Plot Summary: The fan favorite champions -- now joined by Johnny Cage himself -- are pitted against one another in the ultimate battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

Director: Simon McQuoid

Writer: Jeremy Slater, Ed Boon, John Tobias

Runtime: 1 hour 56 mins

Main Cast:

• Adeline Rudolph as Kitana
• Karl Urban as Johnny Cage
• Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn
• Tati Gabrielle as Jade
• Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade
• Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs
• Ludi Lin as Liu Kang
• Josh Lawson as Kano
• Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden
• Chin Han as Shang Tsung
• Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hashashi / Scorpion
• Max Huang as Kung Lao

Review by: Samuel

What I Liked:

What a course correction this was. This film learned its lesson from the first to give a genuinely entertaining film, and that begins with the action sequences. Like the first, Mortal Kombat 2 begins the film with a vivid and bloody battle- this time between Shao Kahn of Outworld and King Jerrod of Edenia. Unlike the last film, the movie doesn’t slow to a crawl afterward. Instead, we are treated to battle after battle – some better than others, but all well-crafted. 

The level designs are nice as well. The filmmakers did their best to emulate the games, and it shows. The way the cameras pan down, and you see the fighters on either side of the arena, with a distinct background behind them, might have you pointing and saying, “I know that stage.” Similarly, I like how the fighting areas are interactive- for example, one has spikes popping out of the ground that the fighters must avoid. It all added to the bloody and glorious destruction we see. 

The actual battles themselves are also unique, and fans will be pleased to see their favorite moves come to life. Johnny and Kitana’s fight showcased hand-to-hand versatility; any fight involving Shao Kahn was about brute strength, while Sonya and Sindel relied mostly on their powers. So the variety of different fighting styles was also welcome. I do want to note, as someone who mains Sonya and HATES fighting against Sindel in the games, the movie made me smile because their fight was exactly how it is when I’m playing. 

I also want to mention what you may have heard already. Liu Kang fights Kung Lao, and it is the best live-action Mortal Kombat fight I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to spoil a thing, so I won’t mention anything further.  

I spent a lot of time discussing the visuals/action because that’s what I believe the filmmakers cared about most. However, I can report that a few character performances also stood out. First, just know that Cole is no longer our main character- he is replaced by Kitana, who carries the burden of her people’s hope on her shoulders. While the character has very little depth, there is something there to make you care about the princess who must serve a usurper king who stole her home and killed her father. She is the closest one to having an actual arc in the film, and it’s one you can get behind. 

The best part of the last movie was Kano, and it’s not close. So they did a good job bringing him back and doubling down with his character type as Johnny Cage is introduced and talks just as much trash. Cage and Kano are HILARIOUS, and every time one or both of them are on screen, you are going to be smiling. They have this natural charisma, and I’m pretty sure the actors (Karl Urban and Josh Lawson) improvised a lot of their lines. 

Shao Kahn was also cool…he was ruthless in his multiple fatalities.

What I Didn’t Like:

Okay, so is there a movie outside of the action and visuals? Short answer- not a good one. The movie literally picks up where the last one left off, so the lack of character development from the first carries over here. You will not care about Sonya, Jax, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, or Raiden. If any of them get gutted, you literally won’t bat an eye because the movie didn’t make you care. So it was kind of frustrating watching the characters moan and cry over fallen comrades they’ve grown to love because we as the audience members, have no idea WHY they would care about each other- they may as well be strangers. Because I play the games, I know that Jax and Sonya are incredibly close, but through 2 movies, all I’ve gotten from either of them is “that’s my partner” … and this one line is supposed to make us think they’d go to hell for each other. 

Speaking of hell, this movie has a MAJOR pacing problem. Johnny Cage says no to the tournament when they ask him because he’s not at all willing to put his life on the line. Maybe an hour later, he is ready to go to NetherRealm for these people he just met, and it gave me whiplash. How in the world does one go from rejecting to fighting at all to going to hell with no assurance of coming back? It’s essentially the Zach Snyder method of rushing past development to get a character to a point that fits the script. The issue is that nothing the character does is believable because we haven’t learned a thing about them. 

This is literally true of everyone except Kitana and Shao Kahn. I mean, a character as important as Shang Tsung could have been excluded from the film, and it wouldn’t have made a difference at all. 

Outside of the severe lack of character development, the actual story is pretty bad. When we aren’t seeing fights, we are involved in some half-baked plot to steal Raiden’s power that has so many holes, too many conveniences, and just dumb execution. Clearly, the script was not the priority. 

Nor was directing, as some of the acting performances (look at you, Sindel), were mediocre at best. 

Finally, the CGI was not as polished as it should have been. I know films aren’t shot in order, but this one might have been, because when the NetherRealm sequence occurs towards the end, I think they ran out of money.  Everything in NetherRealm form the character models, to the weapons, to the blood splatter to the set design, looked like it was rendered on a PS3. We are talking about an OBVIOUS CGI model that looks like they belong on the CW. I honestly don’t believe that human eyes were laid on this NetherRealm sequence, and it was given the okay. 

Images Courtesy of IMDB