Washed-up actor Johnny Cage joins the defenders of the Earth Realm against Shao Khan’s evil forces in Simon McQuoid’s awkwardly uneven Mortal Kombat II.
MOR-TAL KOM-BAT! -=Techno music plays over review=- It had to be done, it is Mortal Kombat law.
This year’s Mortal Kombat II is better than the last Mortal Kombat II, better known as 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. But that’s not a high bar to top, as that film is notoriously one of the worst (although that makes it a fun watch, and I do look forward to the forthcoming Arrow upgrade of it and its predecessor). However, this is a far, far, far better film, but it repeats many of the issues of that film, it reduces a successful first Mortal Kombat entry into often empty nonsense, a cheap-looking reference-a-thon. But think of it as “what if Annihilation was ALMOST good thanks to Karl Urban and a bunch of legitimately awesome parts?”
Released theatrically and direct to HBO in 2021, Mortal Kombat, directed by the returning Simon McQuoid, was a valiant attempt to make something new of the long-running video game and other media franchise. It was good overall, but had some pacing issues, composition woes, and a whole lot of wooden acting. While Paul WS Anderson’s 1995 film functioned as Enter The Dragon with a supernatural overlay, McQuaid’s film featured a new story, introducing a new character, Cade, as a hero called up to represent Earth in the Mortal Kombat tournament. It spends the whole time setting up the characters and world, leaving the tournament to determine control of Earth (if Outworld, another realm, wins one more time, their leader, Shao Khan, will rule) to the sequel, much to the chagrin of everyone. Thus, Mortal Kombat II is the tournament itself when it wants to be.
This film resets a little, with Johnny Cage, played by an incredibly entertaining and game Karl Urban (and when isn’t he?), as our new audience surrogate. Although this is really Adeline Rudolph’s film as Katana, the unwilling Outworld champion and Shao Khan’s adopted daughter, after he killed her dad in the opening. Cage should have been our hero the first time, sorry, Cade. Cade’s still here, but pretty much a nothing. Johnny Cage’s introduction, via a cheap JCVD-like 1996 New Line action film, is classic, earning big laughs with a knowing camp aspect that comes and goes from the film proper. For… reasons?… Cage is called up to assist Raiden, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, and Jax (returning group of Tadanobu Asano, Jessica MacNamee, and Mehcad Brooks; all wooden and awkward… but so is everyone but Urban and Josh Lawson) to replace the dead Kung Lao as a defender of Earth.
So now the rules and world have to be reexplained. But it doesn’t matter. The hows and whys of setting up the tournament, who fights, when, and how it all works are frustratingly handwaved. Raiden (my go-to character back when I played the games in my teens in the 90s, although fighting games are absolutely not my forte) waxes on about the Gods will it or the like as if that’s a real explanation. Things happen because they do. Sometimes, in explicable, eyerollingly dumb “wait, what” simply because they look cool. 
One shouldn’t be surprised by the script with Jeremy Slater on writing duties. Slater’s feature film work, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and 2015’s Fantastic Four, for example, show no understanding of character or plot structure. For his credit, he did create the great The Exorcist TV show and the uneven Moon Knight. But here, picking up from Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, anything character and plot-based is pushed right off the stage edge and into the spikes. Sure, there’s a little of “Johnny Cage has to find his inner fight of righteousness,” but when it’s referenced later on in the film about a change in his character, I couldn’t help but scoff. Generally, everyone’s pretty much a blank, spouting voiceless dialogue.
Look, I don’t expect depth in Mortal Kombat II, but I expected something more to tie together. It’s so slapdash, it’s insulting; awkward editing pushing through sequences themselves and smashing them together like a kid hitting buttons on the arcade machine. This is the sort of thing where characters appear somewhere just because the scene needs them there right now, sometimes with a power never seen before or again. For a nearly two-hour movie, there’s a lot of dumb air between the goods. Especially in the first half.
On a production aspect, Mortal Kombat II just looks cheap, earning no favors. From Spirit Halloween costuming (having Cage call it out is merely lampshading) to poorly rendered CG backgrounds that stand out like a sore thumb, and odd lighting choices, it all gives a made-for-TNT flair. It’s a cliche to say it looks like a game cut scene, but it’s true. It’s a stiff film. It always feels artificial.
However, it’s not all for naught! Within that gobblety-gook there are a whole lot of awesome moments, fights, and other aspects. Especially in the second half, there’s a sense of things coming together to make it far more fun. Incredibly flawed and often eye-rolling, but much better. It’s almost enough to win me over. I compared it to Annihiatoin, and it’s true in many aspects, but it is a far more competent and complete film, even if it does do so much of the same “hey this is from the game!” and Leo pointing meme for the sake of doing it.
The fights, even with some chainsaw editing (fights with several people are often lost in terms of who is where fighting who), are a lot of fun, with a skill in the performers; there’s a kinetiness that raises the blood, even in being aware we’re in fully CG environments and all of it enhanced. A bit with Baraka is wild and might be my top sequence. Liu Kang’s big fight has some awesome moments as well. Said fights overflow with blood and oh, shit moments, as one would expect for Mortal Kombat. It has many big, crowd-pleasing moments.
Not to mention the return of Josh Lawson’s Kano. Lawson knows exactly what movie he’s in, spouting his sophomoric macho quips with aplomb. He was the highlight in Mortal Kombat, and remains so. Yes, he died last time, but when you have a necromaner on staff, all bets are off. Whenever he’s around, it all spikes. Especially when he and Urban share scenes. And I absolutely loved the hulking, cheesy monstrosity of Martyn Ford’s Shao Khan. That man is imposing, and remains so even under his skull mask, pounding his way through the enemies and the film. These three lean into it all, making a wish for a better film more in this manner; all too much takes itself seriously, flattening the aspect. I’m curious to see how Street Fighter will do later this year in comparison. Mortal Kombat II seems unsure of how video game it wants to go outside of recreations of known bits, while the marketing for Street Fighter is leaning all in.
Mortal Kombat II is far from a flawless victory. Honestly, it’s not great overall, but there’s enough to recommend to fans to put their quarters in, and I think the bigger fans will really dig it, as my crowd at the critic/word-of-mouth show were cheering and whooping (including many critics!). Karl Urban elevates it all; without him, the magic would be lost. Mortal Kombat II, directed by Simon McQuoid, is too often an awkward mess, but when it works, it works well enough.