Mortal Kombat II came out in theaters earlier this year, but I didn’t have much desire to see it on the big screen. The only reason I watched the first film in theaters was because my wife really wanted to get back to the movies after the COVID shutdown, but I wanted otherwise especially since it was already streaming for free on HBO Max at the time. I enjoyed the first movie, but I was skeptical about the second one. For starters, the original two movies from the ’90s started good and ended awful. Some of the casting choices for this one, primarily Jade, also rubbed me the wrong way. Still, it had a much better reception than the first Mortal Kombat sequel back in the ’90s, so I was willing to give it a try, and I watched it with my wife.

The tone and direction take a very different path from the first film. Instead of focusing on Scorpion, his legacy, the rise of Liu Kang, and the guidance of Raiden, one of the biggest story threads now belongs to the new character of Johnny Cage. In the video games, Johnny Cage always seemed like the odd man out, an American movie star with powers that weren’t particularly interesting, so I was genuinely surprised to see them go this route. Casting Karl Urban was a wise move, since he can not only get the job done but has also become one of the most popular actors around after his run on The Boys.

What surprised me most was Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Shao Kahn’s adopted daughter. She’s fairly true to the games, though like every other character, there are some variations. But what we get here is a complex, emotional, and just plain kick-ass portrayal of a character who, for most of the franchise’s existence, was reduced to a sexy love interest for Liu Kang.

The primary antagonist is Shao Kahn, just like in the Mortal Kombat II video game. I always thought he was the magnum opus of Mortal Kombat villains, so I was pretty excited to see him in this movie. He’s accurate to the games apart from a few details here and there, and light-years beyond the Shao Kahn from the 1990s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. They get him mostly right this time.

The plot revolves around a Mortal Kombat tournament to decide the fate of Earthrealm. Outworld, led by Shao Kahn, has won enough tournaments sanctioned by the Elder Gods to have Earth on a string. So champions are chosen, and the fights to the death begin. I wasn’t as big a fan of these fights as some other people seemed to be, since some of them are rather predictable. If you love the blood, gore, and brutality of the Fatalities, though, they do an amazing job of bringing them from video game to silver screen. A lot of the plot becomes about fighting, so you know this movie was never going to win any Oscars.

There are also some strange redundancies, such as the return of Scorpion and his long struggle with Bi-Han, better known as Sub-Zero. He was really cool and interesting in the first movie, but here it’s just a little too much of the same thing. I rather wish they had made him a more traditional combatant in the tournament than what ended up happening.

I definitely liked Mortal Kombat II, but it’s not a perfect film, and it’s certainly worse than the original. Like some of the video games, it makes some bold plot choices, not only with the overall story but with a lot of characters who are either sidelined or brutally killed. Death clearly isn’t permanent in the games or the movies, and there was only one that actually surprised me and got me interested in future possibilities. The highlights for me were Kitana’s story, struggles, and evolution, and, surprisingly, Kano, whose jokes hit me pretty hard. A third Mortal Kombat movie from Warner Bros. seems inevitable, and I really hope they don’t mess it up, because they have a decent foundation to work with.