“Code 8” was an “X-Men on a Budget” thriller, reasonably well cast, with hunky mutants (not called “mutants”) and decent taser-finger effects.

But it was an ungainly lump of a movie, clumsily trying to switch between criminal mutants, who are a persecuted minority, and the cops who both persecute them and try to keep the crooked folks with “special powers” from spreading the drug “psyke” they make from their own spinal fluid.

It’s not much of an exercise in sci-fi movie “world building.” It’s so deritive as to be content with “world borrowing.”

A Canadian production, it made almost no money and thus was low profile enough to seem “fresh” and “new” and thus attract an audience on Netflix.

Now, there’s a sequel. I rewatched most of the original film, not realizing I’d seen it and reviewed it. It’s that forgettable.

The sequel — “Code 8: Part II” — sees our principal rivals return. Connor (Robbie Amell) is fresh out of prison, thanks to what he found himself entangled in back in “Code 8.” Garrett (brother Stephen Amell) is now the psyche kingpin of Lincoln City (Toronto).

As Connor took the fall for Garrett, the mobster figures he “owes” him. But Connor doesn’t want any part of that until a “special powers” kid, Pavani (Mikayla SwamiNathan) loses her brother to a crooked cop (Alex Mallari) angling to become union chief, leading his protection racket with badges minions.

Pavani is the “rarest” of those in the alt world of people with “special powers.” She’s a “transducer.” “Electric” Connor tries to save her from the crooked cops and the movie’s special focus in this sequel — a piece of recognizable tech from our own world, a robotic police dog.

Director Jeff Chan spends a lot of “Code 8: Part 2” showing us the robot get out of cars, stalk and chase prey. It’s the “non lethal” alternative to the murderously trigger happy android Guardians, which we saw in “Code 8.” Only it’s not “non-lethal.” That’s just a Lincoln City PD lie. ‘

On the lam with Pavani, who witnessed the mechanical dog murder her brother, Connor turns to the corrupt but playing-the-angles Garrett. And stuff gets messy.

Only it never does. An on-the-lam thriller is inherently more interesting than the “See how the mutants are perscuted/see how they fight back” X-Men riffs of the first film. But this thriller has no momentum. Its forward motion is too often interrupted to watch the robotic police dog do something, an expensive effect, even in Canada.

Our villain is cool and collected, just not very interesting.

By the end of the first act, “Code 8: Part 2” (Do they ever define a “Code 8?” I assume it’s a call about mutant misbehavior but I never heard it.) goes adrift and the kid becomes an afterthought to our good and bad “special powers” guys feuding and bonding and scheming.

That’s not much to justify making a sequel to a movie that may have had the narrative room to allow one, but never the entertainment value to justify it.

Rating: TV-MA, violence

Cast: Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell, Mikayla SwamiNathan and Alex Mallari Jr.

Credits: Directed by Jeff Chan, scripted by Chris Pare, Jeff Chan and Sherren Lee. An XYZ release on Netflix.

Running time: 1:40