By: Jamie Steinberg
For those of you who are like I am, vintage Mortal Kombat video game fans, the latest version of the video game turned movie coming to theaters made you excited. Sat in my seat for Mortal Kombat II, I was eager to see if this bloody sequel would pack in plenty of butt kicking in epic fashion – the way OG fans of time spent playing in the arcade would expect of these movies. Sadly, this latest film in the franchise disappoints as an excess of characters and plot cause Mortal Kombat II to be game over.
Fan-favorite former action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) finds himself enlisted by lightning master Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) in the fight for Earthrealm, which is being tormented by the murderous Outworld tyrant Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and his minions. Having lost nine times in a row in the fighting tournament known as Mortal Kombat, one more loss means that Khan will find himself in control. Despite professing, “I’m just an actor,” ally Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) encourages our hero-to-be that he had potential to have been one of the best. Joined in the fight against Khan is also Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Cole Young (Lewis Tan) and that is when we see Cage finally convinced to take part in protecting Earthrealm.
Unfortunately, while the film attempts to keep up its emotional core, it soon falls flat as there are just too many characters and rivalries to follow (Sub-Zero vs Scorpion – both underused representations by Joe Taslim and Hiroyuko Sanada). Add in an overwhelming number of locations and you have “throwing things at the wall until one sticks” situation – hoping to add in as many video game related references in as possible. Thankfully, standout actor Karl Urban shines as Cage, delivering in fight scenes like the one where he does a split and delivers a punch to the groin of a bad guy (be ready for an overwhelming number of gifs of this moment to be all over the internet).
Director Simon McQuoid and writer Jeremy Slater clearly did their best to make sure Mortal Kombat video game fans got as much bang for their buck as possible. But to paraphrase Coco Chanel, less accessories can make more of an impact. For example, Kano (Josh Lawson) died in the last movie and yet somehow is back in this iteration – delivering cringeworthy lines like, “Somebody order a necromancer?”
For those looking to fall back in love with the Mortal Kombat games thanks to the film Mortal Kombat II, don’t break out your roll of quarters. Despite the standout cast and beloved characters from the game, the brutal fight styles and scenes still aren’t enough to translate to a big screen bonanza.