The conclusion of the SLUG STREET SCRAPPERS franchise improves on its predecessor's weaknesses but still isn't what I would call a strong movie. The dramatic and stylistic approach is still a matter of niche appeal and the action scenes could be better. Nevertheless, the short runtime makes it easily tolerable, especially if the previous installment felt overlong. I rate this one on the low side of average.
Story-wise, the feature takes a massive leap and erases about half of the last film's cast. The plot now involves the effort of the remaining Scrappers to save themselves from eradication by the dark goddess
who is not really a character anymore, even though Maggie Clarke returns to play a different goddess. The entire thing leans on huge amounts of exposition and is needlessly overcomplicated, but again, this is part of the film's style. The huge canonical leaps mirror the liberties allowed between video game installments, and after all, the entire franchise is an homage/satire of fighting games.
As such, expect to see more of the odd writing and weird acting that you saw in previous features. I'm still not a huge fan of this, but the reduced runtime makes these things more palatable and gives the film slightly more focus. The biggest improvement, though, is the quality of the fight scenes. These now feature noticeably improved choreography and are shot with a good deal more flair than before. They're still not at the same level of what, say, the Stunt People productions offer, but it's a step in the right direction.
Given that the filmmakers have made the SLUG STREET SCRAPPERS flicks available for gratis viewing, I can't complain too much about not having a particularly great time watching this. I encourage everyone reading this to check out Whirlwind Action's offerings for themselves, in case they speak more to you than to me. Personally, I'm still waiting for the definitive exhibition of these guys' skills.
