Plot: In this sequel to 1997′s Wishmaster, an evil genie is released from captivity in a museum and quickly takes human form, where he starts granting wishes to the weak-willed in exchange for their souls.

My Review: A robbery at a museum goes wrong and during some crossfire the statue containing the red gem housing the Djinn gets dislodged. One of the thieves steals it and its not too long after this that the Djinn is released.

We already know the motive of the Djinn. He’s gotta collect a whole bunch of souls. In this case 1000 or more. I honestly can’t remember the number right now, but he does it quickly because he goes to prison and there its pretty easy to get people to make wishes. I don’t seem to recall there being a number for the amount of souls he had to collect in the first film but I recall it seemed to be a small number, like the amount of people it shows him going after. I guess in this one the stakes were higher.

Morgana, the one who awoke the Djinn, is all torn up about the death of her boyfriend and the fact that she killed a man during the robbery. She has no idea she’s released a Djinn or that something else is at play until she starts having strange feelings and dreams. She soon connects the dreams to the statute, gem, and Djinn. With the help of her priest friend Gregory they try to stop the Djinn from getting all of his souls. Of course it comes down to Morgana making a wish to end the Djinn just like the first movie.

I was curious about the fact that in the first film I believe the Djinn stated he couldn’t use his powers or kill or hurt anyone without someone making a wish to trigger it. In this movie it seemed like he was often using is powers without anyone wishing it.

I was more entertained by this movie then the first film. I think it was because I actually liked the characters a little more. However the film lacked in the wish department. By that I mean, they could have been more creative with the aftermath of the wishes. Most had no effect other then their souls being taken. For that I’m not giving this movie three stars.

Gore/FX: As with the first movie, the gore is decent and sometimes brutal. I loved it. But there just wasn’t enough of it and that could really have saved this movie for me.

Sexual Content: No sex or nudity.

Acting: I honestly felt the acting in this one was a lot better then the first one. Perhaps it helped that I liked the characters better and I knew the actor playing Gregory. It was Paul Johansson, which I’ve seen in a lot of things over the years, but most recently he played the villain on the TV show One Tree Hill which I watched for years. So it was quite different seeing him as a good guy here.

Overall: This was more entertaining for me then the first one. I’m glad they almost seemed to skip over Morgana’s connection to the Djinn and not have her freak out every time a soul was taken as that was an issue for me with the first film. I don’t think this will be a series I’ll really go back to later in life, but I’m going to continue on with it till I finish the whole series.

My Rating: