Mortal Kombat 2 is Better, But Still Not Good (Review) - The Morgue

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Coming up, it's time to test your might.

[00:00:02]Join us as we dissect Mortal Kombat 2.

[00:00:05]Stay tuned.

[00:00:09]>> Whoa. I really don't feel comfortable hitting a girl.

[00:00:12]>> Don't worry, you won't.

[00:00:18]>> Send me back. I want to go back.

[00:00:35]Welcome to the morg where we dissect the latest and greatest in the world of entertainment. And we are your hosts Arturo Padilla along with Mr. Nick Valdez. Before we get started, do not forget to hit that subscribe button, that thumbs up, and that bell. That way you know when all these videos are dropping. Text, how you doing today, buddy? What's up? Howdy everybody.

[00:00:54]Howdy. Arturo. Mortal Kombat 2. Boy, this is the fourth film in the Mortal Kombat franchise and the second sequel and we've already kind of seen what happened with the other one, right?

[00:01:08]Like, so >> we did.

[00:01:10]>> And unfortunately, we saw what happened with Mortal Kombat 1. Mortal Kombat 1 hit during the pandemic. It hit during the height of that. It was like I don't I don't think it was the first one. I think it was one of the first ones to drop directly with HBO Max and it started this whole like >> this whole debate that we're still having six years later about like movie relations and stuff to this day. But this is all to say like even then boy did they get that wrong. Like uh for like it it just did not work in so many levels. They invented a whole new guy as like the protagonist. Uh Cole Young who was just like, shout outs to Louisis Tan who like you I I keep wanting things good things to happen for him, you know, but Cole Young like it he it just wasn't it. Like this that was his starring role and the first movie was about them like unlocking their Mortal Kombat powers and then like they didn't have the tournament. So, here comes Mortal Kombat 2, which is like, okay, pretend Mortal Kombat one happened, but also pretend that you don't really need to know what happened in it to like jump right into part two, right? Because throws you right into the tournament. It introes it introduces you to Katana as like the new kind of not lead character, but a character who gets a lot of screen time.

[00:02:35]Uh she, you know, she was a princess from a world that outreal had wiped out and took her as is like basically his enslaved daughter.

[00:02:47]>> You will be my daughter now, Katana.

[00:02:50]>> Yeah. Which is like >> I started laughing in the theater. I'm like, "Oh, that's how it works." Okay.

[00:02:55]>> Yeah. It's just one of those things in the game where you're like, "All right, you know, this sets up the tournament."

[00:03:01]See, you see it play out. you know, her father gets killed and she becomes it.

[00:03:05]And then years later, here we are at the tournament that was promised in Mortal Kombat 1. And boy, have things changed with Mortal Kombat 2. like with with the start of this tournament, you know, you have a a new champion introduced with Johnny Cage after Kung Lao was killed in the first one and Carl Urban is here and it's a different version of Johnny Cage than in the first movie and in the games actually because in the games and in that first movie he's an active movie star who, you know, gets thrown into this because he's really good at what he does. But in this one, he's like a washed up he's washed up actor. He's in the con circuit. You know, his height was in the 90s, but you know, now he's brought into this tournament to like fight to the death. And you have Carl Urban there. And uh uh what did you think?

[00:03:58]>> Oh man, it's funny how you threw this right at me. You threw me right under the bus. Text. Um well, Carl Urban, I love Carl Urban. He is a great character actor. Um, but I just honestly didn't really feel him here, you know. Um, I kind of like the fact that >> they actually made Katana the the the a story here because they probably realized how weak the Johnny Cage character was. Um, I'm not saying that that's Carl Urban's fault. I think it it could be just the story surrounding Johnny Cage because he's kind of abruptly thrown into the tournament.

[00:04:36]He's he's abruptly um called into the first fight while he's at the he while he's at a bar and then and then he loses the first fight to Katana. So his story kind of fizzles out really quickly there and then we focus more on Katana and her trying to get away from her evil father and trying to you know thwart his um control over all the realms and stuff.

[00:05:03]So that I am kind of happy that it turned to that direction because the Johnny Cage stuff wasn't really that engaging. Um Carl Urban as Cage, I think he's a little too old for this role. Honestly, they um they didn't do a good job of hiding the stunt man. I saw a lot of the stunt man and that's that's a big detriment to the whole kind of production if you're going to be doing that because you might as well just gotten some dude who can pull the stunts off. You know what I mean?

[00:05:33]>> Yeah. Yeah. Because like >> Carl Urban's, you know, Janice Seiqua, you know what I mean? Like it's I don't know why he was cast as Johnny Cage. I don't think they took full advantage of of the actor.

[00:05:46]Yeah. In that role.

