‘Mortal Kombat II’ Review: Tacky Sequel Strictly for the Fans

You can’t say that the creators of Mortal Kombat II didn’t take the criticism of its 2021 predecessor to heart. Fans complained that it lacked the central element of the games, namely a tournament, and that the central character, Cole Young (Lewis Tan), had never even appeared in the series.

So rest assured that the sequel revolves around a tournament, one that will determine the ultimate fate of Earthrealm, and that Cole has been relegated to a supporting role. In his place are two fan favorites: Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), the former ‘90s-era action movie star very reluctantly recruited to join the other champions, and Kitana (a charismatic Adeline Rudolph), who provides an emotional component to the ultra-violent proceedings with her desire for vengeance against arch-villain Shao Khan (Martyn Ford) for murdering her father in front of her eyes when she was a child.

Of course, when it comes to Mortal Kombat, character motivation isn’t really what the fans are looking for. Rather, it’s bone-crunching action, especially of the gory kind, which the sequel, helmed by returning director Simon McQuoid, delivers in spades. Non-devotees will be largely left in the dust, especially since there are so many characters, both returning and new, that you practically need a spreadsheet to keep up. And as Johnny Cage sagely observes at one point, these days moviegoers are more interested in watching Keanu Reeves’ John Wick mow down 500 opponents while armed with little more than a pencil.

Still, the film has its rewards, mostly of the unsophisticated kind, since the fight sequences come fast and furious and the cheesy dialogue has enough groan-worthy one-liners to inspire a thousand drinking games. The latter come courtesy of Cage, who’s self-aware enough to point out that the stuntmen did all the heavy lifting for him in his movies (even as they do it for Urban here), and Kano (Josh Lawson), the profane Aussie with the laser eye whose non-stop quips provide some much-needed levity amid the non-stop carnage.

Urban, who has no shortage of experience with sci-fi franchises (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys), provides plenty of fun as Cage, first seen in a clip from one of his old action movies (distributed by New Line Cinema, of course) before we catch up to him in the present day, where he’s a washed-up former star with zero fans at his booth at a pop culture fan convention. He’s naturally skeptical when he’s informed by Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) that his presence is required to help save Earthrealm, but he’s convinced by a dazzling light show. Upon arriving in the new dimension, he spots such fellow warriors as Jax (Mehcad Brooks) and points out, “That dude’s got robot arms!” Urban also makes much comic hay of Cage’s trademark sunglasses and his middle-finger way of adjusting them.

Screenwriter Jeremy Slater takes pains to pay homage to the games as much as possible, featuring so many throwaway references that the aficionados at the press screening were screaming with delight. Not much of it is particularly clever, as evidenced by someone commenting to a depressed Cage, “You’re normally a little more animated,” but let’s face it, nobody comes to Mortal Kombat for the bon mots.

Rather, it’s for those combat sequences, which frequently end with one of the participants — and not only the bad guys — either impaled, bludgeoned, severed, decapitated, or some combination thereof. What’s genuinely mystifying about the film incarnations is how boring they are despite the non-stop action, which is competently staged but lacking the kinetic fun of, yes, the John Wick films and its many imitators. Taking place with the performers going through their exertions in front of green screens featuring the sort of video game backgrounds that resemble cool screensavers, they hardly seem comparable to playing the games yourself.

It doesn’t help that the whole thing comes off as low-rent, with underwhelming CGI effects and creature costuming and make-up that pales in comparison to a typical NYC Village Halloween Parade. When the chief villains look like rejects from Star Trek, and I mean the old TV series, you’ve got a problem.

But probably not enough of a problem to prevent an inevitable third installment in this cinematic video game franchise that, to its credit, determinedly caters to its devoted fans, who don’t seem to mind that the word “combat” isn’t really spelled with a k.