Mortal Kombat II review: A slight improvement on its predecessor
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the previous Mortal Kombat movie back in 2021 so I didn’t have high hopes for this sequel. Mortal Kombat II is surprisingly better than its predecessor, but it’s still riddled with problems.
A quick refresher – Outworld has defeated Earthrealm in nine out of ten death match tournaments known as Mortal Kombat. One more victory and then evil Outworld leader Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) will rule Earth. The first film took place before the tournament, while this one focuses on Mortal Kombat itself and new characters – reluctant Outworld fighter Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), her surrogate sister Jade (Tati Gabrielle), and Earthrealm’s new recruit Johnny Cage (Karl Urban).
The main heroes and villains of the first film have been bizarrely cast aside for this follow-up. The first movie focused on Cole Young (Lewis Tan), an MMA fighter chosen to fight for Earthrealm. This time around, he is given very little to do and barely registers as a character. I know the returning champions – Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) – weren’t exactly well-written or well-defined the first time around, but it feels like they (but in particular Cole) have been reduced to nothing to make way for some fresh faces. Even last time’s big bad, evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han), is a bit redundant with the introduction of Shao Kahn.
But this decision was actually for the best because the new characters are the most interesting. Kitana is a fierce warrior who doesn’t want to fight for Shao Kahn, who killed her father many years ago and took over her kingdom. She has a decent storyline and Rudolph gives her depth. Meanwhile, Urban is hilarious as ’90s action movie star Cage, who doesn’t understand why he’s been chosen for Mortal Kombat as he’s not a real fighter. It’s pretty funny watching him compete against true warriors with his rusty martial arts skills.
This film also brings back some characters who died in the first film which means the stakes of the death match tournaments are super low. If you can be resurrected, why are we supposed to care? One example is Kano (Josh Lawson), a rude, obnoxious and offensive Australian mercenary. I found this loudmouth incredibly annoying last time but on this occasion, he offers some welcome comic relief.
Nobody goes into a Mortal Kombat film adaptation expecting good dialogue, a substantial story and well-rounded characters. Good, because you’re not going to get them! This is all about the fighting and there are many sequences featuring slick stunt choreography, cool weapons and insanely gory violence. But despite changing the settings and the configurations, the fights still get boring after a while. There is such a thing as too much action!
This film works on the assumption that everybody knows who all the characters are. I saw the previous film five years ago and had forgotten everything and found this quite hard to follow. Take it from me – refresh your memory before going in!
Mortal Kombat II is a slight improvement on its predecessor but it’s still squarely for video game fans. Non-fans, like me, may well find it unengaging and generic and mentally check out.
In cinemas from Friday 8th May