Mortal Kombat II is designed to make you smile. If you like action, violence, pop culture references, and seeing classic video game characters on screen, it’ll bring a very big smile. If you disliked 2021’s Mortal Kombat for having too much of a story, it’ll be an even bigger smile. And if all of those things are true, well, it might be your favorite movie ever. Just don’t expect much more than that.
Simon McQuoid returns to direct, this time from a script by Jeremy Slater, and there’s no denying that Mortal Kombat II is fun. The film has just enough story and character development to plausibly make almost its entire run time nothing but wall-to-wall fights. The characters all perform their signature moves, often in very recognizable game-inspired environments, and with plenty of gruesome fatalities along the way. It really flexes all the violent potential of the franchise, and if that’s primarily what you want from a Mortal Kombat movie, you are in luck.
However, if you happen to be a fan of the previous film and its story of young fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), born with the blood of the ancient fighter Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), and his journey, we have bad news. Mortal Kombat II takes all of that and basically flushes it down the toilet. Cole is barely in the movie, much of the previous mythology is glossed over, and the focus is solely on the Mortal Kombat tournament of the title that wasn’t in the first movie. We liked the first movie, so Cole’s demotion came as a bit of a bummer, but it’s hard to be too mad when the slight allows for several other characters to rise to the top.
For the most part, Mortal Kombat II tells the story of two characters: Katana, played by Adeline Rudolph, and Johnny Cage, played by Karl Urban. Katana’s role is to primarily drive the plot, so her journey from young princess to badass warrior for the evil Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) helps set the stage for the tournament and what the villains want from it. She’s also got a few of the film’s biggest, most memorable moments.
Then there’s Johnny Cage. Promised in a tease at the end of the previous film, Cage is a washed-up former action star who finds out his destiny is to compete in Mortal Kombat. Only, much like Cole in the first film, he’s just a normal guy who would rather not get involved. So Johnny experiences a similar arc to Cole’s, scared and struggling to embrace his destiny. The difference between Cole in part one and Cage in part two, though, is that Johnny Cage is from the original video game and comes armed with a catalog full of hilarious quips. He’s much more fan-friendly. Plus, Urban is having a blast here, firing off non-stop, Deadpool-esque pop culture references as he fights or gets his butt kicked throughout. The charisma is turned up to 11 for sure.
Weaving those two stories together, the film finds ways to incorporate all the other main characters—such as Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), and Jax (Mehcad Brooks)—as they prepare for battle with the evil minions of Shao Kahn. They’re basically just standing around and waiting to fight, but again, at least the action is exciting.
What’s also exciting is that basically every single character who died in the first movie is back, such as Kano (Josh Lawson), Kung Lao (Max Huang), and Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). And while that at first feels like a cheat, Mortal Kombat II allows those deaths to change each of the characters. They all have different parts to play than in the previous film, and the changes add a lot of flavor to the proceedings. At the same time, their returns help to establish the irreverent tone that the entire movie hinges on.
And make no mistake, it’s very, very irreverent. For the most part, that works, especially when Cage and Katana’s character arcs pay off, but it’s all secondary to the nonstop sensory overload. As a result, the plot is never quite that interesting. There are a few surprises scattered throughout, but they don’t land as well as the filmmakers probably hoped. Everything is just kind of mindless. We walked out of the theater, basically numb to the mayhem we’d just witnessed. And yet, we were also left with a strong sense of satisfaction. Mortal Kombat II does just enough to keep you interested so you can watch a bunch of cool, weird characters fight for two hours. There are laughs, there’s gore, and at the end, you’ll be left smiling. Beyond that? For most, it won’t even matter.
Mortal Kombat II opens May 8.
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Source: Gizmodo