There’s the now iconic line in the 1989 Batman movie where a baddy asks the masked superhero, “Who are you?” leading to the catchy reply, “I’m Batman,” where it then launched into cinematic lore. It’s sort of evolved into a meme over the years with perhaps Tony Stark putting the best spin on it since in Avengers: Endgame. However – and let’s not for a moment take away the fact that in real life, firefighters are genuine, real life superheroes – when the line, “I’m a firefighter” gets doled out early in this long-awaited (?) follow-up, it doesn’t feel earned at all. This is a messy, by-the-numbers action flick with – let’s just say it – no spark. It’s the good with the bad in Backdraft II.
Sean McCaffrey (Joe Anderson) is living in a long shadow, the son of one of the city’s most respected firefighters. That’s of course Steven McCaffrey (played by Kurt Russell in the original film), now deceased, having given his life in the line of duty. Sean’s a fire marshal investigator (like Robert De Niro in the first), under the supervision of his Uncle Brian (William Baldwin –above – also making a return to the series). Sean’s got a new partner, a newbie named Maggie Rening (Alisha Bailey) and their first case together is a doozy, where a ‘backdraft’ fire kills a small group of trick or treaters. Clues lead to some real trouble, forcing Sean to glean help from convicted arsonist Ronald Bartel (Donald Sutherland, he too coming back for more).
Let’s just start with the first fire in the story, leaving a girl dead in her bed and a boyfriend upset on the street. Sean, looking about with cursory glances, solves the case in less than two minutes and offers the aforementioned hero line with a throaty growl. Cue the title card and an orchestral boom. It’s ridiculous to such a degree, you wonder if this is meant to be a spoof. It’s not. Either way, we move on to the meat and potatoes of the story, a ‘backdraft’ fire that kills – YIKES – five little kids knocking on a door for candies because, you know, why not kill children to get things rolling? It only gets weirder from there.
Sean is such a hopelessly unlikable guy that you mostly just want someone to bop him on the nose, the kind of guy who walks into burned out buildings with his jacket open, no helmet and a sassy attitude. No one likes him in the story either, except a contrived love interest who begins their meet cute with all the incendiary flammability of a wet sponge. That’s half the point of course, but we get no chance to really find investment in him ourselves, the guy just an abrasive, scowling oaf with barely any appeal. Sure, he’s got a tortured backstory, but it’s delivered so artificially, who really cares? A stray dog gets the closest to building any bridges with him.
Then there’s the all too brief bit with Sutherland, who reprises his twisted fire fan incarcerated in a mental facility for his fun with ‘the dragon,’ as he calls it. He was one of the best parts of the first and is so in the second as well, gripping as a gentleman madman. What Backdraft II really ought to have been is his backstory, delving into his sordid past and capture, or even his escape and re-commitment to burning all the world. Now that would have been a good movie. Sutherland is leagues above everyone else around him. But when is ever not?
The real problem with Backdraft II is how much it assumes we just can’t understand anything about everything, the movie relentlessly explaining all of it. Even when Sean’s by himself, he spends all his time speaking out loud whatever is on his mind. It’s bland to say the least, the film missing any and all opportunities to let the action do some of the talking, let alone allowing some sense of mystery to germinate. It’s like painting a picture with four colors and not being allowed to let one touch the other.
Then there’s the fire. While the original film was not a masterpiece by any stretch, the thing that made director Ron Howard‘s (he serves as producer here) work so impressive was his use of real fire, the movie made famous by its incredible attention to detail and hair-raising moments with live flames dancing about the screen. It was, simply said, like nothing we’d ever seen before and was thrilling to see. Fire was an actual character in the story and it had you sitting on the edge of your seat. Not so here, director Gonzalo López-Gallego using obvious CGI to do the work and worse still, it’s barely ever seen, the point of the story almost entirely absent.
And then we come to the music. Howard had the incomparable Hans Zimmer score his film in 1991, producing one of the most iconic pieces of music of the time, a rousing, bombastic, emotional work that elevated the experience to some truly dazzling heights. Now, here’s the thing. Backdraft II doesn’t have some no-name helming the score, enlisting the mighty talented Randy Edelman as composer. If you’re not familiar, think of The Last Of The Mohicans, Gettysburg, Dragonheart and more, many deeply resonating scores that have become highly acclaimed. However, he’s all but mute here, the music so understated it’s practically non-existent, apart from a few good strings in the finale. Not sure something more could have made this better, but a good ‘sound’ for the movie is surely missing and it makes a difference.
THE GOOD: The story has some potential and when Sutherland gets involved, spices right up, and it’s good to see where some of the people from the first story ended up.
THE BAD: Cheaply made and played out like a melodrama, there’s little authenticity about it, with paper thin characters and no impact from the one thing we came here to see: fire.
SCORE: [wp-review-total id=”54374″]