That pretty much sums up MK: A. There are the bones of a decent plot here, and they had enough to work with just from sequeling off of the original movie. So what went wrong?<br /><br />First of all, they lost Lambert, Ashby, and Tagawa from the first movie. That was a big shot in the foot. James Remar (who seems to have no idea why he's here, and that Raiden is supposed to be comic relief ala Raiden in the first movie) is no Chris Lambert. Chris Conrad (very briefly) is no Linden Ashby. And Brian Thompson, even though a credible screen bad guy, is no Tagawa.<br /><br />Robin Shou, as charismatic as he may be, just can't carry the load. Talisa Soto, another carryover, just has nothing to do. In new roles, Sandra Hess at least does no harm stepping in for Bridgette Wilson. Lynn Williams as Jax doesn't do bad, but then he's thwarted by the plot...<br /><br />Ouch, the plot. What is it, exactly? They played fast and easy with the "rules" in the first movie, but any sense of coherency is totally lost with this one. The fate of Earth is in the balance, but they're fighting it out in caves and quarries like something out of Doctor Who. There are three tests, but what's the third? If the bad guys don't give a damn about the Elder Gods, why the heck did they play by the Gods' rules in the first movie. Undercutting your first movie's basic concept just doesn't help you.<br /><br />And the plot is just too full. Apparently Boon and Tobias, buoyed by the success of the first movie, said to themselves, "Cool, now we can throw in all the faceless villains the marketing guys they told us would be too much for the audience in the first movie." Whoops - this inundation of characters is too much for the audience in the second movie as well. Why is Sub-Zero a good guy, and where does he go? Who the heck is Nightwolf, and why doesn't he help save Earth other than to give Liu Kang the test(s)? What purpose do characters like Jade, Sheeva, and Montaro serve other than to provide some kung fu cannon fodder? It's like we had one good human villain (Shang Tsung) and one good F/X villain (Prince Goro) in the first movie, so they decided, "Hey, lets put in two human villains and two F/X villains in this one."<br /><br />Which brings us to the F/X. Arrgh. There is none of the care that obviously went into the first movie, which whatever its deficiencies, at least gave you something good to look at. In the rush to kick out a sequel (barely two years), they obviously spent neither time or money.<br /><br />So MK: A is mildly viewable in a martial arts/fantasy kind of way. The fight sequences are still good to look at. But the animated series, or the subsequent prequel of the TV series, is probably better to watch if you're looking for something entertaining.