Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: The Iron Girl is back, but this time she's taking out a gang of flunkies in order to get her memories back.
Review: Hmm...now this is a sequel I never expected to be made. The first "Iron Girl" was incredibly disappointing so how did this one fair? Well, it's a step in the right direction at the very least. The creators still do not know how to handle this material in a fun way. I often compare these over the top movies to "The Machine Girl" or "Deadball," because they are among the few to get it right. If your premise is to have a Japanese porn star playing an android fighter in an apocalyptic wasteland, is it really that difficult to indulge your wildest fantasies? However, it's not all bad though as there was a concerted effort to make improvements, and this was noticeable.
Still sexy.
First and foremost, Kirara Asuka is back as the Iron Girl and looking as hot as ever. Her intro was near perfect--showing her sexy side and her kickass side all in one fell swoop. The entire sequence gave me a false hope this would be a huge improvement over part 1. To spice things up they gave Iron Girl a sword which I guess was a given for Japanese cinema. There is an attempt to build a greater universe around the character which, despite failing to do so, was a novel idea. Of course this meant sequel-baiting which is kind of brazen for a movie like this. Are they really this confident there will be a part 3? I liked the idea of Iron Girl becoming a kind of bounty hunter, but her goal of saving enough money for a "memory device" was preposterous. Can't they work out a bargain or, I dunno, just give it to her?! Nevertheless, the villains Iron Girl must kill were a lot more creative and memorable. In fact, the main adversary (since he was technically a crony of the main villain) was awesome! I loved his design and the badass presentation of this character. Too bad they pulled a Darth Maul and went and killed him off right away; he was infinitely more interesting than the Iron Saint from part 1. I also liked that his identity was that of Iron Girl's boyfriend from pre-World War III. Ugh...why did they waste this plot line in such a frivolous manner? Finally, the plentiful amount of girls are all cute, and we are treated to an ample amount of fan service...just not nearly enough for a movie like this.
Kill and Poison. Not exactly original in the naming department.
As you can probably tell, the flaws are nearly as massive as the first movie. The action is simply not relentless enough. Come on, Iron Girl is supposed to be a living weapon with superhuman abilities yet she has only had a handful of scenes in two movies to demonstrate this? Why are there so many scenes of walking around and idle chitchat? There are even multiple scenes that act like they are about to set up some softcore action only to blue ball the audience. What the hell are they thinking? If the budget restraints are a barrier to better special effects and action sequences, why bother at all? Likewise, if you need to invest more in the story line to offset the budget, then step up your game and tell a compelling story. That one chickadee, although sexy as hell, doesn't do shit except serve as a convenient excuse for why Iron Girl never gets to use the memory device. That's absolute shit writing. That time could have been spent establishing Iron Girl's boyfriend and how he turned evil. I mean, he appears to know Iron Girl was once his girlfriend yet he wants to kill her why? More importantly, what happened to everything established with part 1? What became of the Iron Saint or that prophecy? Or what about Iron Girl's friends? Why did Iron Girl ditch her awesome cloak--I loved that thing!
Once more, if you're expecting a kind of over the top splatterfest like "The Machine Girl," you will be sorely disappointed. While I appreciate the improvement from part 1, it's not a significant enough change. The humor is still bizarre, the action scenes too scattered, and the villain completely wasted yet again. Ms. Asuka is hot as the titular character, going topless a few times along with other cast members, but this is more icing on a cake than a legitimate incentive to watch. I'd love to recommend these two films as a double feature, but, as it stands, there isn't enough going on to warrant such a viewing. Hopefully, if there is an "Iron Girl 3," they will go all out and deliver the potential this story is more than capable of providing.
Notable Moment: Shower scene. Hot. More please. That is all.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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