Killing in the Name of

Mortal Kombat II is, unsurprisingly, a sequel to 2021's Mortal Kombat and the latest attempt to adapt the long running fighting game franchise for the big screen. There has been a bit of a shift in Hollywood over the five years since the last instalment and this film has a very different attitude. Gone is the attempt to "serious-up" the material as MKII fully embraces its dumb its video game roots. It still isn't exactly good, but at least this time round it's bad in an enjoyable way.

For those unfamiliar with the games, they are based around a fighting tournament that decides if an evil empire from another dimension, or "realm",  gets to take over Earth. Think "Enter the Dragon" with superpowers and a hefty dose of inspiration from "Big Trouble in Little China".

 In terms of this movie, eight people from Earth take turns fighting eight people from "Outworld". Sounds simple enough but the script makes no attempt to create any sort of logic for the fisticuffs. People are magicked away to a random arena to fight when it's their turn (it is unclear who or what decides the timing) and the rules seem different each time. Sometimes they are taken two at a time, sometimes it's three, sometimes the fights are two on two, and most of the fighting isn't even part of the official tournament. Essentially, the film stops every ten minutes (maximum) for people to punch, kick, slice, impale and decapitate each other.

The fights themselves aren't anything spectacular but returning director Simon McQuoid at least knows how to frame the action so you can see everything that is happening and there is enough invention to stop the action getting stale. There are plenty of nods to the source material, with familiar locations, 2D plane character face offs and gory fatalities. Ed Boon, creator of the video game, even makes a cameo appearance.

With MKII embracing its digital beginnings, Lewis Tan's Cole (hero of the last film, but nonexistent in the games) is relegated to side character duty. Actually, side character is too grandiose a term and his treatment here will surely irk fans of the last movie. Taking his place as audience POV character is Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, a washed up martial arts actor who is in way over his head. Urban knows his way around a genre film and plays Johnny with an entertaining mix of bewilderment and bravado. Together with fellow Antipodean Josh Lawson, who plays the morally dubious Kano, they provide a decent few laughs. The humour is almost exclusively of the "combine a silly/crude adjective with a pop culture reference" variety, but funny is funny. 

While the boys have their fun, the real main character is Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), the adopted daughter of the big bad guy Shao Kahn, who fights for him but actually wants payback after he killed her real father. Rudolph is convincing but her adopted Daddy is a pretty bland antagonist and there isn't enough screen time to put together anything but the most by the numbers revenge story. 

That's more than most other characters get. With a fighting game roster's worth of people to cram in and only a sliver of story to go around, there isn't time for most of the cast to get an arc. Some have impactful cameos, some stand around awkwardly like out of place furniture. Crucially, everyone gets at least one fight, which is what fans of the games are there to see. Still, the constant deluge of names and nonsense will make some newcomers switch off.

And that's the crux of Mortal Kombat II. With paper thin characters and the barest semblance of a cohesive plot, it isn't interested in winning a new audience. It's here to tempt fans (predominately the older ones) of the video game into cinemas, and it certainly delivers on fan service. Moreover, it's non-stop enough to stop those being dragged along from getting too bored. 

6 friendships out of 10.