Mortal Kombat II review

MORTAL KOMBAT II: 

VIDEO GAME MOVIE SEQUEL IS A SILLY, GORY GOOD TIME! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Jessica McNamee, and Karl Urban in Mortal Kombat II

 

            The battle for Earthrealm continues in Mortal Kombat II, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2021 reboot of the Mortal Kombat film series based on the popular video game of the same name. I thought the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was fine and thought it felt much closer to the source material than the 1995 film and its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, simply because of its R rating and having a bunch of gore (The Mortal Kombat movies from the 90s were rated PG-13). 

            However, it was far from being a perfect representation of the game, as it didn’t even have a tournament (The thing the source material is supposedly about!), and the film made the bizarre decision of making a completely original character, Cole Young, the main protagonist. Despite Lewis Tan giving a fine performance, I thought Cole was an incredibly dull character that heavily paled in comparison to the actual in-game characters, the Milla Jovovich’s Alice from Resident Evil of Mortal Kombat. 

            Not exactly a “Flawless Victory”, but it was an enjoyable enough film, though the best Mortal Kombat movie we’ve gotten so far is the 2020 direct-to-DVD animated film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, which delivered everything that made the games great. Despite earning mixed reactions from critics and even some fans, Mortal Kombat (2021) was successful in both theaters and streaming during the dark times of COVID, and now, we have a sequel. 

            I was actually looking forward to Mortal Kombat II when it was being advertised with a marketing campaign reminiscent of a late-80s or early-90s action movie which was appropriate given the film would focus on the character, Johnny Cage and my excitement was through the roof when Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Thor: Ragnarok, The Boys) was casted as the Hollywood actor turned tournament fighter. Well, like the first, I can’t call this a “Flawless Victory”, but goddamn, did I have a fun time in the theater with Mortal Kombat II?

            The film follows martial arts film actor, Johnny Cage (Urban) being summoned by Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano-Thor 1-3, Parasyte: Parts 1 and 2, Detective Chinatown 3) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee-The Vow, Battle of the Sexes, The Meg) to join their Earthrealm fighters consisting of Liu Kang (Ludi Lin-Power Rangers (2017), Aquaman, Kung Fu), Jax (Mehcad Brooks-Desperate Housewives, Necessary Roughness, Supergirl), and Cole Young (Lewis Tan-Deadpool 2 and 3, Shadow and Bone, Cobra Kai) in the interdimensional fighting tournament, Mortal Kombat against the forces of Outworld and stop the tyrannical emperor, Shao Khan (Martyn Ford-F9, The Machine, Red Sonja (2025)) with the help of Edenian princess, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph-Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale, Resident Evil (2022)). 

            The film also stars Josh Lawson (House of Ties, Superstore, Bombshell) reprising his role as Kano, Tati Gabrielle (The 100, Uncharted, The Last of Us) as Jade, Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Better Man, Together) as Quan Chi, Chin Han (The Dark Knight, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marco Polo) reprising his role as Shang Tsung, and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, John Wick: Chapter 4) reprising his role as Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion. 

            Overall, Mortal Kombat II isn’t quite the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 of Mortal Kombat movies, but it gave me exactly what I wanted and does improve upon the first in certain areas. The biggest improvements being there actually is a tournament this time, and the Cole character from before gets sidelined into a supporting role with Johnny Cage as the new protagonist. 

            Speaking of which, let’s talk about Karl Urban as Johnny. He’s great and effortlessly captures the spirit of the character. He’s charismatic, cocky, funny as hell, and kicks ass, but never to the point where he’s unlikable, as throughout his time in the tournament, he goes through an arc and learns to become a better person while still retaining his charm. 

            I don’t think I’ve ever seen Karl Urban in a role like this, but he nailed Johnny Cage extremely well, and I look forward to seeing more of him again in the next film. All the other returning actors are fine with the exception of Josh Lawson’s Kano; he is once again having a ball chewing the scenery as the resurrected mercenary with a laser eye, and his banter with Karl Urban’s Johnny is some of the funniest shit in the movie. 

            I also dug Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana quite a bit; she looked great in the costume, and seeing her fight with her bladed fans was fucking awesome, but she also carried a fair amount of emotional weight as a princess whose kingdom was taken over by Shao Khan. Seeing this version of Kitana made me realize they did her so dirty in the 1995 Mortal Kombat and the sequel. 

            The action sequences are very fun and deliver all the over-the-top, bloody goodness you’d want, with opponents being killed in creatively gruesome ways such as getting sliced in half with spinning blades from Kitana’s fans, Shao Khan smashing people’s heads open with his giant hammer, and several dismemberments. The film was also shot in IMAX for several of the fight sequences, and through the camera work and editing, it often does feel like you’re right there with the fighters. It’s no Dark Knight, Sinners, or Project Hail Mary, but I’d say it’s worth checking out on the large screen. 

            It’s a fun watch, but there are some major issues that keep it from being great. The biggest one for me is how choppy the editing is during character interactions. I love the actors and their characters, but a lot of their banter and dynamics are so incredibly fast-paced that I found it distracting. I wanted the movie to slow down and let the characters deliver more of these corny lines of dialogue to one another because, for Mortal Kombat, the silly dialogue actually works, and the times they do it are enjoyable.

            Despite its flaws, I had a good time with Mortal Kombat II and will gladly consider it part of this new golden age of video game movies, with tons of love for the source material and giving fans what they want. Hard to believe there was once a time when films like these were considered cinematic poison, all I can say is fingers crossed for that new Street Fighter movie in October.