MORTAL KOMBAT II
Starring: Adeline Rudolph, Ludi Lin, Jessica McNamee, Mehcad Brooks, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Karl Urban, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Ana Thu Nguyen, Martyn Ford, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Joe Taslim
Director: Simon McQuoid
NICK
2021's Mortal Kombat has many issues, including poor writing, questionable casting, and a lack of action. Mortal Kombat II doesn't make any real improvements in its writing (the modern pop culture references are painful), but it at least puts its focus on a legacy character, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), and she is a stark improvement over Cole Young (Lewis Tan). If that doesn't work for you, there is a substantial amount of rousing fight sequences that make this feel more like the game. Yes, Mortal Kombat II masks a lot of its flaws with entertaining action, but that’s still a step up from its predecessor.
ROBERT
The idea of trying to cram any semblance of plot into any Mortal Kombat property is foolhardy, so I was happy to find that director Simon McQuoid and the writers of Mortal Kombat II brushed that aside strictly for tournament-based shenanigans. In comparison to the original sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, this is Citizen Kane, but in general, the action and death sequences are ramped up, and the comedy, while not as prevalent, hit enough to manufacture a few loud guffaws. I love Karl Urban, but he probably still wasn’t the exact right choice for Johnny Cage. Flawless victory? Naw, but a worthy triumph.
ADRIANO
The Mortal Kombat games are my favourite video games of all time. So I say this as a fan: Mortal Kombat II is awful. While it fixes some of the issues from the first one, my fan bias aside, there’s nothing to grasp onto. Sure, some of the fatalities were fun to see, but if I didn’t have a connection to the source material, would I say that? The plot is incoherent (even by Mortal Kombat standards), the action is weightless, and the visuals are gross. I’m not giving this a pass when I wouldn’t for other films of this nature.
AMARÚ
One down, one to go. If 2026’s other fighting video game adaptation delivers like Mortal Kombat II, my inner child will be ecstatic. This sequel understood the assignment (especially one particular course correction) by using a serviceable story to service awesome fight sequences and entertaining characters. Josh Lawson shines again as Kano, while Karl Urban brings enough self-aware hubris to counteract him not 100% working as Johnny Cage. But the surprises were Tati Gabrielle and Adeline Rudolph bringing actual gravitas to Jade and Kitana. Nothing here is better than expected, but everything is exactly what was wanted: a bloody, funny, good ass time.
