Every generation gets the chintzy martial arts flick it deserves. From the Jean-Claude Van Damme movies of the 1980s like “Bloodsport” and “Kickboxer,” to the 1995 hit “Mortal Kombat,” based on the iconic arcade game, it’s a tradition that endures. Even the 2021 “Mortal Kombat” reboot was a surprise hit, so it’s no surprise that a sequel with the same creative team has arrived some five years later. Unfortunately, the astonishingly stiff “Mortal Kombat II” simply doesn’t have the cheesy charm of the first. Even the iconic theme song, which plays over the end credits, just doesn’t have the same oomph.

Director Simon McQuoid has returned for the sequel, with a new screenwriter, Jeremy Slater, penning the script. While the 2021 reboot followed the journey of the new character Cole Young (Lewis Tan) as he’s chosen to save the Earthrealm though the fighting tournament, the sequel follows the beloved game character — and in this world, washed-up actor — Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) as he does the same.

The sequel also adds fan favorite character Princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and her deadly blade fans. The story is built around Kitana’s childhood trauma of losing her father to the evil Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), who has taken over her home realm of Edenia, enslaving her mother as his zombie consort, Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen). Kitana just puts her head down and trains for the tournament, sparring with her bodyguard and friend Jade (Tati Gabrielle).

But that’s about it when it comes to story. As we know, there are fighting tournaments that dictate who gets to rule what realm, and Shao Kahn has his sights set on the Earthrealm. It’s “high stakes” in that Johnny Cage and his fellow warriors have to “save the world,” but we don’t get much of an argument for the importance of the Earthrealm except from reanimated Aussie mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), who extols the virtues of beer, bread baskets and threesomes, a few of the qualities he’s finding lacking in the current state of Edenia, which is all rocks, dirt and sad people.

That’s the level of nuance you’re going to get in “Mortal Kombat II,” which is ultimately just a series of increasingly dull and poorly staged fights set against dull computer-generated backgrounds (one weeps for the maximalist production design of Paul W.S. Anderson’s original film). It has all the appeal of watching someone else play the video game: Kitana fights Johnny Cage in the empty town square, Sonya (Jessica McNamee) fights Sindel in a spiky dungeon cell, Cole fights Shao Kahn in a drippy green sewer; Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) fight on a temple in the middle of a swirly blue galaxy, and on and on.

It’s shockingly boring for a “Mortal Kombat” movie, except when McQuoid suddenly drops some seriously intense gore, giving it that over-the-top horror flair and nodding to the heightened video game reality. But along with that surprise digital blood, he also can’t quite balance the multiple tones he’s juggling, between the super earnest and self-serious characters like Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Kitana, with the sarcastic white guys Cage and Kano, who bring the humor and get the best lines. Is this a meta, self-aware campy adaptation or a deeply felt story of family loss and trauma? And why does Cole only get one line about his family, the entire stakes of the first film?

In a video game, it’s fine to simply go through the motions, but in a film, we need someone to latch onto, and none of these actors — with the exception of Urban and Lawson — are given much of anything to work with, character-wise. The meta inter-realm quality of Cage’s storyline is the best bit, as he’s recruited by Sonya and Raiden in the parking garage of a fan convention, but there’s not even enough of that. The best fight is easily Cage against Baraka (CJ Bloomfield) in a desert-set Tarkatan village, because it actually seems like a real place with real personality. The emotional core of the story apparently belongs to Kitana, but Cage steals the show, because he’s handed a bit of compelling material and Urban gives it the right amount of sass.

The costumes are giving Halloween, the sets and props are giving “Xena: Warrior Princess” and the story and performances aren’t giving anything at all. “Mortal Kombat II” seems destined to go the way of the ‘90s sequel “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” — directly into obscurity.

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'MORTAL KOMBAT II'

1.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence and gore, and language)

Running time: 1:56

How to watch: In theaters May 8

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