Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 15, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Nemesis 2 / Nemesis 3 / Nemesis 4.

If Nemesis often played like a B-movie version of Blade Runner (with, as my Nemesis Blu-ray review mentioned, just a hint of RoboCop at times), Albert Pyun’s several follow-ups ended up reminding me, if only in passing, of any number of other notable science fiction film and television properties, including everything from The Terminator Anthology, The Phantasm Collection, Orphan Black: The Complete Series and even Ghost in the Shell. That may suggest a certain undeniably patchwork ambience to many of these low budget offerings, but Pyun often stages things surprisingly well, all things considered. All three films in this set feature Sue Price starring as Alex Sinclair, and it's kind of interesting to note that among Price's few other credits on IMDb are Nemesis 5: The New Model and the probably not so coincidentally named RoboWoman.

The fact that the back cover of this release offers a short summation of this film which includes the salient facts that Alex (Sue Price) is a genetically altered female with power to destroy the cyborgs who are the villains of this franchise, and that she's been sent back in time to protect her, but that a cyborg bounty hunter named Nebula (Chad Stahelski) manages to find her, may indicate how liberally Pyun, um, references certain science fiction films with this Nemesis series. This sophomore effort is often kind of fun and even funny in a totally campy way, especially with Alex attempting to prove herself to the African tribe which takes her in (don't ask, just go with the flow).

As with all of these Nemesis sequels, this one can't escape its more than obvious lo-fi ambience, and Price, while buff as all get out and certainly able to handle the action scenes with ease, is probably not going to ever have an Academy Award on her shelf. The film has some goofy special effects which may actually recommend it to some.

Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nemesis 2: Nebula is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There's some noticeable wobble in the opening credits, and occasional minor signs of age related wear and tear, but generally speaking this is a decent looking transfer of what was obviously a low budget affair, something that probably plays into some of the less than spectacular looking special effects. Pyun really seems to like blue, and some of the blue swathed scenes do not exhibit the same levels of fine detail as more normally lit moments. There are also "POV" shots that are intentionally distressed looking. There is a fine grain field here that's noticeable, but some of the outdoor material in particular can look slightly filtered at times, though that said it's the outdoor material that pops the best generally speaking in terms of both palette and detail levels. The film features some animated moments that definitely look upscaled.

Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nemesis 2: Nebula features an LPCM 2.0 track that provides capable support of the film's often goofy dialogue and a synth drenched score that also attempts to inject some quasi-"ethnic" elements when scenes take place in Africa.

Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

MVD Visual has packaged this with all three films on one disc. The disc's bonus content includes:

• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 2: Nebula (480i; 30:38) is the first of three similar quasi-commentaries which offer Pyun offering audio background and assessment as scenes from the film play, though his comments are not always (or even) scene specific. He gets into some of the kind of interesting challenges he set for himself in this film, including intentionally not having any tracking or dolly shots, something that led to an undue number of new setups every day. He also discusses the casting and some of the other production issues. The title of this piece has an kind of weird Über in it on this supplement, which makes me think perhaps this was done for some German language release, though Pyun's commentary is in English.


• Nemesis 2: Nebula Trailer (1080p; 1:49)


• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (480i; 17:00) is another audio commentary by Pyun which plays to snippets of the film (and this one, too, has Über in it. Pyun talks about filming this in tandem with Nemesis 2: Nebula, and he is of the perhaps debatable opinion that this film has more plot to offer than Nemesis 2.


• Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Trailer (480p; 1:49)


• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 4: Death Angel (480i; 19:37) follows suit with the two others commentaries in this set, with Pyun offering comments that play to scenes from the film. He talks about what sparked this entry in the franchise, and how Sue Price's face had changed, which Pyun chalks up to bodybuilding drugs!


• Nemesis 4: Death Angel Trailer (480p; 2:11)

Additionally this comes with a folded mini-poster.

Nemesis 2: Nebula Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a kind of quasi-camp aspect to parts of this first Nemesis sequel that may give it a spark of fun for some viewers that will be missing in the next two installments. Video is a bit iffy at times, but audio is fine, for those considering purchase.