This image released by Universal Pictures shows Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy, left, and Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie." (Nintendo and Illumination/Universal Pictures via AP)

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” exists because the first film grossed a billion dollars and for no other reason. Considering how the first film, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (2023), a charming and unusually clever CGI animated video game adaptation, tied everything up in the final scenes, there was no need for another chapter, but here we are.

This time, Mario and Luigi (voiced by former Lahaina resident Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) join Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) to rescue a second princess and face the wrath of the fully armed and dangerous Bowser Jr. There’s also the unveiling of Yoshi, a green dinosaur who emerges as the Jar Jar Binks of this movie.

What emerges is an idiotic spectacle, more a feature-length commercial for Nintendo and the inevitable Part 3 than a proper sequel. So many films are obvious products and made to push a franchise, but few films are so obvious about it. As video game movie adaptations go, nothing here comes close to matching the heart, invention and hilarity of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (2024) or any five minutes of “Wreck-It Ralph” (2012).

The story finally comes to life when Bowser, the villain voiced by Jack Black, takes the focus. Bowser first appears as thumb-sized, bitter in defeat and imprisoned in a dollhouse. Black is hilarious, and these bits jolt the film to life. One major question that bizarrely no one raises: who is Bowser Jr.’s mother and, prior to his Princess Peach obsession, when did Bowser have a relationship?

The decision to split the characters up, in order to explore different worlds, or game levels, dissipates our interest in the characters and subplots. The story cuts away from Mario and Luigi so often that I not only kept forgetting about them but also no longer found them interesting enough to carry a movie. Considering how there are now two princesses, Peach is no longer all that compelling, even with Taylor-Joy doing the voice.

Late in the film, Fox McCloud, voiced by Glen Powell, makes a splashy appearance and seems fit to steal the whole thing. Actually, he’s here to set a sequel or spinoff and, like everyone else, fades into the busy narrative, which is more of a series of colorful obstacle courses than it is an actual story.

What made “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” so captivating was its refreshing sense of fun, the bits where Bowser outright stole the show and especially the Donkey Kong battle and the Mario Kart chase, both thrilling showstoppers. In the sequel, longtime gamers will catch the references and in-jokes but the dependence on utterly random game logic that is never explained makes much of it baffling in an already chaotic setting. This is no way to tell a story. I’ll take a convoluted but still easier to follow “TRON” sequel over this.

Unlike the first film, where the sense of a building lunacy and joyful adaptation of the game propelled it forward, every action sequence here feels like a grand finale, making the 98-minute running time seem three times as long.

Sure, it looks great, but this is one of the emptier blockbusters I can remember enduring. It looks like yet another monster success for Illumination, the animation studio behind such proudly stupid hits like the “Despicable Me” and “Minions” series.

Illumination’s sole exceptions are the charming take on Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch” (2018) and both installments of “The Secret Life of Pets” (2016, 2019). Still, Illumination output is basically the anti-Pixar, emphasizing extremely lowbrow humor, loads of stereotypes, storytelling cliches, groan-worthy attempts at “hip” humor and animation that is colorful but interchangeable.

The company is currently on a massive hit streak and will need a catastrophe on the level of “Cats” to make everyone reassess the actual quality of these movies.

For now, they’re not going anywhere and are, once again, suffocating pop culture with their busy and insufferable output. I’m glad that Disney’s clever “Hoppers” is still playing and provides a superior alternative for parents wanting a movie day with their children. If Illumination wants a Disney-like legacy, it’s their screenplays that need to power up.

(2 out of 4 stars)

Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawaii Maui College.