Continuity mistake: There's a part when Raiden, Liu Kang, Kitana, Jade Jax and Sonya are confronted by 3 ninjas and Sindel. Raiden decides to take on the ninjas, but you'll notice that he only fights against 2 of them.
Continuity mistake: Shao Kahn removes his cape in the final battle. When Motaro breaks Jax's bionic arm, holds it up and Shao Kahn shouts "Yes!", Shao Kahn is wearing his cape again.
Continuity mistake: During the Liu vs Baraka fight, Liu kicks Baraka into a firepit. However, the footage used to show Baraka falling into the flame is the same as the footage used earlier to show the ninja Rain falling into the fire pit.
Continuity mistake: When Scorpion and Sub-Zero are about to fight we clearly see Scorpion with white contacts over his eyes, but during the fighting you can tell the actor/stuntman playing Scorpion does not have any white contacts in.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Sonya fights Malena, the amount of mud that Sonya gets on her increases and decreases throughout the fight.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, Raiden's hair is loose, but when he somersaults to fight Shao Kahn, it is tied up. It is loose again after the fight.
Continuity mistake: Somehow right after the mud fight Sonya is completely clean and dry minutes later. Yes she said she wanted to find a river and clean up, but her white shirt wouldn't have cleaned like that in a river.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Rayden and Shao Kahn are fighting, one of Kahns warriors throws him a rope. When he throws it to him it has a loop in it. However in the next shot there's no loop and he uses it to get Sonya.
Continuity mistake: When Sonya overhead throws Mileena into the ground, she throws her with one arm (she even ends up facing the camera). In the next shot, she's throwing her with both arms.
Continuity mistake: During the Sonya vs. Mileena fight, Sonya is kicked by Mileena, and she lands into the mud on her back. The next shot briefly shows that Sonya is standing ready to block Mileena's kick but Sonya is sitting again in the next shot.
Continuity mistake: When Sonya grabs Ermac with her legs in the final battle, pay close attention. In one shot, you can see for a brief instant that Ermac's mask has completely fallen down and his entire face is exposed, but two quick cuts later, his mask is suddenly back on. (It goes by quick so you have to pay attention, but it's very noticeable once you see it the first time).
Continuity mistake: During the Jax vs Cyrax fight, at one point Jax accidentally punches his arm into the wall and gets stuck. In the first shot, you can see dust or smoke shooting out of the hole, but in the very next shot, it all vanishes.
Continuity mistake: When Rayden says the line "What closes can also open again" in the beginning of the film, watch the background. For this one single shot, the top of the pillar behind him on the left is missing a square-shaped chunk. But in the shots of Rayden before and after, the pillar is totally intact.
Continuity mistake: When Cyrax's "tattoo" flees his body, it rips a small hole in the metal of his shoulder. A few shots later, when we see the hole again to see the countdown clock, suddenly it's much bigger.
Continuity mistake: During the Cyrax vs Jax fight, at one point Jax gets knocked to the floor and says "Yo, I take it this ain't something we can talk about?" If you watch, when the camera cuts from a wideshot of him landing to the closeup of him on the floor saying his line, he's suddenly in a completely different spot on the floor and the debris behind him is totally different.
Continuity mistake: During the Liu Kang vs Baraka fight, at one point, two more Barakas swing down on chains. Liu kicks them off the chains, and they simply disappear for the rest of the scene. They didn't fall into the firepits, as you can hear them hit the ground, nor would the fall have killed them, as they aren't high off the ground. They simply... disappear.
Continuity mistake: Johnny Cage is not wearing sunglasses at the end of the first film, but he is wearing them as this one opens. Since this movie starts where the other left off, he should not have them on.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the first movie, Sonya is wearing a robe and is barefoot, but when this film opens, she is wearing shorts, a tank top, and boots. Since this film takes place immediately after the first film ends, she should be in the same clothing.
Answer: Mortal Kombat 2 was given a budget around the same as the first one probably indicating that New Line (makers of the film) were not convinced the film would not be as much an success as the original was. The buget of 30 million is not too high of a risk for a major film studio. The original was more built on the novelty of the video game and the interest of how it would translate to the screen so a sequel was always going to be tough. While it's hard to find out why the quality was unimpressive, this can just be more from different film crews from the first or just tougher f/x to try and create for the film in the time available. Take The Mummy Returns for example. The Scorpion King near the end looked far too computer generated. This was despite a massive budget and impressive CGI for both films.
Lummie ★