Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

From what I heard, this movie was actually an adaptation of the second half of the book the original film was based on. Wow, imagine who meta it would be if I read the original book? Anyway, this sequel features Bastian going back to Fantasia and defeating an enemy known as the Emptiness. I found this movie mostly boring and the original is so much better. I think it's because Bastian was kind of a jerk in this one. It's said that he literally killed Atreyu! I mean, I get it that he was losing his memories, but wow was that mean! The best thing is probably how good the effects are.The sets are quite nice looking and the character designs are quite creative. It was weird how there were scenes where he was losing his memories which were represented by balls coming out of a machine. That was later used in "Inside Out"! Forget "Osmosis Jones". THIS is the movie that it stole from! Most of the actors from the original film are gone and they can't represent the story nearly as well. Still, I do like the idea of sequels for something called "The Neverending Story". *1/2

I, like many others, watched The Never Ending Story as a child and of course loved it, I remembered the characters, the basis of the plot and the lesson. I'm fairly certain I watched the sequels but of them I remembered nothing.Recently, I was using time before an appointment and I came across both The Never Ending Story and The Never Ending Story two for just ten dollars, obviously I could not pass up a chance to upgrade my beloved story to DVD, just in case my VHS died.I digress, so I recently watched them back to back. Aside from replacing all but one of the original actors there didn't seem to be any development from the last story. I expected Bastion to be older physically, but I had also expected him to grow up. He was still the same shy kid but he was dumber. His father some how found a potion to make himself ten years younger then he had been and despite seeming to open up, Bastion still had no friends and couldn't even think about his mother without getting teary. I know, I know, losing someone is always hard, especially a parent, but he was suppose to have moved on in the first movie after he gave the empress a new name. On that topic, may I ask why she seemed to be nameless again in this story?The new actors were... Painfully bad, every action and line seemed over acted to the amount of just being a farce. I never read the book so I have to judge the piece for theatrical value and this has very little. The effects are passable but very little of the story seemed to flow.So to boil it down, Bastion never really grew up, he was just replaced with an older actor, Atreyu, as far as I'm concerned, became a less lovable character. He seemed to lose the smooth, truly native American beauty he had and just became a rough looking sort without the same natural fire and independence.Over all the movie was an eyesore, leave it be and just watch the first.

I recently bought this movie along with the original Neverending Story on a one disc "Double Feature", so naturally I watched both movies back to back. I remember liking both movies when I was a kid, and I especially recall liking this movie when it came out. Jonathan Brandis was a popular child actor back in the early '90's (although not nearly as popular as Macaulay Culkin or Elijah Wood), and John Wesley Shipp was most famous for playing The Flash. I remember liking this movie because I liked these two leads. As I watch it again in my adulthood though, I can see it hasn't aged well with time.The first NeverEnding Story, on the other hand, has aged surprisingly well. Despite having no-name actors in it, it was a very intriguing movie with an original villain (Nothingness). Its sequel appeared to be more formulaic, and the dialogue spoken by most of the human actors was too wooden and unconvincing.I had to laugh also at the main villain in this movie, Xayide (played by Clarissa Burt). I thought it was clever how her and her army of giants were empty inside, which was a clever homage to the original Nothingness that took over Fantasia. However, Xayide seemed more like a jaded runway fashion model from Milan than an actual convincing villain. I'm assuming the character of Bastian was supposed to be ten or eleven, because if he was any older than twelve, he could have used his wishes to have his way with her (i.e. "I wish your clothes would disappear"; "I wish for a camera"). It just didn't seem that the Xayide character created enough conflict, at least not to me.The movie probably would have been better if at least some of the original main actors (not to mention the director, Wolfgang Peterson) were brought back, and the film was made no later than three years after the original movie. It also probably would have eliminated the plot holes better if it has stuck to the original story. For example, Bastian never actually met Atreyu in the original movie, so how did Atreyu know who Bastian was? Also, if every wish Bastian made erased his memories, how did he still know who Atreyu was? Plus, it was never fully explained how the Empty Villains got rid of all the books in the world, or how human in the real world forgot books ever existed. Not to mention that the latter conflict was never resolved in the end.The "Next Chapter" of the NeverEnding Story could have been better in a lot of ways, but was enjoyable in a lot of other ways. I thought the reappearance of Falcor and the Rockeater (and son) was worth watching the movie for alone.

"The Neverending Story" is thought by many to be a classic fantasy movie for both kids and adults alike. It had amazing visuals, and for a 27 million dollar budget, it better have had good visuals. Now, the unnecessary sequel has a 36 million dollar budget, and looks nowhere near as good as the first. And along with that, the acting, story and writing are worse too.Bastian Bux is back to reading the Neverending Story, and a new story is taking place. Pages in the book are disappearing because of an evil, condescending queen who has kidnapped the childlike empress and locked her away. Bastian and Atreyu go on a stupid adventure and have problems with each other along the way. The first film can be enjoyed by kids and adults. This one is a brain dead, scatter plotted mess, that can only be enjoyed by kids under 10, who don't care about quality. None of the principle actors return from the first film, and the replacements look and sound nothing like the characters in the first. The acting is terrible, along with all of this.In the end, this is just a weird sequel. In no way does it have the same feel as the good first film. This is like a kids action movie, where the first was like an amazing visual (and mental) portal into one's imagination.My rating: 1/2 out of ****. PG for violence. 83 mins