Anatomie 2

(2003)

At a prestigious hospital in Berlin, a world-renowned surgeon and a group of select medical students are working to create the first synthetic body parts. They all belong to a century old secret society, thought to be extinct, that are willing to break the rules and the laws of nature to further medical advancements. At the instruction of their leader, the interns use themselves as guinea pigs. Phase one is to insert synthetic muscles to work along side the natural ones. Phase two is to remove the real muscle, leaving only the synthetic. Although progress is made, there are drawbacks. The interns, because of numerous drug injections, are becoming junkies, shooting anything they can find into their veins, while others are turning up dead.

Despite these downfalls, the mad doctor and his drug addicted lemmings are increasingly reaching their goal until new comer to the group, Jo, handpicked because of his desire to find a cure for his paralyzed brother, as well his own physical vitality, necessary for the experiments, begins realizing the lethality of the situation. With the assistance of others he must try and stop this group before they stop him.

As is apparent, this is a sequel, which I watched last year, but never wrote up a review. Don’t worry, I do intend to re-watch and get one up this year. Anyway, you don’t need to view them in order because other than the secret society, one doesn’t have to do with the other. I’m not a fan of the first one. I mainly watched it because it stars Franka Potente, Run Lola Run, who I like, and then I found myself mildly amused by the German’s silly juvenile jokes, which center around the male genitals, sex, and jerking off. I hoped to laugh at more of these jokes, which is why I grabbed the second one; however, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening scene, which was tense, slightly ambiguous, and had just the right amount of gore. I thought I was in for a different film, which in some ways I was, though, in others it was exactly the same.

Overall, the problem, which the first one does as well, is that the film does not take itself serious, which is unfortunate because I actually like the theme. The desire to design a superior race, although done many times before, still always intrigues me. This agenda is clear from the beginning when a gentleman states that the renowned doctor is capable of creating a man better than God can. The synthetic muscles being inserted into the students are not ordinary but extraordinary, demonstrated by their increased strength. The film could be compared to Hitler and the Nazis with its focus on unethical testing, groupthink, and, of course, its objective of creating superior beings.

Done with the right tone, perhaps this film could have been frightening, disturbing, and engaging. The opening scene was flowing in this direction, but immediately lost its credibility with the first mention of jerking off, followed by the power penis (by this, I mean the intern who has a synthetic muscle inserted into his penis, allowing him to have an instant erection whenever he desires). This movie also has one of the silliest sex scenes I have ever seen.

I gave this movie two and a half Gretchen’s because it embodies potential but then loses it, which disappoints me; however, if you don’t take it serious, as this film certainly doesn’t, then maybe it could have three because it does have some entertaining moments, both tense and then utterly ridiculous, and if you like Primal Scream, like I do, then you get to hear Miss Lucifer playing in one of the scenes.