Director: Simon McQuoid
Cast: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada
Screenplay: Jeremy Slater
116 mins. Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, and language.

I don’t really subscribe to the idea of individuals claiming to speak for what the “fans” want in a franchise, but it occurred to me last night that I may have finally discovered a universal truth: fans, me included, just really want their Mortal Kombat movies to feature the theme song. Like…a lot. We want two hours of that theme song. We deserve two hours of that theme song.

Mortal Kombat II picks up right after the events of the previous film, as our established fighters begin the legendary tournament to defend Earthrealm from Shao Khan and his invading tyranny. When faded 90s action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) is selected by the gods to join them, he’s not prepared for what it will ask of him, but when Shao Khan and his sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han, The Dark Knight) attempt to steal a legendary and powerful artifact that can render the wearer immortal, it would seem Earthrealm is doomed to be the next target of Shao Khan and his endless desire for unlimited power.

Mortal Kombat II is better than its predecessor in just about every conceivable way. It’s also the closest we’ve gotten to the fun factor of the original 1995 film. Now, those aren’t high cinematic bars of excellence, but looking at the video game property and what needs to work in an adaptation, Mortal Kombat II succeeds with flying colors (or perhaps flinging blood splatters). While the first film had some great action and more than a few winks to the mythology of the games for diehard fans to enjoy, it also felt like one of those mid-2000s promotional animated releases like The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury or Van Helsing: The London Assignment that were released direct to DVD and served as marketing fluff to excite audiences to see the real movie, and Mortal Kombat II is the movie that I was waiting for. We get an actual tournament with real stakes, and the film’s direct focus on two interesting characters operating on opposite sides with Johnny Cage and Kitana (Adeline Rudolph, Hellboy: The Crooked Man). All the characters in this film serve a purpose and any character that doesn’t is strictly not included.

The action is fun and the script from Jeremy Slater gives plenty of opportunity for exciting set pieces, and there’s a bit more than just characters fighting each other until someone dies for two hours straight, with Slater cleverly including an interesting and important subplot involving the Amulet of Shinnok, which has several appearances in the games and gives this sequel a much more compelling plot than I’d anticipated.

Now, I’ll still say that some of the exposition is underdeveloped and some of the character beats are glossed over because more intense fans of the games might need the info. As a casual player of the games and knowing this is a movie that will be seen by plenty of people who have never picked up a controller, more time could’ve been given to the characters. Outside of the well-developed Johnny Cage and Kitana, a lot of the secondary characters, specifically the newly introduced ones, are rather glossed over at times, and I think with all the fun mythology that these characters have developed across the decades, I’d have loved to have seen more of that in the finished film.

Much like its predecessor, the use of CGI environments and during some of the action gives the film too much of an animated feel with several sequences that reek of “people standing in a green screen environment” vibes, which is unfortunate. If we had more practical effects, I think the film’s general look and the intensity of the stakes would have felt more real. Granted, I know I’m talking about a movie that knows how silly it is, but the CG is, at times, more distracting than helpful.

Mortal Kombat II is the movie the first film should’ve been, and it’s chock full of thrilling set pieces and fun characters. While most of the heavy lifting comes from Karl Urban who fits perfectly as an aging and has-been version of Johnny Cage, the screenplay gives each character something to do and a narrative that actively surprised me several times over with unexpected twists and turns and plenty of cheer-worthy moments. It’s an improvement on what came before and actively has me excited to see where a third film will take audiences, and hopefully they embrace practical effects more in the next installment. What’s here should make any fan of the video games GET OVER HERE to the local theater.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe