End Credit Reviews Mortal Kombat II & The Mandalorian and Grogu Review

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:04]So, hi. Welcome to Anchor Reviews. It's just me, Tyler, this time from Anchor Reviews. And apologies for the reviews of these movies being so late. I just been stuck somewhere in between another realm and hyperspace. So, anyway, this is my reviews of Mortal Kombat 2 as well as The Mandalorian and Goku. So, with Mortal Kombat 2, this is the sequel to the previous Mortal Kombat movie from 2021. This time we have Carl Urban playing Johnny Cage who in this version is a washed up movie actor as recruited by the defenders of the earth who are representing earth realm in the immortal combat tournament. So in this movie it does have the Aplot and the Bplot. The Aplot being that of Johnny Cinjun company and then the Bplot being Katana who is played by Aldian Rudolph. I think that's how you pronounce her name.

[00:00:52]Apologies if I mispronounced the first half the name. So with Mortal Kombat 2, I think it's one of those rare sequels that is better than the first one. Major criticisms that people like myself have with the first, at least the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was that there wasn't a tournament and also the Cole Young character was a bland character who was played by Lewis Tan. He is power literally plot armor. And we're thinking to ourselves like this should have just been Johnny Cage or maybe Liu King. I think it would have been fine if the main character would have been even like Sonia Blade because these are characters who are like outsiders. I mean, Liu Kang is someone who knows a lot about the Mortal Kombat tournament. So, it makes sense for if you want like someone to that the audience could connect to as an outsider, it would make sense to choose either Sony Blade or Johnny Cage for that one. But, I do like how this one did correct that mistake. I also got to say that Martin Ford as Kahan, he was 6'8. The guy physically looked exactly like Kahan from the video games and how big and posing he was. I think my only negative about his performance as Kahan was that I could hear a little bit of his British accent in the voice. I just wish he would have sound a little bit more like regal or formal or at least how he sounded in the video games or at least suppressed his accent. But overall, it was just great to see. This performance of Shiaoan, not the one we saw in Annihilation, especially the costume was super cheap looking and very badl looking in Annihilation from the 1990s. If you haven't watched Mortal Kombat Annihilation, I unironically recommend that movie because it's one of the funniest bad movies you'll ever see.

[00:02:27]So, at some point in the story, he gets his hands on this amulet that powers him up where he basically has Wolverine's healing abilities. So, in a way, he kind of unlocks the infinite health cheat code. And this is just a fun movie overall. I did like the fight scenes in this movie. My favorite being the fight between Liu Kang and Kung Lao. I also liked the character arc that Johnny Cage goes through in the story of being someone who's depressed and lacks direction and then finds a purpose in his life. And his fight with Baraka and also showing the Tarcotans in a Mad Max sunken area was also very funny and enjoyable to see that too. Now, when it comes to some of the critiques of this movie, there is a Cindelle who's in this movie. I felt like that should have just been Molina and her resurrected as like a rematch of sorts. I thought they were going to bring back Goro and make himaro as a resurrected version of him. Like we see with other characters like we have N Sabot who is a resurrected version of both Subzero and Cabal from the previous movie. Quani is in this version who I got to say was a character that I don't think really needed in this movie. I think they should have just stuck to Chin Han as Shang's son because he was already someone who was a sorcerer and he could have just been the one to resurrect people and I felt like having Quani into the mix was kind of, you know, two too many sorcerers and they should have just had one guy in this one. I think they should have just saved Quani for a later movie. I know that Quani almost appeared annihilation. They filmed his scene was supposed to tease like a third film but they cut that out of the movie. I really did like the return of Kano who's played by Josh Lawson. This guy is hilarious how he does all these edgy riffs and improv jokes. It was always a joy to see him on screen just being this likable crass individual which he's become like a fan favorite in these two movies. I guess another iffy I guess criticism and negative way towards this movie would be sometimes when it comes to the production budget of this movie. Sometimes I could tell that the movie was chintzy looking like there were a few sets that were kind of felt a little bit too small or like recycled.

[00:04:33]Other times you can see like okay the budget definitely went to these parts of the movie where it does look very impressive and exactly like you would imagine from the video games. But then there are times where it does feel like, yeah, the budget went more so to these scenes in the movie and were kind of some corners were cut in these parts here and there. So overall, I would say Mortal Kombat 2 is one of the best video game movies I've ever seen. I still stand by the fact that Scorpion's Revenge, the animated Mortal Kombat movie from about 6 years ago, is better than this. And I do think the 2011 video game reboot to Mortal Kombat, that story was the best Mortal Kombat story. But I definitely recommend this one. If it's still playing in theaters by the time you see this, definitely check it out.

