Kombat
Finally, a series of bloody tournaments to fight in. And we do mean bloody.
Mortal Kombat II
Director: Simon McQuoid • Writer: Jeremy Slater, based on the Midway Games game
Starring: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Ludi Lin, Tati Gabrielle, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada
Hong Kong • 1hr 56mins
Opens Hong Kong May 7 • III
Grade: C+
Mortal Kombat II starts with something the first, surprisingly… entertaining (?) Mortal Kombat from 2021 was shockingly short on: combat. Kombat? Combat. The high point of returning director Simon McQuoid’s first foray into the reboot adaptation of the Midway Games’ series known for lines like “Finish him!” and “Get over here!” was the sword duel-slash-backstory between Hanzo Hasashi, AKA Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and the thug that killed his family, Bi-Han, AKA Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). After that there was a whole mess of Outworld versus Earthrealm plotting and team-building like it was a damn heist movie – and then it ended without the heist.
Okay, I exaggerate to make a point, but MK21 was thin on the fight front no matter which way you cut it. Mortal Kombat II starts with a fight to the death between big bad Shao Kahn (bodybuilder Martyn Ford, and ya don’t say?) and Edenia’s King Jerrod (Desmond Chiam) for dominance over all the realms of Outworld. Better. And brutal. Mortal Kombat II is amazingly violent with some truly creative and gruesome kills that game fans are likely to heartily approve of. Is the story by budding genre writer Jeremy Slater (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Moon Knight, the forthcoming Coyote vs. Acme) paper thin? Yes. Confusing? You bet. But it hangs together well enough for its overly-generous two hours, and you can never go wrong by adding one of the world’s greatest working nerd icons, Karl Urban, to the cast. If we’re talking about franchise Viagra, Dwayne Johnson best take a seat.
Are you hearing that song?
The action picks up shortly after thunder god (I think?) Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) has banished evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) to someplace-or-other and sent so-called hero Cole (Lewis Tan) back to Earth to rustle up a fifth champion, specifically Hollywood star Johnny Cage (Urban). Now, Cage is a washed up star of bad ’80s style DTV action movies who everyone ignores at conventions (I’ve seen this kind of thing IRL and it’s grim viewing) and who drinks too much. Also now, Jerrod’s daughter Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) has grown up and been adopted/trained by Shao Kahn and is a badass maybe-rebel warrior in her own right. This is all very timely as the unfinished? Interrupted? Pre-empted? 10th Mortal Kombat tournament is getting back on track.
Needless to say Cage wants nothing to do with this nonsense and after fellow champion Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Raiden fail to convince him of the existential stakes, he’s zapped back into the Outworld anyway and forced to fight alongside Sonya, Cole, Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks). Nothing against Tan – he was fine in Into the Badlands and Deadpool & Wolverine – but Urban is a better lead, largely due to his abilty to effortlessly take the piss out of himself and his material without ever talking down to it, and still convince of us of a character arc. The Boys is half the show without him, he made Almost Human better, he did Dredd justice and made Mael, Julius Caesar, Cupid and Kor distinct on Xena: Warrior Princess. A shot of Urban-esque humour does Mortal Kombat II good because at its core it’s silly, and embracing that helps land the plane.
Naturally there’s CGI-assisted shenanigans afoot, many that lift images straight from the games, and some decent practical effects. Just as well because Mortal Kombat II lives or dies by its fighting action. Urban does what he can but there’s only a hint of character or theme in the movie. That’s not where its interests lie. Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung are conspiring to resurrect a bunch of dead warriors to put Earthrealm down for good, among them the obnoxious/delightful über-Aussie Kano (Josh Lawson) and the bladed-hat wearing Kung Lao (Max Huang), mostly because how can you have a dude with razor blades on his hat as a standard character and not have him in the sequel? Ditto for Sanada, who by mere presence classes up the joint in his few short scenes. The film coughs up some fan service with a hearty (no, really, it pops within the sound mix) “Get over here!” from Hanzo, in a voice that is clealry, and hilariously, not Sanada, but the cover of 1995 film’s title song by The Immortals tacked on the end is dishearteningly low energy. Stealth MVP Damon “Dewey Crowe” Herriman turns up a necromancer, game favourite Takartans, and their leader Baraka, finally makes an appearance, as does Jade (Tati Gabrielle, The Last of Us) as Kitana’s bodyguard, all stacking the deck to justify that final hero shot that doesn’t even suggest a sequel: It guarantees one.