“Mortal Kombat II” pulls off something a lot of game movies struggle with: fan service that actually supports a good movie instead of replacing one.
The movie follows Johnny Cage, a washed-up action star who has to join and fight in a legendary fighting tournament to the death against Shao Kahn and his forces to save the world from being conquered by Outworld.
The Good: The action is automatically the standout of this movie. It’s no surprise that a “Mortal Kombat” movie has good action in it. The fighting cinematography is fast paced and awesome to watch, with any of Johnny Cage’s fights being super fun and packed with awesome action, but I think the biggest standout fight was Scorpion vs Noob Saibot. The fight cinematography with Scorpion is just eye candy to watch, and his fight with Noob was definitely the highlight of this movie.
The cameos and Easter eggs are done in the best way possible, and that’s making it blend with the movie like it’s natural, For example before most fights they would move the camera in a way where it looks like the game when you start a fight, which I thought was clever and cool. Another great Easter egg was the creator of “Mortal Kombat” making a cameo as a bartender and talking to Johnny. I just feel that Easter eggs work so much better as cool little visuals or cameos that hold a little bit of weight instead of “LOOK IT’S YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!”
Karl Urban as Johnny Cage being a perfect fit was not on my 2026 bingo card, but it surprised me and blew me away all at the same time. Karl Urban captures Johnny Cage’s spirit perfectly, with every scene Cage is in having that larger than life tone to it. As a Day 1 hater when it came to this cast, I’m willing to say I was so very wrong when it came to Karl Urban as Johnny Cage.
I loved that the movie didn’t hold any punches when it came to the gore and who they killed. I was very much afraid of the movie letting all its characters survive at the end, but this movie actually goes there and kills some characters who are kind of important throughout the movie, which is very refreshing and it gives the movie actual stakes, which is nice to see even if it means my favorite character could get killed at any moment.
The visuals are very strong with this movie. The Underworld has that awful feeling to it that makes it more like Dante’s Inferno instead of a stereotypical hell. The afterlife also looked stunning, with the place looking like an actual fighting map and not just some big place that people could move around and hide. The different areas also looked great, with Shao Kahn’s Castle, looking creepy and having an eerie vibe, and Raiden’s Temple having that glowy Heaven type of vibe.
The Middle: The acting besides Karl Urban is kind of mid, which really hurts because this cast is pretty stacked. Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Lewis Tan and Josh Lawson are all capable and talented actors who sadly all miss their mark in this movie with maybe Josh Lawson doing a pretty decent job as Kano.
Surprisingly, the dialogue wasn’t as bad as in the first one. Not to say it was good, but most of the conversations felt natural and authentic, but the battle dialogue is ugly and super, super, superbad. It’s quite literally some of the worst dialogue I’ve heard in a very long time.
The Spine-Breaking, Skull-Crushing and Rib-Shatteringly Bad: I really did have fun with this movie, but I can’t look past the two major flaws this movie has. The pacing sucked. It moves faster than the speed of light throughout the entire movie, and it feels like if you go away for a fraction of a second you miss a crap ton of the movie and it just leaves you lost and confused.
Jade. I hate Jade! She has one reason for existing, and that’s to play a double twist character whose only purpose is to make you think that “Oh NO she betrayed her!” And then not even five minutes later, she’s revealed to be acting, and yes, is that canon to the Mortal Kombat universe? Yes. Do they do it in a horrible way that makes everything more complicated than it has to be? YES!
“Mortal Kombat II” is not a perfect movie but it’s a near perfect video game movie and adaptation of the Mortal Kombat story. More video game movies should look at this movie and take notes.
I give “Mortal Kombat II” ⭐⭐⭐1/2 or a 7.3/10. Definitely a fun time, but that’s really about it.