Mortal Kombat II Review: Far From a Flawless Victory
A lot of what I feel about Mortal Kombat II is actually the same way I felt about the Mortal Kombat reboot back in 2021. So far this franchise has been a frustrating mess, with a taped together plot that’s not nearly as disappointing as its sloppy action. Simply put, this just wasn’t for me.
If you haven’t seen the first Mortal Kombat or don’t remember it, you don’t really need to to grasp what’s going on here. Unlike that one, there’s an actual tournament here, and whichever side wins will rule Earthrealm, or something. Many of the same faces are here, including Raiden, Sonya Blade, Jax Briggs, Liu Kang, and Cole Young. But they’re pretty sidelined for our two new main characters, both of them staples to this franchise. The first one is Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), a fan blade wielding badass who poses as a fighter for the evil Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), the new big bad who’s big and scary looking but kind of sucks at fighting. After cliche prologue number 5 setting up Kitana’s background, we’re then introduced to Earthrealm’s new champion, the reluctant Johnny Cage (the always great Karl Urban). Unlike his video game character, a cocky hilarious action movie star, this iteration of Cage is actually a has-been: an older grumpier version who used to be a 90’s action star, now going to conventions where nobody even recognizes him. It’s an odd choice. Even though the games are going strong now, I’ve always considered the Mortal Kombat franchise to be a 90’s staple, and a character like Cage could’ve injected some of that well needed cheesy 90’s energy into this franchise.
That’s not a huge complaint because there’s really not much to him, Kitana, or any of the characters here. They’re just as paper thin as its story. If they’re not fighting, characters are just standing around expositing or cracking jokes that mostly fall flat (save for some of Johnny’s lines and Kano, once again the MVP of this movie) until they move onto the next green screen location and fight again. Now, I have to give credit. The previous MK suffered a lot because of its convoluted plot and lack of an actual, you know, tournament. The team behind the scenes definitely tried to right that wrong here. This time there is little plot and a bigger emphasis on action, as the tournament kinda takes center stage (heh) here. This might please some fans who just want more kombat, but to me it unfortunately felt tedious as hell. There’s not a whole lot to latch onto with anybody, making the stakes and emotional beats fall flat at best, groan inducing at worst.
All of these complaints are tame compared to my biggest issue with the movie, which is the action once again being pretty lame. I don’t get how we did this again, especially with all the talent on screen (any movie that wastes Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada hurt me big time), and the focus mainly being on the action. But it’s pretty sloppy and weightless. It’s not just bad from a quick cut standpoint but, weirdly, an audio standpoint. Big hits just don’t carry any kind of weight to them, and when they land, there’s almost never a satisfying boom or thud to go along with it. It’s such an oddly bad mix. I don’t mind big dumb fun! There’s plenty of movies I love that prioritize action first, story/characters second (in fact, there’s one coming out later this year that follows this same formula to a much more successful degree). But when the action is just as weak as your story, then it results in a really boring experience.
That being said, I do think others will find more to enjoy here than me, especially considering I’m more of a casual fan of this franchise. Again, there’s a lot of mindless action here so if you don’t mind that you could potentially have a blast. The movie is chock full of references from the games you love, and there’s a ton more characters here that’ll make fans happy. The action for me overall is a dud, but there are two decent fights. One involving Liu Kang and Kung Lao that shows off the actors’ talents fairly well, and the other involving Johnny Cage and Baraka that leans into its silliness much more than anything else in the movie.
I see a lot of people saying Mortal Kombat II is big dumb fun. I definitely can’t deny that. Art is subjective, as well as fun. And I can't stress enough how much I enjoy big dumb fun, it’s what I was hoping for as I sat down in the theater. It just turns out that the big dumb fun Mortal Kombat II provides is just not for me. Its story and characters are as thin as its 2D arcade version, but that doesn’t bother me nearly as much as its weak and weightless action. It makes for a forgettable, visually ugly, and dreadfully boring experience that I’m definitely going to have a hard time remembering in a couple months. It’s not like I was walking into this expecting some kind of flawless victory, but any kind of victory would’ve been nice.
