Bigger is better? Well I didn't find that to be the case with "Outpost II: Black Sun". Director Steve Barker follows up his 2008 action-horror "Outpost" with this sequel which actually expands on the original's concept (Nazi, occult and experimenting) and doesn't just limit its action to the bunker. It loses its simple set-up, which was atmospheric and eerie with a ghost-like tale to its novelty, replacing it with bloodier attacks and kinetic actions where our zombie Nazi storm- troopers lumber through a warn-torn Eastern Europe. The sequel pretty much follows on from the previous feature, as a NATO task force is sent to Eastern Europe where an unstoppable killing force is murdering everything in its path. Lena a Nazi hunter is on the trail of notorious war criminal Klausener, which sees her heading to Eastern Europe where she meets up with Wallace an engineer. In all it's a okay follow up that doesn't limit itself, but adds more to the formula than simply rehashing what has gone before it. The threat isn't confined this time around and there are few surprises. Some motivations of certain players can be blurry with how the plot develops, but it did become somewhat weary the further along it went with a lazily dismal ending to cap it off. The performances are durable with Richard Coyle and Catherine Steadman in the leads, but I didn't find any of the characters, especially their support to stand out. Barker seems to replace the slow-burn suspense of the original for brutality. It might not be as rough around the edges, but the action did feel choppy and still have that repetitiveness that lingered in the original. An atmosphere is created bringing out a grim apocalyptic air and the dead zombie soldiers (which the make-up FX is strongly detailed) have a lumbering appearance that can break out into a vicious intensity. But here don't have that ghost ability to teleport and to come out of the shadows. David Gant looks creepy as the dead Nazi general Klausener.
