REVIEW:
Mortal Kombat II is a movie that most people will say corrects the mistakes of the first movie and gets things right. I don’t quite agree. In fact, I might be the rare person who actually liked the first movie (the 2021 version,) more. That being said, the sequel is also pretty good, but it has some serious flaws that do cost it some major points.
Ironically enough, most people consider there to be two flaws of the first movie, and I believe there are exactly two huge flaws to the second movie. People think the first movie is weak because it brings in a new character as the protagonist (Cole Young,) and because it never makes it to the tournament, but instead is all setup. I appreciate that the movie brings in a new character, surrounded by tons and tons of characters we already know. Especially if it leads them to hold off on Johnny Cage and save him for the sequel, with an Easter egg tease at the end. And regarding the first movie being all setup… good! It is. And this “setup” includes tons and tons of action and one on one fights. I like when a movie or story takes the time to build up. The first Iron Man movie is the best superhero movie of all time because it took its time to build the suit and examine the circumstances that led Tony Stark to actually become Iron Man. The same can be said about Batman Begins. So yes, making the first movie a precursor to the tournament, and an introduction to this world, was a good thing.
And now to address the sequel. There’s a lot to like here. We get two new protagonists. Not just two new characters, but the actual lead characters of the movie are both new here… these would be Johnny Cage and Kitana. Cage is funny. For my money, Kabal in the first movie (with his Andrew Dice Clay-like New York accent,) was by far the funniest and best character, but after that it was Kano. And Cage is a runner up to Kano. Not to worry though, because Kano is back as well. He and Cage have a very similar humor, which is to make fun of people and situations by using pop culture references. There are references to John Wick, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Squid Game, and even Big Trouble in Little China. The difference in their humor is that Cage will say everything in a nice, PG-13 way, giving us the Tony Stark take on nicknames, whereas Kano won’t hold anything back, (“you look a like a bleached dildo… you look like Gandalfs nutsack.”) Both are pretty funny, although having two characters generally making the same kinds of jokes is a lot.
The story is fine. The general idea is that the tournament is about to begin, however the earth realm team is down one fighter since Kung Lao was killed in the first movie. I like that call back to the first movie, and I like that the co sequences of that first movie matter. Only they kind of don’t. You see, (and this brings me to my first of the flaws or criticisms with this movie,) death is of no consequence here. Characters are easily brought back to life. Kung Lao, Kano, a zombified Queen Sindel who is killed and then brought back all in the same movie, Sub Zero. They are all back from the dead. Now new characters die, but the movie ends with our protagonists saying they are going off to bring back their friends who have been killed. So what’s the point? What’s the point of Mortal Kombat if there’s nothing actually mortal about it?
I suppose the points are the fights. And those are quite good. From the opening fight where Shao Kahn (wearing a great skull mask,) brutally kills Kitana’s father to the Lieu Kang vs Zombified Kung Lao fight, the settings of these fights are great and so is the choreography. I love how the movie uses levels to have our fighters climb up onto different things during the fight. There’s Kitana father climbing up onto Shao Kahn hammer as its handle sticks out of a pedestal early on. Then there’s Johnny Cage climbing onto a shingled roof during his fight with Kitana, and her going up there to get him. She even uses her fans to help her get down.
It’s also pretty cool how the movie once again ends with a big fight featuring Sub Zero and Scorpion. These two our like the characters of legend. Their fight in the opening scene of the first movie is still what I consider the best action in this series to date. And I love how that movie bookended with these characters. They fought in the ice at the end of the first movie, and here they fight down in the fires of hell at the end, which makes for a pretty nice contrast. And it’s not exactly Sub Zero this time around, but a reborn version of the character, named Noob Saibot, who can now control shadows. All of it makes for a great climax.
But now for the second flaw of the movie…the tournament itself. More specifically the consequences of the tournament and keeping track of who won. The movie does not make this easy. They start off with a great idea, to feature burning pyres in the sky, five for Earth and five for Outworld. Each pyre represents a fire. When the fighter loses, the fire goes out. It’s like a system of tallies. The only problem is, they stop showing us these results for about an hour. And when they finally do show us them again, what they’re telling us doesn’t seem to make sense. If you follow each round, and are keeping track, then earth wins three, and Outworld wins two. Those are the matches that are clear. But then we have Lieu Kang, Jax, and Sonya. How their fates play into the fires and elimination isn’t quite as clear. They really needed to show us those fires going out a little more to help the audience keep track.
Speaking of the fighters, and getting back to that earlier point about how death is so inconsequential here, that it’s like a cheat, Outworld really doesn’t have many villains. Shao Kahn is the big bad, to be sure, but he’s really about it. All of his “henchmen,” are basically good. Kitana, Jade, even the zombified Kung Lao or the zombified Sindel. None of these characters really seem to be on the same side of Shao Kahn, even when they are fighting for his team. I suppose that’s why two of the fights end with the winner letting the opponent live. It’s a little annoying to see so many villains defect to the other side (including Kano who just keeps flip-flopping every movie.) This is definitely an area where the first movie was superior, giving Shang Tsung a real team of villainous creatures to go up against our heroes including a woman with bat wings and a bite (Mileena,) and a centaur creature, not to mention Kabal.
Seeing all of these women fighters on Shao Kahn’s team (three out of the five are women,) would be fine if they were actually villains. Mileena in the first movie proved that. But here, we get Kitana, Jade, and Sindel and all three of them are sympathizers and good down inside, which seems like a complete cop out. Shao Kahn needed more of a team, and certainly more of a team of actual villains.
There are other things to talk about here, like the amulet, which grants immortality to whoever wears it, so long as it is being powered by a god. In fact, Shang Tsung, (the villain of the first movie, who is barely used here,) has whatever story he is given in this movie, tied to the amulet. His entire story is about getting this amulet or getting it powered and working, It’s a complete McMuffin of course, only it becomes more than just the usual McMuffin of something that everyone wants, because here it leads to Shao Kahn not being able to lose any fights or be killed. And so our good guys have to find a way to get the amulet. If the first half of the movie is about the tournament, than the second half is about the amulet, with the tournament story sort of being put on pause.
The amulet story is fine. It’s nothing great, but it helps get the job done. So is the use of Baraka, here, the beast character of this movie. The last movie had lots of beast characters, from Mileena with her ferocious teeth to the centaur to the four-armed Goro. There’s only one such character here, and he doesn’t even fight in the tournament. That being said, he does get a one-on-one fight, against Johnny Cage, which is a clever way to get Johnny a second fight, but only one that’a actually in the tournament. It works, with Cage doing lots of the same moves he did in his movie, Uncaged Fury.. The only move I don’t get is the twirling of the arms, which he does both in his movie and then again here. Baraka ends up being used more for comedy than menace, and it’s not exactly funny, but even still, the action is good and the makeup is good, so we just go with it.
And that’a pretty much the story of Mortal Kombat II. There are definitely questionable decisions, like bringing all of these character back from the dead, and having Shao Kahn’s team consist mostly of good guys who are caught between teams, but those points just go to show what the movie isn’t. It isn’t a movie where you can keep track of who is dead and who is alive, because the dead characters are just coming right back. But there are lots of pros here too, including great fights and settings. It’s not a great movie, but it is a good deal of fun.