Earthrealm needs saving again in the sequel to 2021’s video game adaptation. Here’s our Mortal Kombat II review. 2021’s Mortal Kombat . Remember it? A potent mix of great fight scenes and terrible storytelling. Despite several little nods to the games, there wasn’t much there to particularly enjoy, but the film’s ending did tease the ... Mortal Kombat II review | Hold on to your (bladed) hats
Earthrealm needs saving again in the sequel to 2021’s video game adaptation. Here’s our Mortal Kombat II review.
2021’s Mortal Kombat . Remember it? A potent mix of great fight scenes and terrible storytelling. Despite several little nods to the games, there wasn’t much there to particularly enjoy, but the film’s ending did tease the arrival of one Johnny Cage in a sequel.
Well, that sequel is now here, and it’s Karl Urban who joins the cast as the washed-up action star recruited to Mortal Kombat to save Earthrealm. The villainous Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford, somewhere underneath masks, make-up and CGI) is threatening to rule over Earthrealm so it needs saving. But, wouldn’t you know it, Johnny Cage needs to learn how to fight in order to save Earthrealm.
Because Earthrealm needs saving. We are told this. We are passing this on. Earthrealm is in danger! Mortal Kombat II won’t stop beating us over the head with the information that our beloved fighters are trying to save our world. It gets exhausting, especially as we see Shao Kahn in action only a few times over the course of nearly two hours.
For an action film with a lot of great fight scenes, Mortal Kombat II is far more interested in telling us about the plot rather than showing it.
Urban’s charisma is much needed here and he’s much of the reason Mortal Kombat II works when it does. His Johnny Cage feels real and is genuinely entertaining, battling through the cliches he’s given to work with.
Cage, of course, stars off a tired, grumpy man – having a drink at a bar where Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon is serving drinks – who needs to find new purpose in life, but in Urban’s hands there seems to be a bit more to him, even if Jeremy Slater’s script blatantly refuses to give him any kind of depth.
But it’s not the character work that gets us to buy a ticket to something like Mortal Kombat II. It’s the fights, and those don’t disappoint. They were the best part of the first film and they’re the best part of this one, too. They remain satisfyingly gory and brutal and red meat for fans of the videogames.
But fight scenes aren’t enough to make a good film. This one hops from one fight scene to another – as a Mortal Kombat adaptation kind of has to – but everything in between falls flat.
Just like its predecessor, Mortal Kombat II starts with a powerful sequence that sets a character up for a great journey, then mostly abandons it in favour of another character and half-asses both characters’ stories.
Urban’s Johnny Cage and Josh Lawson’s Kano are the highlights – and once they get together, that’s when the real fun starts. Unfortunately, it’s far too late by this point, and this writer was mentally checked out and wondering time Tesco Express down the road shut.
The most frustrating thing is that this could have so easily been a pretty decent adaptation. The few times Mortal Kombat II works, it really works. Urban brings much-needed energy and laughs to the film, and there’s actually some life to be found.
But it’s quickly drowned out by storytelling that seems to constantly forget what kind of a story it wants to tell. Is this a tale of a young warrior looking for revenge? Or a man looking for purpose? As it stands, it fails both.
Mortal Kombat II is a massive improvement to its predecessor, but there was a better film to be made here. It’s a shame the film is hitting cinemas when Exit 8 is still available, because that’s a far better example of how to bring a videogame to life on screen.
Mortal Kombat II is in cinemas 8th May.
