capsule : not as bad a sequel as crow 2 or batman & robin , but <NEG> still horribly putrid , cheesy and ill-conceived </NEG> . this one belongs in saturday morning cartoons . . . extended review : you know , about halfway through this movie , i realized that if you hacked out everything except the fight scenes , you'd have a damn fine 35 minutes or so of flashy , hong kong style martial arts . beautifully choreographed by robin shou , who also plays liu kang , the fight scenes are both mind-blowing and graceful , acrobatic enough to make olympic gymnasts weep . this is what made the original so fun , but <NEG> unfortunately </NEG> for the sequel , we are without the frenetic directorial style of paul anderson . instead , they got john r . leonetti , the cinematographer for the original mortal kombat . <NEG> not a good choice </NEG> . while the fight scenes are brutal and eye-popping , the rest of the movie <NEG> looks like standard made for tv fare </NEG> . the acting is <NEG> sub-par </NEG> , which i could endure if it were not for a . ) the director's style , b . ) the special effects , & c . ) the treatment of the story and characters . a . ) mr . leonetti should go back to lighting , in my opinion . <NEG> i could say dozens of bad things </NEG> about him : he <NEG> way overuses </NEG> slow-motion , he <NEG> has no eye </NEG> for action , he <NEG> can't get even mediocre performances </NEG> out of actors , and so on . but by far <NEG> his worst move </NEG> was the way he treated jumping . apparantly , everybody can now fly . hell , i'm all for the occaisional gravity defying flip kick and whatnot , but not when it happens every few minutes , and <NEG> is done so poorly </NEG> . better jumping and acrobatics has been seen in xena : warrior princess . in short , they should have gotten paul anderson back . or at least let robin shou direct . . . b . ) unlike the first one , whose sfx were vibrant and somewhat realistic , mk : a's special effects are <NEG> bland , fake looking , and overall just plain bad </NEG> . i counted at least half a dozen times that blue-screening was <NEG> painfully obvious </NEG> . had this movie been made in the 80's , it would have been ground-breaking . but in today's industry , <NEG> it doesn't even look finished </NEG> . c . ) now for <NEG> the _really_ bad parts </NEG> . i admit , i'm an avid fan of the mortal kombat series . the games are amusing diversions , an easy way to work off stress and anger . the first movie was a mindlessly fun thrillride . this could have been a really cool movie . it isn't . the writers apparantly deemed it necessary to lower the target audience from teens to preschoolers . <NEG> some of the plot elements are just plain stupid </NEG> . how stupid ? take , for instance , how our heroes move around . they use giants spheres the roll around underground , supposedly at thousands of miles per hour . . . oh boy . . . <NEG> even worse </NEG> is the treatment of secondary characters . blink and you'll miss 'em . <NEG> most characters had more depth in the video games </NEG> . if you thought batman & robin was bad about this , you ain't seen nothin' yet . a good 75% of the characters are introduced , kick somebody around a bit , then either die or are forgotten about . there's no explanation at all for this . and <NEG> for the final blasphemy </NEG> , the fight that all the fans were waiting rabidly for , the fight hyped to be the most intricate of the movie , lasted about 3 minutes and then just sort of . . . ended . <NEG> it almost made me weep </NEG> . to sum it all up , rent it on video , and fast-forward through everything except the fight scenes .
