By Matthew Moorcroft

Weak Recommendation

• Directed by Simon McQuiod
• Starring Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Ludi Lin, Hiroyuki Sanada
• R

Once again, I am probably being far too kind to this.

I don’t think anybody is under the assumption that Mortal Kombat II is going to be some level of high art. It is, after all, a movie where two of it’s major players is a woman whose weapon of choice are bladed fans that cut you up like butter and a man who can shoot lasers from his eye. We are working with inherent 90s cheese across the board here, and for those willing to be on it’s wave length, Mortal Kombat II will likely suffice in that regard.

And that’s basically all it has going for it. On the one hand, this does means Mortal Kombat II, for as many glaring issues it does have, has it’s simple pleasures. It’s a fast, lean movie that jumps right into the action with almost zero exposition; there is a tournament and the fate of the world is in the hands of these guys, go and kill. It would be refreshing if it also clearly wasn’t the product of being made almost solely for people in the know of the source material, which is ironically one of the more dense mythologies in gaming in spite of it’s otherwise seemingly banality in story.

On the other hand, it makes talking about it in terms beyond just “this happens” and “that was cool” profoundly difficult. It’s a movie whose best moments are all action beats and spurts of violence, and where everything else is mostly just biding time for the next bloody kill to ensue. Character progression and story are mostly just a means to an end; as long as it gets us to the next wow moment, then it’s done it’s job and we can go home.

This means that, objectively speaking, Mortal Kombat II doesn’t necessarily entirely work as a feature film, and most of these issues are ones it borrows from it’s prior feature. While Johnny Cage is certainly a more charismatic lead then the now thankfully forgotten Cole Young – who shows up in this only to be swiftly discarded – and that’s due to an always reliably great Karl Urban, his arc is mostly undercooked and upstaged by a far more compelling Kitana. Adeline Rudolph is very clearly the real MVP here, and her material is easily the strongest link in a film that is desperate for a level of emotional connection.

The rest of the cast ranges from great scene stealers like Ludi Lin’s always fun version of Liu Kang, CJ Bloomfield’s inspired take on Baraka, and Josh Lawson’s triumphant return as the singular best take on Kano, to otherwise wasted potential. This is most easily felt with shoehorned in Hiroyuki Sanada and Joe Taslim, who feel like mandatory additions to include more due to marketability then actual story reasons. But, in a weird way, it also makes Mortal Kombat II a pitch perfect adaptation of it’s own material; an evergrowing dense world of dozens of characters where it feels like you need a flowchart to keep track of everyone.

And like it’s own material, when it does discard that for the brief moments it can have a singular bout between old friends or life long enemies, it transcends it’s own material. The actual choreography here is fast, relentless, and unafraid to get bloody, and the clever uses of it’s characters abilities means that each fight is it’s own unique experience. When characters are whizzing around and actually punching each other, it’s easy to forgive somewhat weak CGI and green screen effects – it just adds to the cheesiness factor that makes it sing in it’s best moments.

So yeah, Mortal Kombat II is probably not good (TM) but honestly, does that matter? For those already invested, Mortal Kombat II is probably going to deliver the goods and then some, and in it’s best moments it’s a delightful time of gore and knockouts that will have you clapping cause somebody got sawed in half with the hat that kills you. It’s a very dumb, very stupid flick, and frankly that’s the biggest compliment you can give to this.