Bigger and better, ‘Mortal Kombat II’ fixes some of the issues of its predecessor to deliver a fun, fatality-filled sequel. Opening in the same manner as the first instalment with the set-up/introduction of important characters (this time a young Kitana seeing her parents slain by evil warlord and tournament overseer Shao Kahn), the film then hits the ground running. Part 2 picks up where the first film left off, with video game character favourite Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) being recruited (much to his confusion and snarky comment!) by Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to join the returning fighters and compete in Mortal Kombat. Thrust into the fantastic realm of Outworld, Cage and the team form a shaky alliance with a now grown-up Kitana (Adeline Rudolph). Initially aligned with and under the control of Shao Kahn, she joins the defenders of Earthrealm as they dive into the tournament to take on and defeat Kahn’s deadliest fighters.
Focusing on the tournament aspect and cramming the film with brutal fight sequences reminiscent of the game, ‘Mortal Kombat II’ gets to the core of what made the video game so much fun. It also, wisely, focuses this time around on game characters as the leads rather than a newly introduced one, as in the first film. Lewis Tan’s Cole Young is still here but is much more of a supporting character, though he does get one excellent fight scene. This time around, Kitana and Cage take centre stage, teaming up with returning fighters Sonya Blade, Jax (Mehcad Brooks) and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin). Adeline Rudolph and Karl Urban really shine as welcome additions to the franchise, with their story mainly focusing on their navigation through the tournament. Martyn Ford is also great as the towering Shao Kahn, making for a formidable nemesis, a role he appears perfectly at home in. Unfortunately, some of the returning characters get pushed aside in favour of the new ones, as it would have been preferable to have Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade a bit more front and centre.
Still, there are a lot of game characters to give screen time to and the focus on new characters gives this sequel a fresh perspective while continuing the story started in Part 1. Josh Lawson’s Kano, Max Huang’s Kung Lao, Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion and Joe Taslim’s Bi-Han (amongst others) also return, albeit mostly briefly, but all get a slick fight scene before attention returns to Cage and Kitana. Speaking of fight scenes, they are copious and crisply choreographed, featuring heavy gore (and feats of the fantastic!), encapsulating the violent fatality nature of the video game. The film rockets along from one tournament fight to the next (hopefully) giving fans what was missing from the first film. Story may be light (proceedings do smack of a lot being snipped in the editing room to get to the action faster), but the film knows not to take itself too seriously, leans into the fun (and silliness) of the concept, and delivers an abundance of finely crafted fantastical fight action.
An improvement over Part 1, ‘Mortal Kombat II’ leans into its violently over-the-top video game origins to (mostly) deliver a big budget, fast and fun fight flick, and the suggested Part 3 with the continuing quests of Kitana and Cage would be welcome.
