Mortal Kombat 2 Is What The First Film Should Have Been All Along
It's just as silly as you'd expect and yet that's precisely what works about it.
When the original Mortal Kombat was in development, creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were both inspired by the eccentricities of Hong Kong action cinema and the over-the-top nature of American action films in the ‘90s. It’s impossible to look at the legacy of MK and not see shades of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport or Chang Cheh’s Five Deadly Venoms, in both the emphasis on martial arts as well as the overwhelming unseriousness of the proceedings. Throughout its over 30-year lifespan, the franchise has always understood that despite the high stakes and graphic bloodshed, it has about the same level of solemnity as a lethal episode of Monday Night Raw.
And yet, for some reason, 2021’s Mortal Kombat attempted to abandon the cheesiness (perhaps in an effort to run away from the reception of the previous ‘90s live-action films) in what felt like an effort to recapture the “grounded” nature of 2010s blockbusters. The result was a movie that, despite bearing a passing resemblance to Mortal Kombat, felt incompatible with the inherent cartoonishness of the source material. Now, five years later, it’s as if director Simon McQuoid (and new screenwriter Jeremy Slater) went all the way back to the drawing board for Mortal Kombat 2, a movie that, despite flaws that could only arise from a fighting game adaptation, embraces the camp and brutality of the series wholeheartedly.
It’s impossible to take a movie with a character as silly as Baraka entirely seriously, and thankfully this sequel doesn’t even try.
Much like the game that shares the same name, Mortal Kombat 2 significantly expands both the scope and worldbuilding foundation laid by the first film. We’re introduced early on to the new realms of Outworld and Edenia, the former being a desolate near-wasteland lorded over by the despotic Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), and the latter a prosperous kingdom ruled benevolently by King Jerrod (Desmond Chiam) and his wife Queen Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen). The series can’t quite escape the immediately recognizable aesthetic of digital FX soundstages, but after the last movie spent an eternity on Earth and in a nondescript brown training ground, some new and exotic locales are a welcome change of pace.
The film opens with the hostile takeover of Edenia by Outworld: Shao Kahn slaughters Jerrod in an extended fight sequence (one that sets the stage for a remarkable upgrade in the action department) and captures Queen Sindel for himself, also claiming Princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) as his illegitimate daughter. Naturally, across the next few decades, she grows to hate her tormentor and works as a secret agent for Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), much to the chagrin of her childhood friend and Shao Kahn loyalist Jade (Tati Gabrielle). McQuoid expressed a desire to explore more of the female characters on Mortal Kombat’s roster after the release of the first film, and Mortal Kombat 2 really capitalizes on that, with Kitana receiving more direct relevance in the plot than she has in over 30 years of games.
Unlike the source material, Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana is one-half of the film’s beating heart.
Across the realms, the surviving champions of Earth are preparing for the impending tournament that will decide whether or not they’ll share the same fate as Edenia, and are tasked with recruiting a new champion. That task brings audiences face-to-face with Mortal Kombat 2’s other central character: Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage. We’re introduced to the washed-up action star with a clip from Uncaged Fury, a fictional movie and a clear love letter to the action films of the ‘90s — blows that don’t land, flashy and nonsensical flips and kicks, and cringe-inducing dialogue all included. It’s a perfect way to both pay homage to the franchise’s origins (you could easily slot JCVD into the scene and it would only feel more natural), as well as setting up Cage’s entire pathos as a man who once stood atop the Hollywood castle before it all came tumbling down underneath him.
Cage’s presence is one of the winning ingredients that brings the film so much more in line with the subtle tongue-in-cheek levity of the games. The plot is firmly in “turn your brain off” territory, and Johnny feels like a much more natural audience surrogate than the first movie’s OC Cole Young (Lewis Tan) because he’s always been able to lampshade the absurdity of the franchise without it feeling insulting. Karl Urban might be a little older than most fans were expecting Johnny to be, but he’s perfect for the character’s exasperated bewilderment at the strange interdimensional conflict his eyes have been opened to, and McQuoid pushes the character towards a Jackie Chan-adjacent style of fighting and physical comedy that fits perfectly with the self-aware humor in Jeremy Slater’s screenplay.
Johnny Cage’s presence is the perfect justification for a welcome increase in comedy this time around.
The biggest improvement this time around is easily the combat itself: whereas 2021’s MK peaked at the beginning with the opening Scorpion and Sub-Zero fight, Mortal Kombat 2 races from thrilling setpiece to thrilling setpiece. Impeccable martial arts choreography is married with some pretty ingenious depictions of the unique magic abilities used by each character (something our abundance of superhero films could learn from); there’s a showstopping fight sequence halfway through involving Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) that’s assuredly the film’s highlight, though that’s not to say characters like Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) don’t get the chance to serve up their own idiosyncratic and electrifying beatdowns. It’s not just that the action is technically good (remarkably so) either, but each battle finds clever ways to evoke the games — from references to iconic moves like Liu Kang’s flying dragon kick to immediately recognizable locations such as Outworld’s acid-soaked Deadpool and the spike-filled Pit stage that debuted in the first game.
You’d expect for a movie based on one of the most violent game series of all time to have some pretty grotesque carnage, and in this regard, the sequel absolutely delivers. Not only are there multiple fatalities that might upset a sensitive stomach (including a few that play off the aforementioned locations), but this movie has a shocking body count. The franchise has never shied away from offing its characters, nor has it shied away from resurrecting them ad nauseum, but several heroes and villains meet gruesome and unexpected demises that go a long way to reminding the audience that the combat is mortal, after all.
One of the most exciting aspects of Mortal Kombat 2 is how seamlessly the fight choreography integrates most of the character’s unique superpowers.
Unfortunately, the most obvious problem with the film is its pacing, which feels like an overcompensation from the laborious nature of the first movie. The plot moves quickly away from crucial moments like important character fatalities or development, which is a shame because you can feel Slater trying to imbue these stock archetypes with some depth — a little extra time spent in-between the action would’ve gone a long way in developing the increasingly strained friendship between Kitana and Jade, or making viewers empathize with Liu Kang’s grief over the demise of his best friend Kung Lao (Max Huang) in the previous movie. As it stands, Johnny Cage is really the only character afforded a substantial arc of any kind (finally discovering the hero buried underneath the movie star machismo), which is a shame because returning characters like Sonya, Jax, Raiden, and even secondary villains like Shang Tsung (Chin Han) and Quan-Chi (Damon Herriman) all have interesting dynamics to bring from the games, and are instead left by the wayside.
Nevertheless, an adaptation of Mortal Kombat will never be high cinematic art, nor does it need to. Mortal Kombat 2 does precisely what a film based on the series should do best, which is provide staggering martial arts action and stomach-flipping gore set against the backdrop of a plot that is monumentally dumb and, nonetheless, entertaining. It’s a sequel that works not necessarily because listening to criticisms from fans is an infallible strategy, but because it harkens back to the source material and the over-the-top spectacle of the films that inspired it in the first place.