[00:05:13]You're going to have a fun time with it, especially if you like the Mortal Kombat video games. So, as for Mortal Kombat 2, I would give it about three stars out of four. So, now we get to The Mandalorian and Goku. So, this is of course based on the Mandalorian series that's on Disney Plus, which I do like that show. So, in this one, we have The Mandalorian, who's played by Pedro Pascal. He's going on more adventures with his kid Groku, or at least in a way kind of a surrogate/adopted son. And he's hired by a Sigourney Weaver's character named Ward, who is part of the Rebel Alliance, and he is a bounty hunter trying to hunt down any kind of high-ranking members of the former Galactic Empire. It's one of those movies where it started off pretty good with him hunting down an Imperial on the snowy planet, but then it kind of goes downhill after that. Like in a way, you could tell that this was probably meant to be structure- wise, like another season of The Mandalorian, and then they try to edit it together into a movie itself. And there are times where the effects do look cinematic. Other times, it does feel like the budget for a series you would see on Disney Plus.

[00:06:17]The main storyline for Pedro Pascal's character. He's trying to get info from these huts and they want him to bring back one of their own who happens to be the son of Job of the Hut who's of course Rod of the Hut voiced by Jeremy Ellen White. Now the thing about this Hut is that he was a little kid in that Star Wars a Clone Wars animated movie. I don't know if anyone remembers that movie, but this is the grown-up version of him. And there's a part in the story where Mando's trying to break him out of being fight in this arena. And he's like, I I like you here. I don't want to be like my family relatives being criminals. And that was fine with him giving that explanation. But then when the Mandalorian comes back to free him again, he basically says the same answer, and it felt like one of those NPC responses you would see from an NPC character from a video game. It definitely reminds me of the dialogue from the Jamanji movies or at least the newer ones that's based on video game and it makes sense for those characters to talk NPC like, but with this person talking the way he did, it came off as just bad dialogue and it just felt like they're just overly repeating the same thing. I did like some of the references to other Star Wars movies. For example, there was a few nods to the Phantom Menace. a moment where a character gets knocked out with some gas being pumped into a room. Another moment where we see these droids get blown up and they're trying to run away from this like fiery explosion and they get caught up in it.

[00:07:38]It was definitely again like we saw in the Phantom Menace when the Trade Federation's main ship gets blown up by Anakin. There's also a moment in the arena where we have these big alien creatures fighting the Mandalorian and Rada and they're of course modeled after the board game hologram you would see on the lame falcon in Star Wars Episode 4, New Hope. There's also a bounty hunter character who is kind of cool looking in concept. He kind of has a bit of a kung lao vibe about him ironically, but he doesn't really have much of a personality and then he kind of just ups and escapes. And it's a mild spoiler, but yeah, he's kind of just there as a character to just cause conflict here and there. And I thought there was going to be some final confrontation, but he just kind of gets away and just escapes.

[00:08:18]I also thought it was interesting that Martin Scesi plays an alien in this film that the Mandalorian is trying to get information from. Now thing is that Martin Scarcesi directed this movie called The Wolf of Wall Street and John Favro who was a director on this movie also starred in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street and oddly enough related to this movie being science fiction and John Favro at one point John Favro was going to direct a John Carter movie back in the 2000s when Paramount had the film rights to it. In fact, you want to read more about the history of John Carter or the history of various live-action Disney movies that were box office failures, then I highly recommend checking out my book, Disney's Live Action Movie Bombs, 1979 2019 is available, of course, in ebook digital and in print. And while you're at it, check out my other book, 100 Years of Universal Monster, also available in ebook digital and in print. There's also a part of the movie where the Mandalorian does get poisoned and then Gru has to take care of him. That was a moment where the movie definitely came to a grinding halt and I know it's a mild spoiler when it comes to the second half of this movie. But the thing is like this movie I did like it more than Solo Star Wars Story and I felt like it has a little bit more replay value compared to the sequels. But I still stand by the fact that I do think that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is still the best Star Wars movie that Disney has made. And this one it's fine. I mean it was one of those movies that I did enjoy it. I mean Groku did the heavy lifting.

[00:09:38]Let's just face it. But yeah, I mean there's more examples. I mean it'd be spoiling the movie if I talked about more flaws with this film. But yeah, this movie felt like in ways it was trying to it was felt like a movie, but other times it just felt like another piece of content to be put on Disney Plus. It's one of those movies where I'm like the more I think about the more flaws I notice about it. So as for The Mandalorian and Goku, I would give it about two stars out of four. So anyway, this is Tyler from End credit reviews. I hope you enjoy this video on end credit reviews and I hope to make a lot more in the future. Please like and subscribe.