I remember thinking that the first Mortal Kombat was ok. To be fair to it, the film came out during the pandemic so that might have played into my thinking at the time. As that film came out in 2021 and I haven’t seen it since, I decided to rewatch it in preparation for this and was much more impressed with the story and the fact that it was far more gory than I remembered. The trailer did make this feel more like the 1995 Paul W.S. Anderson Mortal Kombat but I knew the film would be able to improve on that without having to try very hard. Movies based on video games have improved greatly since the mid 90s.
There are several fight scenes which feel like the setting is either lifted from one of the games or inspired which shows how much care and attention to detail has been paid. Not being a massive fan of the games I wasn't aware of the lore of the games I am only guessing that the fight scenes took place in familiar settings. I thought that the fight scenes were really good and even though the gore didn’t seem as frequent as it did in the first one, there were moments where it seemed more intense for a 15 certificate film.
Karl Urban plays Johnny Cage and starts the film as a jaded film star who has resorted to going to conventions to sell signed photos of himself. They don't go completely into the idea that he is a washed up star but at the very least suggest his moment in the spotlight has faded. Urban does manage to make Cage feel like someone who is thrust into a world that he doesn't fully understand but by the end of the film he feels believable as the leader of this group. Kitana in this movie is so much better than the one in 1995. For one she actually has weapons which I don't remember her having before.
I thought the only downside of introducing so many characters was that the film doesn't get the chance to give everyone a decent amount of screen time which is a shame because I could have done with more Kano. Kano would just come on screen every so often and hurl an insult at someone. Sonya Blade and Jax feel like their importance in the story is greatly reduced from the first film. Also the betrayal of Jade on Kitana was obvious the moment that one feels like they are sisters and that inevitable moment felt like a bit of an eye roll moment.
I enjoyed this film. It was clear that they have lent more into the lore than in the first film which was a wise move and even though there were probably tons of references, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on it. The story was straight forward, the fight scenes were very well staged and the gore made the fights feel tough. It is clear that they are anticipating a third movie which is something I would be happy to see because the Movie Game genre of films has never been in a healthier shape than right now. In the trailers before this film I saw Street Fighter which will attempt to beat the poor 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue original. To be fair the trailer looked decent. Back to this film though and its a relief to say that ths sequel is highly enjoyable stuff.
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