I don’t think anyone was truly claiming that 2021’s Mortal Kombat was a flawless victory, but there was certainly enough positive stuff going on in the video game adaption to perform a fatality to the excruciatingly bad Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. However, while the film brought the vivid universe of the games to violent and bloody life thanks to a vital R rating and a rich visual style, it was constantly and repeatedly legswept by the fact that it made constantly baffling story choices (No tournament? Brand new lead character? Limited scope?). However, with the strangely belated release of Mortal Kombat II, the franchise has yet another chance to finally deliver on the promise of Paul W.S. Anderson’s gloriously silly original movie and give us the Outworld experience we should’ve gotten the first time.
With fan favorite characters making their bow and all that pesky backstory already dispensed with, can director Simon McQuoid test his might and kombat those plot kinks to deliver the killing blow we’ve all been waiting for?
With the attempts of the wizard Shang Tsung to tank the Outworld tournament behind them, the fighters gathered by the lightning God Raiden now have to prepare for the tournament itself. However, after the death of arguably the most powerful of their group, the hat flinging Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Jax and Cole Young have to scout out another fighter to pad out their number and they apparently find it in Johnny Cage, a washed up action star who seems to think that his best years are far behind him.
But while Raiden’s top picks struggle to convince the grizzled actor of his own worth, we find that the Outworld camp have been looking to once again brand those famously nebulous rules.
Not only has the obscenely buff warlord, Shao Kahn, got his pallid wizards to perform acts of necromancy that have brought previously fallen fighters back from the dead, but Shang Tsung is cooking up a plan to leech the immortality from Lord Raiden in order to transfer it to his hammer swinging boss to cheat code that all-important victory. However, unbeknownst to him, Kahn’s adopted daughter, Kitana, is having some second thoughts about the way her “father” brutally rules his conquered kingdoms and is having something of a crisis of conscience. But as she finds herself feeling a pull to the light, will her bodyguard, Jade, feel the need to also protect her from himself.
As Mortal Kombat commences, some fighters will meet bloody ends while others will be brought back to life, but while skulls pulp, bodies tear and copious amounts of blood leaks all over the place, can Johnny Cage find the self belief needed to survive while his buddies brawl with both enemies old and new?
If there was a more polite way to to describe Simon McQuoid’s first crack at Kombat I’m certain it would be Mortal Kombat adjacent as the plot we were given seemed to fly in the face of what fans actually wanted to see. Yes, the grudge match between Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion (government name: Hanzo Hasashi) and Joe Talsim’s frigid assassin, Sub-Zero (AKA Bi-Han) was brought to epic life, but other aspects of the film made some frustratingly counterintuitive choices. For a start, it was frankly ridiculous that a film based on Mortal Kombat would go out of its way to completely avoid the actual tournament (in fact, avoiding it was the entire plot of the film) and while Lewis Tan did his best to offer up a brand new character to take point, we’re dealing with a world literally full to the brim with more worthy leads. However, it truly Seend that the filmmakers have stepped back, examined the first film and returned with a follow up that so enthusiastically gives us the film we should have had the first time round, that original movie now feels more like a prologue rather than a first installment.
Before I delve fully into how much fun I found Mortal Kombat II, I should point out that part of the reason it works so well is that it unabashedly gives itself over to its source material so fully, anyone not versed in the sizable lore of Outworld may be slightly confused at all the misshapen bruisers who show up the throw hands. Wasting no time at all trying to bring any stragglers up to speed, the script throws resurrections, shock deaths and magical macguffins at you, seemingly not caring if you can keep up or not. But while the first film battered you for a solid two hours with just as much exposition as it did roundhouse kicks, here the breathless plotting is only try to accomplish one thing – get to those fights as soon as possible. And what fights they are – brutal displays of martial arts that not only spread the insides of their combatants everywhere, but are punctuated with gaudy fireballs and special moves that finally make you feel like you’re in the titular game.
The change in quality is something of a massive relief, especially as we’re now spending less time training and waiting for powers to kick in like some sort of lethal puberty and more on fully embracing what Mortal Kombat is supposed to be. However, some of those plotting issues still pop up to block some of those exhilarating blows. For a start, using video game storytelling to tell a film story means that some of the swollen cast are left out in the cold. Chin Han’s previous big bad, Shang Tsung is little more than a glorified cameo, as is the tacked on final reel return of Scorpion and Bi-Han and anyone out there who actually was rooting for Cole Young may be legitimately horrified by his treatment. Also, if we’re now bringing back no less that three fallen characters from the dead, can it really be called Mortal Kombat anymore? I mean, if fatalities aren’t all that final, where’s the risk?
However, all of the above is ultimately difused with a eager sense of fun that accurately duplicates the feeling of gathering with a bunch of mates and button bashing combos till the early morning. Yes, bringing Kung Lao back as evil is a bit of a cheat, but it means that his fight with Liu Kang is by far the best fight in the entire franchise. Similarly, bringing back Josh Lawson’s foul mouthed Kano as he furiously swears and quips like the actor owes rent brings some much needed self-awareness to the po-faced plot. However, the biggest successes lay with Karl Urban’s grizzled Johnny Cage who may utilise a stunt double just as much as his washed-up character, but he provides a heart missing from the original – and Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana who’s stand against her Darth Vader/Thanos father (Shao Kahn apparently went to the Mad Titan school of parenting) remains true to the game while delivering something truly unexpected.
Better villains, better fights and fairly better plotting allow Mortal Kombat II to be a far more confident outing that finally realises the game. While this year’s other video game sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, peppered us with vapid nostalgia, the second round of Kombat uppercuts us into a bubbling acid pool of awesomeness. It may be amusingly dumb at times, but isn’t that the beauty and allure of a good, fun beat ’em up – non-stop fights and splashy gore?
Flawed victory.
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