A sequel to the sublime original was inevitable and while the return of Michael Dudikoff & Steve James was an entirely welcome one, sadly, much of what made the first one so uncommonly thrilling was conspicuously absent in the altogether lacklustre part 2. Unlike the unusually rigorous first instalment this looked and felt a little rushed, the thrilling element of mystery and delight of the original being replaced with repetitive, unexciting fight scenes and an inordinately silly plot.
With our stalwart Army Rangers Joe (Dudikoff) & Jackson (James) on an island detail to unearth the causes for the recent disappearances of military personnel, the Ninja element felt somewhat arbitrary and the palpable lack of an epic, stone-cold villain like the ominous Black Star Ninja becomes ever more noticeable as the profoundly muddled movie draws unexcitingly to its entirely bizarre, almost cod Sci-fi conclusion, appropriating a fairly risible plot contrivance that would have looked creaky in an episode of 'The Avengers' or 'Department S' some 20 plus years before.
While powerhouse actor Steve James still reliably displays his signature high energy performance, the once dudely Dudikoff seems somewhat muted, appearing disinterested, like the hasty production of most sequels, he is just going through the motions and many of the actors performances were quite poor, and, worse, many of the fight/action scenes were visually clumsy, altogether lacking flair, some sequences were badly blocked, frankly, this just simply wasn't a fun action movie, at best a flaccid A-team special, frequently banal and a crushing disappointment after the truly sensational original.
Celluloid lightning is very rarely captured and almost never twice in the same franchise. Time has not been kind to the 2nd instalment of the American Ninja series, merely exacerbating the movie's myriad flaws and the visible, frequent use of a double for Dudikoff was plentifully distracting. Such a shame as the estimable Steve James was quite clearly having a ball, sadly I didn't.
With our stalwart Army Rangers Joe (Dudikoff) & Jackson (James) on an island detail to unearth the causes for the recent disappearances of military personnel, the Ninja element felt somewhat arbitrary and the palpable lack of an epic, stone-cold villain like the ominous Black Star Ninja becomes ever more noticeable as the profoundly muddled movie draws unexcitingly to its entirely bizarre, almost cod Sci-fi conclusion, appropriating a fairly risible plot contrivance that would have looked creaky in an episode of 'The Avengers' or 'Department S' some 20 plus years before.
While powerhouse actor Steve James still reliably displays his signature high energy performance, the once dudely Dudikoff seems somewhat muted, appearing disinterested, like the hasty production of most sequels, he is just going through the motions and many of the actors performances were quite poor, and, worse, many of the fight/action scenes were visually clumsy, altogether lacking flair, some sequences were badly blocked, frankly, this just simply wasn't a fun action movie, at best a flaccid A-team special, frequently banal and a crushing disappointment after the truly sensational original.
Celluloid lightning is very rarely captured and almost never twice in the same franchise. Time has not been kind to the 2nd instalment of the American Ninja series, merely exacerbating the movie's myriad flaws and the visible, frequent use of a double for Dudikoff was plentifully distracting. Such a shame as the estimable Steve James was quite clearly having a ball, sadly I didn't.