‘Mortal Kombat II’ is an Entertaining Mess of a Film – Review

We went to see Mortal Kombat II in theaters and wow do we have thoughts about it.

*warning: minor spoilers below for Mortal Kombat II

I’ll freely admit that I was excited to see the sequel to Mortal Kombat (2021). That movie was pure dumb fun from start to finish, and most agreed that as long as a sequel kept that same tone, it would likely be equally fun to watch.

Well…I have good news and bad news.

The good news is: Mortal Kombat II is indeed filled with a lot of dumb fun.

The bad news: the parts that aren’t dumb fun are really, really bad and awkward.

Mortal Kombat II 

Directed by: Simon McQuoid

Starring: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks

Release Date: May 8, 2026

Mortal Kombat II is set up sometime after the events of the 2021 film, with the evil Shao Kahn set to call for the final Mortal Kombat tournament that will decide the fate of Earthrealm, as one more defeat means Shao Kahn and Outworld will gain total control. Lord Raiden, meanwhile, is in search of the last champion Earthrealm needs to compete in the tournament and has just located him: Johnny Cage, a washed up actor and martial artist who is way past his prime and very cynical about everything.

Let me just start by saying that as much fun as this film is for the most part, Mortal Kombat II could’ve been so much better. The 2021 film proved that it’s possible. Tell a coherent plot, throw in a heavy amount of fighting scenes that pay homage to the video games, and you really can’t go wrong.

Where Mortal Kombat II fails, for the most part, is in trying to tell a coherent plot. Whereas the first film took the time to introduce us to Cole Young and his struggles, this film barely introduces Johnny Cage before we are tossed headlong into the tournament portion of the story. It genuinely felt like about an hour of exposition was missing, exposition that could have better rounded out Johnny’s character and how he feels about being suddenly responsible for the fate of Earthrealm. There are hints of some of these things, but it always feels like something is missing.

Speaking of Cole Young, this sequel, to put it bluntly, did him dirty. Given his suspicious absence from most of the promo materials, it was heavily suspected Cole’s story was not going to end well, but for goodness’ sake it didn’t have to go like that. I genuinely liked Cole by the end of the 2021 film and here he was barely more than a glorified extra. I don’t know what the film writers were thinking, but treating the main protagonist of the previous film in this way is not a good look.

Then there’s the downright uneven tone of the story. The portions with Shao Kahn are, quite rightly, dark and deadly serious. Shao Kahn is set up as an absolute monster and you feel that every second he’s on the screen. But the problem is the film will cut from a moment of brutality to a moment of awkward humor that feels very out of place. Most of these come from Josh Lawson, who is back as Kano in a manner that could’ve been epic but feels like it was thrown together just because the writers could.

I’m not saying a Mortal Kombat film can’t be funny or have moments that are funny, but the humor here just felt…off…or just downright awkward.

It wasn’t all bad. Mortal Kombat II had a number of things that were done right and kept this film from being a complete disaster. The most important of these were, as you might expect, the fighting scenes. As in the prior film, Mortal Kombat II paid homage to the video game with a number of combat scenes that felt like they came right out of the video game, right down to the way the camera panned around to show the two combatants squaring up to each other.

All of the fight scenes were great, but my two favorites had to be the scenes with Kitana and Shao Kahn respectively. Shao Kahn, as mentioned before, is set up as this terrifying being whose evil knows no bounds. He feels like he stepped right out of the video game and I couldn’t have asked for a better interpretation.

I’m equally thrilled with how Kitana’s story is presented. Kitana has been my favorite Mortal Kombat character for years and Adeline Rudolph plays her to perfection. The film made sure to give Kitana her iconic fan weapons and I love how they were used. Forgive the minor spoiler but those fans are responsible for some of the most brutal deaths in the film.

At the end of the day, you’ll likely leave the theater feeling entertained by Mortal Kombat II. The fight scenes alone are worth the price of admission, and Kitana’s story is very well told. Just…don’t think too hard about the rest of it.