Bloody, Brutal, And Carried By Karl Urban

Five years is a long time to wait between sequels, especially when the original left audiences at the doorstep of something bigger. The 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat made a genuine effort to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, trading the campy charm of the 90s films for R-rated gore, mythology-heavy world-building, and a more faithful nod to the video game series. It was an imperfect but promising start. Mortal Kombat II picks up that baton and runs with it; not always gracefully, but with enough energy and brutality to keep fans satisfied.

The plot wastes no time establishing its new villain. Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) is introduced like a cosmic warlord ripped from a heavy metal album cover: massive, masked, and utterly power-hungry. His early scenes carry real menace, and his conquest of Edenia sets up a revenge arc for Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) that adds welcome emotional stakes to what could have been a straightforward tournament thriller. Kitana is positioned as a character with genuine potential, though the film doesn’t always know what to do with her once the amulet-hunt plot kicks in.

Karl Urban’s Charm Gives Mortal Kombat II the Jolt It Needed

That amulet hunt is where Mortal Kombat II stumbles most noticeably. The first half of the film leans into the tournament format that fans have been waiting for since the original reboot’s post-credits promise, and it delivers some genuinely thrilling match-ups. But around the midpoint, the story pivots away from Mortal Kombat itself to chase a MacGuffin, and the momentum suffers for it. Screenwriter Jeremy Slater’s work is serviceable but uninspired in stretches, and the film occasionally feels like it’s stalling rather than escalating. When the movie loses confidence in its own premise, it shows.

Urban is the missing piece this franchise didn’t know it needed, loose, likable, and magnetic enough to make even the film’s weaker stretches worth sitting through.

What keeps Mortal Kombat II afloat is Karl Urban, and it’s not a close contest. Urban plays Johnny Cage, the washed-up Hollywood action star who becomes Earthrealm’s unlikely savior, and he’s an absolute blast from the moment he appears on screen. His Johnny is introduced via a grainy 90s action film clip, all spinning kicks and attitude, before we catch him at a sparsely attended convention signing autographs in obscurity. It’s a clever, efficient bit of character shorthand, and Urban runs with it completely. He brings a loose, self-deprecating charisma to the role that the franchise has genuinely been missing. Johnny is the audience surrogate here, reacting to the insanity of inter-dimensional combat with exactly the kind of disbelief and dark humor you’d want, and Urban pitches every beat just right.

Returning cast members hold their ground. Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden remains a compelling anchor for the mythology, Jessica McNamee and Mehcad Brooks get their moments as Sonya and Jax, and Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang still carries the weight of a hero in the making. Josh Lawson’s Kano makes a return appearance that, depending on your tolerance for that character’s particular brand of crude humor, will either land or grate. It largely grated here.

Director Simon McQuoid continues to prove himself capable in the action department. The fights are well-staged, the gore is enthusiastically committed to the series’ roots, and standout creature moments like Baraka (CJ Bloomfield), a terrifying, multi-toothed warrior of the Tarkata, remind you exactly what this franchise is built to deliver. The production design has stepped up as well, with Outworld feeling more expansive and lived-in than before.

What Mortal Kombat II ultimately is, is a solid second chapter that lays groundwork more than it harvests it. It’s bigger in some ways, shakier in others, and clearly designed to set up whatever comes next. That’s fine; franchise-building is part of the game; but it does leave the sequel feeling like a bridge more than a destination. The bones of something great are visible throughout, particularly whenever Urban is on screen. If the filmmakers can trust their premise, streamline the mythology, and give Kitana and Shao Kahn the space they deserve, the third film could genuinely deliver on the tournament spectacle this franchise keeps promising.

For now, Mortal Kombat II earns a recommendation on the strength of its lead performance, its commitment to violence, and the unmistakable sense that this series is finally figuring out what it wants to be. Flawed, fun, and occasionally extraordinary.

Grade: B-

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Mortal Kombat II

The fan favorite champions—now joined by Johnny Cage himself—are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.