In 1995 the hit video game Mortal Kombat made its way onto the big screen to major success before the not-so-great follow up in 1997. After the success of the gritty online series and the badass animated feature in 2020, a new film hit theaters in 2021 too much success. Now the highly anticipated sequel is almost here aptly titled Mortal Kombat II starring Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Max Huang and Karl Urban joining the cast as Johnny Cage and Simon McQuid returning to direct. Will this next entry bring fans the tournament they want, or will it fail to defend the realm?

 

Mortal Kombat II follows the fan favorite champions -- now joined by Johnny Cage himself -- are pitted against one another in the ultimate battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

I know the first film was met with mixed opinions, but despite some of its flaws I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure, like most, I was hoping for more of the tournament, but it was clearly setting things up. According to one of the writers of the first film, Greg Russo that the planned trilogy had this second feature focusing on the tournament itself and should a third film happen it would take place after the tournament.

 

The filmmakers clearly listened to the issues of most of the fans and fixed it this time around, but that doesn’t mean the film is a flawless victory. The film is a bit clunky at the beginning and stumbles as it sets things up. The decision to shift the focus more on Kitana and fan favorite Johnny Cage was fine but felt to me like it just sidelined some of the previous main characters. Make no mistake they are all still here throughout, but just not as dominate as they were the first time around. At the same time dealing with an ensemble like this is bound to happen.

 

I am hit and miss with the cast with Karl Urban who I am a big fan of and think he works great for Cage based on personality but honestly wish we had gotten a martial arts person in the role to really step his action. It works, but they seemed to use him more to bring more laughs here and I think the Cage character deserved more. I know I might seem harsh, but a character based on Van Damme gives me specific ideas and I just didn’t get it. I still enjoyed Urban in the role who chewed it up like only he can.

 

The rest of the cast are fine for the most part with a couple just not working for me including Sonya Blade who is played fine but just doesn’t feel like her to me which I felt in the first film as well. My biggest disappointment was the mostly sidelined Lewis Tan’s Cole who I know some had issues with, but I love Tan and wanted to see him get more of the action he deserved. Cole was the lead in the first movie and then treated him like just a generic character and felt like it dropped the ball just to diminish his stature from the first film. Maybe my own fandom of him makes me biassed, but I stand by it.  

 

Most of the characters had looks closer to the games this time around and embraced the video game elements to try and be truer to most of it. The action is good with some fights a bit generic, but others that are really good. They lean into the powers and violence much like the game as they should but could lose those