Mortal Kombat II
Written by Cameron Geiser
2021’s Mortal Kombat remake was a decent first step towards a more accurate and entertaining adaptation of the popular fighting video game franchise. That film focused heavily on the blood feud between Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) better known as Scorpion and Sub-Zero. At least in the beginning and the end of the film. For the majority of the runtime we follow Cole Young (Lewis Tan), the descendant of Hanzo who never quite lives up to the brutality of his ancestor. If that name sounds unfamiliar to you it’s because he was a creation solely for the film’s sake. Which is odd given the high number of characters from the games with big personalities and more interesting quirks than the MMA fighter who we never truly see do much of anything all that impressive. That first film also does not include the actual tournament, it’s all just shenanigans from both the Outworld and Earthrealm parties involved. To be fair, that does stay in line with how the games operate overall. All of this is to say that the sequel improves upon all of these things and steps up its game in a satisfying way.
The core cast from the first film returns, most importantly this includes Kano (Josh Lawson) the MVP of the first film and nearly the showstealer of the sequel as well. While the script might be a bit more wily and looser than the first film, this sequel is far more in tune with the spirit of the games and characters than the first. For the uninitiated, Mortal Kombat is a fantasy fighting series in which other worlds, Outworld, Edenia, Earthrealm, and Netherrealm all send their best fighters to the tournament to fight on behalf of their worlds. A realm must succeed in ten Mortal Kombat Tournaments before they are allowed to take control of their defeated foes’ worlds. Combatants are chosen by the Elder Gods and one God in particular, Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), attempts to stay out of the fray but always ends up getting involved if things get too dicey.
Forward, Forward, Down, Forward, LK.
Mortal Kombat II gives each character something to do via fight scenes or narrative focus but the two characters that get the most attention are Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). As a fan of the games, Karl Urban as Johnny Cage is not only great casting, but the best addition to this sequel too. A Hollywood action star from the 1990’s a la Tom Cruise, Jean-Claude Van Damme, or Sylvester Stallone- Johnny Cage is seemingly out of his element among the Kung Fu fighters like Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) or Kung Lao (Max Huang). He doesn’t have robot arms like Jax (Mehcad Brooks), and he’s not a special forces military agent like Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) either. So, as you might imagine, he’s a bit of a reluctant hero until he gets his mojo back.
This film will most likely work for you if you’re a fan of the games, or enjoyed the first film, however, this is a cheesy, genre heavy, gorefest with well designed fight scenes. If that doesn’t track for you, you may not get invested or be interested. The team behind the film heard from the audience about what didn’t work the first time around and tweaked things to be a more successful adaptation of these very silly fighting games. If that sounds like a good time to you, I say go check it out. It’s a good time at the movies!
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.