I quite enjoyed the first one of these films. It came out towards the end of covid lockdown in 2021, and was one of the first films to release in cinemas at the end of April/beginning of May. I think it was probably the first film I saw once cinemas had reopened. I had a really fun time with it though, it knows what it wants to be, doesn’t offer too much more. I’m glad they pushed out a sequel, after the film I believe did well on streaming because it, understandably, didn’t do well at the box office.
Mortal Kombat II picks up where the first film left off. The time for the latest Mortal Kombat tournament is now, but Earthrealm is still missing their final champion. Raiden locates him, a former Hollywood star, Johnny Cage, who must uncover his powers and his fighting ability as he is forced into the tournament to prevent Shao Kahn from taking over Earthrealm.
In my review for the first film, I referred to the film as almost “Fast & Furious like” in that you just want to go in and switch your brain off, watch some good fighting scenes and you’ll be happy. I gave the first film a similar score, giving it a 3/5, and had a decent enough opinion of it, and was looking forward to more of the same. It certainly is exactly that.
If it’s more of the same then why .5 of a star less than the first? The story, or lack thereof. The story of the first is very basic, literally creating a new character for Mortal Kombat lore that becomes our POV into this world. They almost do a similar type of story with Kitana (played by Adeline Rudolph), who is absolutely more of an interesting character, but has a similarly basic story. These films are hard to get a story going, it feels clunky, and weak and it doesn’t have any impact. Yes, the film is focused on the fights, but lacks the impact to make it hit home, and everything is extremely telegraphed. Johnny Cage (played by Karl Urban) is the other lead really, and has his own character arc, but you end up not spending enough time with either Cage or Kitana to have the impact the film wants.
Yes, the fighting scenes are fine. There’s one particular fight scene between Liu Kang and Kung Lao that I felt had the biggest impact, due to the characters being brothers, and feeling like a true battle between 2 fantastic fighters, rather than half the fights where it feels like it’s clear that one of the characters is way out of their depths. The Liu Kang/Kung Lao fight is also the fight that felt like it had the most hand to hand combat allowing longer cuts, rather than some choppy editing for the other fights. The fights also feel predictable about who will win or whether someone will actually die, and lead to a fight between Scorpion and Sub Zero which felt very forced to be in the movie, and almost like an afterthought, as they’re suddenly mentioned in the final act.
The cast does a decent enough job. Once again, Josh Lawson is a standout as Kano, he gets the character, he’s having fun with it and nailing the tone exactly as to what these films should be. Adeline Rudolph offers more as the lead of this film than what Lewis Tan did in the first, and is a better actress. We’ve seen a lot of Karl Urban over the last few years thanks to his performance as Billy Butcher in The Boys. I was surprised he had got the role of Johnny Cage, but I get the angle they were going for, but don’t think it fully lands. I don’t think that’s particularly Urban’s fault, just that he wasn’t given much to work with.
Overall, Mortal Kombat II seems to have decent word of mouth, and a lot of people are enjoying it more than the first one. For me, I think the action sequences on the whole don’t offer enough to get any sort of impact or don’t feel overly impressive. Brief moments make it enjoyable enough and an easy to watch, but it’s not one I’m going to rush to rewatch anytime soon.
What did you think of Mortal Kombat II?
Let me know via the comment section below, like and follow here and on social media @floodersfilms or via the buttons below!
Flooders Films 
Leave a comment