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Posted in: Movies, Review, Warner Bros | Tagged: mortal kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Warner Bros
Mortal Kombat II Review: Fun, Tons Of Blood, But Missing Something
Mortal Kombat II is similar to the last film, turned up a notch. Sadly, that means a really bad script & painful scenes between the fights.
Article Summary
- Mortal Kombat II delivers bigger fights, more gore, and brutal fatalities, making the sequel bloodier than the 2021 film.
- Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage adds fun energy, while the cast clicks and fans get plenty of Mortal Kombat crowd-pleasing moments.
- Mortal Kombat II stumbles with a weak script, clunky dialogue, and flat scenes that drag whenever the action stops.
- The action and fan service hit hard, but Mortal Kombat II still lacks the spark needed to become the definitive adaptation.
Mortal Kombat II is, for the most part, a lot more of the same we got with the last film in the franchise. That film, released in 2021, was not a box-office success, though it opened in theaters on a limited basis due to the pandemic and was also part of the failed Project Popcorn debacle Warner Bros. staged that year. It did amazing streaming numbers, so they said screw it, upped the budget a bit, and brought in Karl Urban as fan-favorite Johnny Cage. Director Simon McQuoid is back, along with the producing team and most of the cast, even the ones who died. So, why does it feel like something is missing?
Mortal Kombat Is As Violent As It Gets
Earthrealm is under attack yet again, as evil ruler Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) has set his sights on our planet to conquer next. Our heroes from the last film- Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Sonja Blade (Jessica McNamee), and Cole Young (Lewis Tan) are joined this time by Johnny Cage (Urban) in the fight to save Earthrealm from certain doom. This time, they take on Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Jade (Tati Gabrielle), Quan Chi (Damon Herriman), Shang Tsung (Chin Han), and more.
As with any sequel, we get more and more of what the filmmakers feel worked best in the previous film. They really upped the ante on the gore and fatalities, with some truly creative dismemberments and deaths. Will they stick this time? Good question. It was shocking how many of the characters that died in that first Mortal Kombat are back here in the sequel, and with beefy roles. All of them have been in the promotional material; there are very few surprises in this one. They are saved for little moments for fans of the franchise to find and clap for. And there will be a lot of that. For fans, some shout-in-the-theater type moments will have them fist-pumping. The cast is good in their roles, just like in that first film. Lin and Rudolf are especially good and carry most of the emotional burden.
The film falters in the same way the first one did. This is a nightmare of a script. Unnatural and unnecessary dialogue runs rampant. Where are these screenwriters getting these conversations from? It feels like they have never heard two human beings talk to each other. Jeremy Slater has writing duties on this one, and he somehow watched the first one and said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It is excruciating to sit through these characters conversing between the fight scenes. There are also a few points where the CGI gets a little troublesome, a trend that's become common in blockbusters lately.
All that is to say that if you are coming to a Mortal Kombat film for characters standing around and talking, you are there for the wrong reasons. We are here for gruesome kills, some awesome fights, and one-liners, and dammit if the film doesn't nail those things. One fight between Liu Kang and {Redacted} is a marvel of choreography, and CGI blended to perfection, the kind of scene you clap for after it ends. There are lots of great fights here, many more than the first film, and spread out through the runtime, not saved for the last twenty minutes.
It just feels like this franchise is missing something. Nothing is memorable. Everything is in place for this to be THE Mortal Kombat film, but it never quite gets to that final gear. Even over the end credits, when that familiar song is pumping and the voiceover we all know and love is naming the characters, we should be fist-pumping along to the music and falling over ourselves at how great the experience was, but we aren't. We enjoyed ourselves, but nothing sticks.
Mortal Kombat II
7/10
Mortal Kombat II is more of the same from the last film, just turned up a notch. More fights, more blood, and more characters. Unfortunately, that also means yet another bad script and painful scenes between fights.
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