TL;DR – A bloody fun time, if you don’t think about the plot at any point during the runtime.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Mortal Kombat II Review Introduction

I think it is safe to say that video game adaptations can be fraught. Indeed, even when we get a solid first entry, the follow-up can often flounder. Back during the height of COVID, we got this bombastic first entry in the Mortal Kombat series. However, it was missing something very important to the game: A Tournament. Well, they are back for round two, and they are ready to fix that omission.   

So, to set the scene, in the days since the first film, everyone realised that they are down one champion after Shao Kahn’s (Martyn Ford) pre-emptive strike. This somehow did not break the rules of the tournament. There are 8 billion humans in Earthrealm, and for some reason, the Gods chose washed-up Hollywood actor Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). He thinks he’s having an aneurysm, but reality hits hard when Johnny is zapped off Earth to face Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Shao Kahn’s adopted daughter, whose blades cut deep.

Now Fight

One of the good things about Mortal Kombat II is that it is not ashamed of the game it is adapting. It knows you are here for the action, and on that front, it does not disappoint. The blades are sharp, the maces are blunt, and the appropriately loud Foley crunch accompanies every impact. When it comes to the adaptation, this is not the SNES version of the game. People have blades, and there will be blood. I will say there is a weird sort of joy that happens when you are surrounded by a collective gasp from an audience that just all realised in real time that this film was not holding back at all. It was also great to see a stunt team that 100% understood the assignment, and a production team that pulled set ideas from the game and brought them to life.

Get Over Here

Another strength of the film is the cast, who know what sort of film this is and play completely into it. Karl Urban playing the washed-up actor finding himself again is the perfect choice for many reasons. Because, unlike many modern action stars, he is not afraid for his character to take a punch or two, and that helps build the character. He also absolutely has the swagger needed to pull Johnny off. You will know Kitana and Jade’s (Tati Gabrielle) storyline from the moment they are introduced; however, they absolutely make the most of it. Of course, we can’t talk about this film without mentioning Josh Lawson’s Kano, which starts at 11 and just goes up from there. The fact that he got through the entire film without dropping a c-bomb shows the power of ADs. Then we have Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, and Hiroyuki Sanada returning to bring some much-needed gravitas.

Fatality

If there is one weakness with the film, it is the story that had the unenviable task of making “let’s fight in a tournament with monsters to save Earth from the monsters” have some sort of narrative throughline. You honestly don’t need much structure there, just enough to keep the barrelling train from derailing. But even with that in mind, the story is paper-thin. This does mean that some characters, including some returning characters, get the barest growth and characterisation. Theu are almost left as filler, redshirts waiting around on an away mission. It would have been nice if the big bad was not just a dull-Thanos going through a heavy metal phase and had some gumption to it. While fun, I also wonder how all the very topical references throughout the film will age even between now and the digital release, but we did get a Saturn Awards shout-out, so I can’t be too mad there. Overall, thanks to the other strengths, these issues don’t become detrimental to the final product, but they do hold it back from reaching its potential.        

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Mortal Kombat II? Well, if you are after some silly fun action that leans heavily into the fatality mantra of the original games, then, yes, we do. It will give you all of that and then some. We would also recommend it to anyone who used to play the video games. However, I am not sure how much cross-over appeal it will have to anyone outside of those groups.  

Have you watched Mortal Kombat II? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Mortal Kombat II, we would recommend Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves to you because it brings similar vibes as Mortal Kombat, but without the gore/blood, if that is something that is a barrier to you.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Mortal Kombat II
Directed by – Simon McQuoid
Screenplay by – Jeremy Slater
Based on – Mortal Kombat by Ed Boon & John Tobias & Mortal Kombat by Greg Russo, Oren Uziel & Dave Callaham
Music by – Benjamin Wallfisch
Cinematography by – Stephen F. Windon
Edited by – Stuart Levy
Production/Distribution Companies – New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, Broken Road Productions, Fireside Films, Universal Pictures & Warner Bros Pictures.
Starring – Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Martyn Ford, Desmond Chiam, Ana Thu Nguyen, Max Huang, CJ Bloomfield, & Joe Taslim
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R