Mortal Kombat II Movie Review:

A fan approaches washed-up action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) and tells him he should make a comeback. Full of alcohol and despair, Cage is sure nobody is waiting for him to make a comeback. “They want gritty and grounded, they want Keanu Reeves in a suit killing henchmen with a pencil. Who wants to see a dinosaur making karate poses?” he asks. To which the fan replies, “I thought it was pretty cool.” That fan is exactly who Mortal Kombat II is made for. Bringing back the 80s Hollywood martial arts aesthetics with its over-the-top action choreography, cheesy action setups, and colourful set design with no real care for realism, without making it an explicit nostalgia bait, is a skill on its own, one which the Mortal Kombat film franchise seems to do with passion.

Director: Simon McQuoid

Cast: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin

After a clear emotional setup, of a daughter seeking vengeance, we dive once more into a universe where inter-dimensional (read inter-realm) fighting tournaments decide the fare of millions. However, despite the premise, it’s not your Avengers-style “saving the world” film. We hear the threat but do not feel emotionally attached to the “millions” whose lives are at stake. But we care just enough to not feel disassociated. We’re not shown happy families or sweet children playing to extract our empathy. It was enough when Kano (Josh Lawson) explains why he wants to save the world with a brilliant dialogue that sums up to “Other realms suck. Earth has beer, and I like beer.”

While Adeline Rudolph as Kitana takes care of the emotional foundations of the story, Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage holds the fort with his charismatic performance. Cage’s banter with Kano towards the end are some of the most entertaining stretches of the film. Except for the above-mentioned actors, everybody else seems to suffer from a case of “staring into nothing”. It becomes immensely clear that most of these close up shots were shot with just one actor in front of the screen and they were probably delivering the lines to a wall. The production design brings the different arenas to life with gorgeous maximalism and stellar attention to detail. It is not just the action choreography; the lighting in Mortal Kombat II is reminiscent of the 80s and early 90s. Instead of fretting over ‘source of light’, the film’s visual approach opts for ‘whatever looks cool’, and it works almost all the time, and even when it doesn’t, it still holds the charm of older video games with cheaper graphics. The dynamic camera work makes sure the video-game like setting translates into the cinematic grammar. Extra points to the makers for not overusing beloved catchphrases like “Finish him” and “Get over here”, using them to punctuate just the right moments.

Mortal Kombat II is entertaining for the simple fact that it stays loyal to everything great about the franchise. The most important aspect is the action sequences. It is an absolute riot seeing Kitana’s steel fans slicing a head into three pieces, Liu Kang blazing the screens, Kung Lao’s razor-rimmed hat slicing through a torso, people emerging in and out of Raiden’s lightning portal, Shao Khan’s menacing character design, Scorpion returning from hell to wreak havoc, and Johnny Cage’s goofy moves before kicking ass. Mortal Kombat II is exactly what you get when childlike imagination gets adult money. The film leaves you hoping that the next installment pursues everything good about it with more conviction and more focus on having fun with itself. While a third film is already in development, it makes us want to scream, ‘Get over here’