due to the script.
Visually speaking, the camerawork and set design was an improvement. Mainly because the setting took place either in the mountain ranges of different countries or the urbanized streets of the city. The director of photography this time was Steven Chivers, better known for his start with Richard Stanley's Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992). At least the shots filmed look distinguishable from each other, unlike the first sequel. As for music, the score was composed by J. Peter Robinson. Probably better known for his work on Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Robinson does produce more recognizable music than the first sequel’s musical score. It's still not as memorable as Michael Kamen's rendition but it does have some Celtic flavoring sprinkled throughout.
Say what you will about Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) being a bad sequel. However, it's bad for doing something way out of whack. Unlike this sequel which redeems itself with minimal correction in its story, with only average acting, good music and camerawork. Other than that, the action still isn't that impressive, the effects aren't top notch and the story almost being a complete rehash.
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