Mortal Kombat II
Director: Simon McQuoid
Cast: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Martyn Ford, and Hiroyuki Sanada
Rating: ★★.5
Where does one find the fine line dividing camp and cringe? That was the question on my mind throughout the 1 hour 56 minute duration of Mortal Kombat II, the first of this year’s two big fighting game adaptations. This film does not follow any logic (even in-universe), is extremely corny, and some of the sequences belong in the 1990s. Yet, despite all that, it never lets the fun metre dip. You may judge yourself for having so much fun while watching arguably a bad film. But hey, isn’t entertainment the entire point of it all?
The world of Mortal Kombat II
Shao Kahn, the evil emperor of the Otherworld is threatening to take over our world, Earthrealm, much to the ignorance of all mankind. The fate of the worlds will be decided by a tournament of champions – five each from Otherworld and Earthrealm. Just so it happens, washed-out action Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) has been chosen by the Elder Gods as one of the champions of the Earth. So while other fighters breathe fire and carry talismanic weapons, Johnny must rely only on his wits, charm, and lots of good luck if he has to survive – and in the process – save the world.
Fun, fearless, faulty
Mortal Kombat II never threatens to take itself seriously, and does not want the audience to either. The stakes are high, the world is about to end, and the monsters have an amulet that grants immortality, but there is always time for jokes about pop culture in the middle of this. So, you will hear wisecracks about Pennywise, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Voldemort, and any iconic character you can name from the last half-century. The narrative follows a clear pattern: building tension for the big moments, only to diffuse it at the end with a quip or one-liner from the heroes, followed by a lame comeback from the bad guys.
Somehow, it doesn’t get old quickly. Chalk it down to some smart dialogue or the charm of Karl Urban. In The Boys, he made a despicable character someone you can root for. Here, he does the same for a two-dimensional movie star, mistaking midlife crisis for a coming-of-age arc. To say that the majority of the film rests on his shoulders is no exaggeration. And Karl carries it gracefully, while flipping the bird every now and then.
The highlight of Mortal Kombat II is the fight sequences, particularly the deaths. Before Final Destination made gore its USP, Mortal Kombat games had been doing it for years. The film brings the same ingenuity to displaying violence and bloodshed, finding innovative ways to kill, dismember, behead, and squash people, all the while drawing cheers from the crowd. Any fans of the games are bound to hoot when Shao Kahn exclaims, ‘finish him!’ or the Scorpion yells, ‘get over here!’ as he is about to annihilate an opponent. Some of the fights are quite well choreographed, too, with the one between Kung Lao and Liu Kang taking the cake. The only complaint with the action is that the best moments are too few and far between.
The cracks do show
But even as the film is fun, it lags far too much to be completely enjoyable. For one, the big bad is not menacing at all. Martyn Ford’s voice acting as Shao Kahn is passable at best, but the writers have nerfed the character, for the want of a better word. Building a villain as the all-powerful ruler of evil, only to have him being manhandled by every character, takes away the sheen. Vader would never be ragdollded by anyone like this.
The film also makes the cardinal sin of keeping everything so light and breezy that the stakes never hit you. The crescendo never builds up, and that is why, when our heroes face off the forces of darkness in Hell, of all places, it does not hit the way it ideally should. The high, emotional moments are the biggest miss, and no band-aid of snazzy CGI and quirky one-liners can repair them. Mortal Kombat II also disrespects its audience to some extent by failing to even follow in-universe logic. I am not looking for the laws of Physics to be adhered to in a film set in other realms and featuring elder Gods. But it is not too much to ask that guards of the evil emperor are somewhat capable, or fights do not always pause for dialogue. The ask for the suspension of disbelief is too high here.
Mortal Kombat II is a fun film, depending on how much you are willing to overlook when watching it. Fans of the game will, no doubt, find it thrilling, but for casual viewers, it is more of a missthan a hit.