Mortal
Kombat II - Far From Flawless, But Definitely A Victory
By Brandon Troy
The scene. Crystal Skate (now known as Isaiah
58 Skate House). The year. The Summer of 1993. A nerdy 7 year old wanders the
arcade area of the facility after skating for hours in its rink. The regulars (in terms of games) were there:
Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. However, one game catches his eye as it’s
surrounded by excited & raucous onlookers.
After breaking through these said onlookers and observing the
participants actually playing the game, he notices something unusual, photo
real characters performing brutal special moves and even more insane,
devastating, graphic finishing moves that were followed by a phase that would,
unbeknownst to him, become iconic within pop culture, ”Finish Him!” or “Finish
Her!” Looking up from the characters fighting, that kid would see a game
title that would forever cement in his mind: Mortal Kombat
As you might gather from the skating rink name
drop, I am a DC native, and I was that nerdy
kid who came upon the game, Mortal
Kombat, that would, in later years, over its 30+ year history, become a
multimedia juggernaut, extending into cartoons, a live-action television show,
a webseries, and yes, two separate movie franchises. Growing up, I have been apart of this 30+
ride - playing the games in the arcade, playing against friends and family
(more on that later) once the game moved to consoles (which at that time in the
90s was Sega Genesis and Nintendo), seeing the original franchise installments
in theaters. Flash forward to 2021, the
videogame’s film adaptation received a reboot, aptly titled
MORTAL KOMBAT. Thanks to its bloodier faithfulness to the
source material, the reboot has now brought us to this weekend’s release of the
sequel, MORTAL KOMBAT II.
Directed by Simon McQuoid, the sequel
stars Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks,
Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe
Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Martyn Ford, and Karl Urban. Picking up from the cliffhanger - teasing the addition of Johnny Cage - in the
2021 film, the sequel sees Earth’s champions pitted against Shao Kahn and his
fighters for the fate of mankind in a tournament called, you guessed it… MORTAL
KOMBAT.
Now, in attending the press screening a few days ago for this
film, it brought back a lot of memories, as my mom (who is a gamer herself)
played me a lot in the games that owned from the game franchise growing
up. Additionally, she took me to see the
films of the original franchise, 1995’s MORTAL KOMBAT and 1997’s MORTAL
KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION, respectively.
So I thought it was only fitting that I took her to see this
sequel. With that in mind, was this
sequel a flawless victory? Come along with me and find out…
Round 1- Set Pieces, New Additions, Fights
From the first frame of the film, it quickly becomes evident the
sequel boasts more resources than its predecessor, as the set pieces created
for the realm of Edenia, the Tarkatan camps, or the various game-inspired
fighting locales are all quite impressive.
Additionally, as is the case with any sequel, there are new additions or
new characters that have been added to this new story as well. With that in mind, I’m happy to say that most
of the additions (i.e. Kitana, Jade, Johnny Cage, & Shaq Kahn) are all
welcome highlights, while a few others only seem to be present to serve as plot
devices (i.e. Quan Chi, Baraka) or as fighting fodder (i.e. Sindel).
So, seeing that this is a film adaptation of a fighting game
with a variety of new combatants, the question then becomes are the fights any
good? The answer. Absolutely! Drawing on the brutal aesthetic
of the videogame series, the fights are far more elaborate and impressive than
those featured in the 2021 predecessor, featuring many of the characters’
vicious signature moves and powers.
Round. Mortal Kombat II.
Round 2 - Dialogue, Plot Holes
Seeing that this film is an adaptation of a videogame, I try to
give films like these a pass when it comes to dialogue; however, considering
the recent game adaptations that we have been getting nowadays (see THE LAST OF
US or FALLOUT), it’s hard to look past the shortcomings of the dialogue that
the cast have to deliver over the course of the film. While I understand that a film adaptation of
a videogame is not expected to be Oscar worthy, there’s still a caliber of
dialogue expected so as to not cringe worthy territory. A good example of such a moment (without
getting into spoilers) comes as a villain is resurrected to join the fight
against Earth’s fighters.
While we’re on the subject of the script, another issue which
arises over the course of the film are the plot holes. The first plot hole comes in the form of
Revenants - i.e. dead characters that are resurrected by the necromancer, Quan
Chi. In one instance with a character
that’s resurrected, it doesn’t make sense why they needed to be brought back as
they’re not as strong of a fighter as the other Revenants and the intel that
they possessed wasn’t truly necessary to obtain the item that they had in their
possession. Secondly, as the Tournament
gets underway, it is established that the fighters are teleported to their
respective opponent whenever the moment arrives for them to fight them. If that were the case, why include a heist
subplot to get a macguffin if they run the risk of being teleported at any
moment while executing their plan?
Round. Brandon Troy.
Round 3 - Surprises
As mentioned before, thanks to the film’s accurate portrayal of
the game’s brutality and viciousness there is a surprisingly high body count in
the film that will leave audiences in shock regarding its reckless abandon of
the characters and their respective fates.
I say that to say that no one is safe in this film! For some fans, the decisions made in this
regard will likely be upsetting! However, in witnessing the moments happen on
film, I commend the courage to follow through on the high stakes nature of the
tournament. It is, afterall called
“Mortal” Kombat.
Round. Mortal Kombat II
All in all, MORTAL KOMBAT II is a great time whether
you’re a fan of the game or not! While
some of the dialogue and some plot holes may irritate fans and non-fans alike,
there is enough awesomeness here between the new characters, the fights (and
the unpredictability of their results in some cases) to keep you
entertained. Don’t believe me? Well, my
mom (aka my +1), who is more of a gamer than a movie goer, shared afterwards
that she wanted to see it again!
Therefore far from flawless, but definitely a victory!
Watch it.
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