Mortal Kombat II: Fatally Perfect?!
Rich L.
Mortal Kombat is a game franchise that is no stranger to movie adaptations, with most of them being live-action and others animated. Compared to many other video game films, Mortal Kombat (1995) has fared far better than most, with the original often being considered one of the best video game adaptations of all time. The follow-up to the 2021 MK (remake), Mortal Kombat II (2026), was recently released, and after watching it with some friends, I have some thoughts.
What did I think of it? Well, “GET OVER HERE!” and I’ll tell you.
Honestly, I thought the original 2021 film was fine. Nothing amazing, just fine. There were, however, three problems I had with the film:
The scenery resembled nothing like the games.
The characters had very little to do and/or looked nothing like their gaming counterparts.
There was too much of a focus on Cole Young, who was a newly created character for that movie).
For MK II however, there were some major improvements....
Set Design
The set designs might have been one of the biggest improvements I’ve seen for any sequel film. For instance, the Deadpool (acid bath) and Portal scene looked like they’re ripped from the Mortal Kombat 2 game. Even the sets that looked less familiar were way more interesting than the bland areas from the 2021 film. They also had a camera angle that resembled the fighters using a 2D plane-design; resembling some current fighting games. The only nitpick I’ll say with this is that it would’ve been great to see them fight a bit more from that camera angle. Overall, the movie was amazing and a great callback to the Mortal Kombat franchise.
SideNote: Even the New Line Cinema logo was made to look like it was from the video games.
Character Moments
Regarding some characters not having much to do, this is mostly handled better in this film. Every character, I feel, had a full fight, and displayed their movesets with some degree of accuracy. If there are any characters that was underutilized, it would probably be one character whom I won’t name here. Even still, they had more to do than poor Nitara did in the first movie.
The biggest elephant in the room would be the handling of Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan). I’m ok with having a character exclusive to the movies, like how the MK’95 movie had Johnny Cage’s friend, Art Lean, who never existed in the games. It didn’t help that Cole wasn’t very interesting, story, design, or fighting-wise in the ’21 film, yet, in this film, let’s just say Cole’s role is significantly reduced, almost to the point where I feel bad for him. Whether his moments in the sequel were excessive or not, it definitely felt like an “apology” for the first film.
Another character, Noob Saibot (Joe Taslim) makes a proper live-action debut in this film. On one hand, I wish he was in it more; on the other, there was a lot of focus when he did appear, and his fight was very flashy, climactic, and rewarding against Scorpion (played by Hiroyuki Sanada). I do wish they called him “Noob Saibot” at least once in the film (and not Bi Han), it would have been more authentic to the game.
I know many would expect Liu Kang to be the main character, but I appreciate them focusing on other characters as the protagonists: Johnny Cage, played by Karl “Oi, Hughie” Urban, and Kitana, played by Adeline Rudolph.
SideNote: I think that may have been part of the reason why they made up Cole, so that they could make the 2021 film different from the ’95 film, along with Annihilation in ’97. I think Cage and Kitana were the better choices in this regard.
I enjoyed how Kitana was the heart of Outworld/Edenia, where the focus was about her reclaiming her land and avenging her father’s death (...and possibly her mother?). As someone who has played every MK game and seen every movie, this is the most we’ve seen King Jarrod (played by Desmond Chiam) do in any of them, which was also interesting.
Honestly, I wasn’t familiar with Ms. Rudolph before this film, but she quickly proved herself to be the perfect live-action Kitana. Not only did her movesets look remarkably close to her video game counterpart, but she also captured her strength making Kitana such an iconic character in the game.
Her chemistry with Jade, played by Tati Gabrielle, was one of the highlights of the movie, and their bond felt genuine. While I would have loved to see Jade get even more opportunities to shine in the film, I was pleased to see how much she contributed to the story. Her design may not have been my absolute favorite, but it was still a major improvement as she was given far more to do here than in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997).
I know, I know; Karl Urban was a controversial pick for Johnny Cage, since Karl is getting up there in age, and Johnny, around this point is considered younger in the games. This version of him, however, features an already washed-up Johnny Cage, who has passed his peak and is now trying to compete with “Keanu Reeves killing a bunch of people with a pencil” movies. While I’m always going to see him more as Billy Butcher from The Boys, I think he captured Johnny’s charm and fighting spirit perfectly.
SideNote: Urban pulled off the sunglasses routine along with the moves in perfect form.
If Kitana is the heart and focus of Outworld/Edenia, then Johnny would be the Earthrealm’s golden child.
Fight Scenes
As for the fights, there were plenty of them, were violently choreographed, and were better than those in the original Mortal Kombat. Although Liu Kang was present and isn’t the main protagonist here, he still played a large focus in the movie (he is still “the chosen one” in spirit). In fact, I think he has not only one of the best fights in the film, but perhaps one of the best-choreographed fights I’ve seen in a movie in a long time.
It was also pretty easy to tell what was going on in each fight, which was a minor issue in the 2021 film. The only exception would be the fight with Noob Saibot. While the fight had some confusing moments (particularly involving the shadow clone), it was still so cool, with so many neat effects in a colorful arena, that I can’t be too mad at it. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m a bit biased.
SideNote: There is also plenty of humor, mainly from Johnny Cage, Baraka, played by CJ Bloomfield, and Kano, played by Josh Lawson, who returns once again. I’ve never been a huge Kano fan, but with Lawson, I can’t help but like the assassin as his one liners hits every character in his sights. Get it?
Should you see Mortal Kombat II? Absolutely. It is possibly my favorite video game film after Sonic 3. I know Mortal Kombat has, perhaps, the most intricate lore of any fighting game series, and there are fans who are very passionate about it and don’t like it when things are changed. Of course, I can’t change your mind if you disagree with the changes that this movie may have made (such as Cole Young, the earlier introduction of revenants, etc.). I would say that this movie is far more faithful than the previous one, and one of the biggest controversies involving arcana (essentially a dragon tattoo that gave each character their powers, which was never in the games) was significantly downplayed.
If you’re able to do that, I promise, you will have a “SUPERB!” time.
Film Rating: 4 out of 5 Dragons
