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James Mottram

2/5 stars
In Mortal Kombat II, action star turned reluctant hero Johnny Cage has a moment of self-reflection. Calling himself a dinosaur, he remarks that doing a bunch of karate poses “went out in the 90s”.
You may well feel the same about this latest take on the popular video game franchise, in which players fight to the (usually grisly) death. This tedium feels 30 years out of date.
Following two little-liked movies that came out in the 1990s, the 2021 film Mortal Kombat rebooted the franchise, with director Simon McQuoid steering it to a healthy US$84.4 million box office.


While the visual effects were naturally better than those of its predecessors, the laboured plot could not disguise the fact that it was little more than an excuse to spirit audiences from one ultra-violent duel to the next.
Which brings us to the sequel, again directed by McQuoid, as those from Earthrealm continue to battle Outworld. After nine tournaments, it all comes down to this, as highly skilled combatants face off once more.
Among them are Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Cole Young (Lewis Tan) and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), who must pool their resources against the evil hammer-wielding Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and his cronies.
Joining the gang of good guys is Cage (an excellent Karl Urban), a fan favourite from the games. Here, he is first glimpsed as a world-weary, washed-up star now reduced to signing autographs at fan conventions.

Slightly recalling Jason Momoa’s retro-gamer character in A Minecraft Movie, Cage is an entertaining addition, as he tries to muster his minimal fighting skills against these powerful beings.
Further amusement comes from returning Australian actor Josh Lawson as Kano, last seen losing his eye to Sonya Blade. Like a foul-mouthed Crocodile Dundee, this maverick mischief-maker brings some much-needed Deadpool-esque humour, breaking up the monotony of the film’s endless fight scenes.
Also back are Japan’s ever-reliable Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano.
Sadly, it is not enough to salvage a story that cannot even manage to devise original combat scenes; one fight staged in a cell with spikes that randomly spring up through the floor is a lift from Flash Gordon.
With lazy nods also to Transformers, Squid Game and even the 1986 Kurt Russell classic Big Trouble in Little China, the script repeatedly dips into the well of pop culture to try and feel relevant.

For the most part, Mortal Kombat II is as antiquated as the powerful amulet that the characters spend plenty of time chasing. The result is little more than a series of vignettes, cartoonlike in their goriness, as characters smash each other to a pulp.
That may be fine for a video game, but in a movie, it is just brainless.
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Little more than a series of cartoonish ultra-violent vignettes, Mortal Kombat II feels as antiquated as the amulet the characters chase


Little more than a series of cartoonish ultra-violent vignettes, Mortal Kombat II feels as antiquated as the amulet the characters chase.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Little more than a series of cartoonish ultra-violent vignettes, Mortal Kombat II feels as antiquated as the amulet the characters chase

Little more than a series of cartoonish ultra-violent vignettes, Mortal Kombat II feels as antiquated as the amulet the characters chase