Mortal Kombat II (15)

Masked Outworld tyrant Shao Kahn extends his dark rule by vanquishing 10 champions from the fertile and lush realm of Edenia including its valiant ruler, King Jerrod. Many years later, Shao Kahn's hunger for power is unabated and he dispatches scheming sorcerer Shang Tsung and necromancer Quan Chi to locate a fabled amulet that will grant him immortality as he prepares to take on Earthrealm's most fearsome warriors led by thunder god Lord Raiden.

LondonNet Film Review

Mortal Kombat II (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Playing a videogame has always been more satisfying for me than watching livestreams of top players demonstrating their mastery, which might explain why the 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat – a slow-motion symphony of exploding heads, severed limbs and scorched skin directed by Simon McQuoid – left me cold. A muscular sequel suffers the same fate, unleashing a blitzkrieg of frenetic and impressively choreographed on-screen carnage that is unedifying as a big screen spectacle…

Masked Outworld tyrant Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) extends his dark rule by vanquishing 10 champions from the fertile and lush realm of Edenia including its valiant ruler, King Jerrod (Desmond Chiam). Queen Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen) reluctantly bows down to her new ruler to spare the lives of loyal subjects and her daughter, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph). Many years later, Shao Kahn’s hunger for power is unabated and he dispatches scheming sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) and necromancer Quan Chi (Damon Herriman) to locate a fabled amulet that will grant him immortality as he prepares to take on Earthrealm’s most fearsome warriors led by thunder god Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano).

Washed up Hollywood action movie star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) is chosen as one of Earthrealm’s protectors. He initially rejects the deadly assignment alongside Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks) and Cole Young (Lewis Tan) on the basis that he has no urge to be part of “some Squid Game murder party”. However, the gods have selected Johnny for a reason and he cannot outrun his destiny to represent more than 8 billion souls. Meanwhile, Kitana navigates a complex relationship with her best friend Jade (Tati Gabrielle), both of whom are selected to fight.

Mortal Kombat II pulverised me into wearied submission with one breathless and bruising skirmish after another, most of which conclude with digitally rendered dismemberment or Shao Kahn squishing a cranium beneath his mighty hammer. If there is a sharp blade visible on screen, chances are someone’s arteries will be severed in gleeful close-up. A poster for Citizen Cage teased Johnny’s introduction at the end of the 2021 film and Urban grizzles with obvious relish as the world-weary actor, whose only superpower is that he’s “just incredibly handsome”.

Competing for laughs, Josh Lawson reprises his role as profanity-spewing Australian arms dealer Kano and screenwriter Jeremy Slater delights in arming him with some of the saltiest one-liners like when he pithily likens the ashen-faced appearance of necromancer Quan Chi to a pendulus part of Voldemort’s genitalia. Like the original film, Mortal Kombat II is ‘game over’ for subtlety and layered characterisation, although Rudolph’s performance comes closest to a discernible tug of a heartstring. Everyone else prefers to claw out a heart and other vital organs with bare hands.

– Kim Hu