[00:05:48]>> Yeah. And this is why you have like this is why you have people like Lewis Tam playing such a big role in the first one because they they thought about that to begin with, right, of like getting someone who's good at like the martial arts, you know, to play the actual character, but they went the wrong route instead of like trying to make him like maybe they should have made him Liu Kang or something in order to really make it work out.

[00:06:10]>> Yeah. They made him some kind of like uh um what some uh >> just ancestor of Scorpion or something, right?

[00:06:18]>> Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately he doesn't matter in this one. Like so once full spoilers, we're getting full like uh we're diving fully into Mortal Kombat 2.

[00:06:26]Cole dies. So he he he gets like he's on screen in total. I think maybe like four or five minutes. He gets a couple of lines to remind you why he was like there. Yeah.

[00:06:39]>> Yeah. Like honestly. Yeah. And it's fully like they they're like, "Oh, he's he's our o." And then like he gets in a fight with Kahan which is like oh okay like as part of the tournament's immortal by that point. And so they give him like the it's real it's real wrestling right like it's real wrestling entertainment of like they give him the moral victory right they give him the pin they give him the threeount of like but the referee's knocked out right he he cuts neck and he's like I win and then's like I'm a mortal smashing your head in gonna sweep you into acid. It's really like cartoony.

[00:07:16]>> What an unceremonious finale to this character.

[00:07:20]>> Yeah. The minute he got called into that fight, I was like, "Oh boy." They really didn't like where they were going with this character at all.

[00:07:28]>> Yeah. And then they wiped him out, dude.

[00:07:30]Like they like >> Yeah.

[00:07:33]>> like a little bug. And when you compare it to other deaths in the movie, it's like almost a little more disrespectful than the other ones because like >> he gets his head fully smashed in and then he swept to the side. Like he's literally >> acid pit, right?

[00:07:48]>> Yeah.

[00:07:50]>> He's like so his body will just disintegrate and forever be like no more. That's how terrible they understood that their mistake was because it doesn't Listen, we said it on that episode. buddies, go back to the archive all the way several years ago when we covered Mortal Kombat 1. Um, his character didn't make any sense. I didn't like his character then. I didn't like his character now. So, I'm glad he was and did the way he was. And, and Texas said it correctly. Why didn't they just make him >> another real Mortal Kombat character?

[00:08:21]You had so many options. You know what I mean? Like, you could have made him a young Raiden or something, you know?

[00:08:25]Like, >> I don't get it, dude. I don't get it. I don't get it. And this is why like Mortal Kombat like Mortal Kombat 2 like as a story >> I don't know if it like I don't think it connects right like it doesn't feel like a I don't think it feels like a movie.

[00:08:42]It >> yes agreed. Funny enough, it was kind of the same thing we were saying about Super Mario Galaxy where like it's fun, you know, and but like stuff happens, not a lot of it matters, right? Because like you have Katana who's like sort of being positioned as the main character because she gets the first scene, her introduction, her origin. She's the one who ultimately ends up killing at the end. So, it's like set up to be like her big thing, but like her scenes are interspersed in between all of the fights. And there are so many characters this movie has to juggle in terms of like who matters and who doesn't. like uh you know, you've got Liu Kang who is like the the main character of the movies or not not of the movie, he's the main character of the games and he's kind of like just here in the movie as like a you know, is he supposed to be like a the main champion?

[00:09:37]>> It was the same thing in Mortal Kombat 1. He was like this side character where you where you didn't even know that was Liu Kang for a while. I'm like, who's this guy right here? Dude, we But we've brought this up before, especially if you guys go back to our conversation we had about um Zack Creger's Resident Evil, right?

[00:09:55]>> And video game movies, >> they they are very hard to adapt to a screen if you don't have a proper story to tell within that game. That's why games like Resident Evil have an easier job to do that. games like um Silent Hill because there's already a story, a narrative in the game that you can follow easily and try to adapt that. In Mortal Kombat and in Mario, for instance, Mario has the the most basic of stories where Mario is job is just to save the princess. Then you have to just fill everything in the middle with all this fluff. in Mortal Kombat, just like our conversation about Street Fighter as well, that this could be the same kind of issue that it's a fighting game, you know, and fighting games usually don't have these narratives built into them because it's just, hey, pick your player and then if you beat all these people, we'll show you a cool little ending at the end, you know. So, I think it it's the same thing here with Mortal Kombat.

[00:10:51]There is no real story to follow. It's not like you're adapting the Sub-Zero game, you know, where you follow just him going through like all the stuff, you know, like that's different. This is No, you're trying to adapt the tournament itself. And like Johnny K said, it's not even a tournament.

[00:11:06]There's no rules here.

[00:11:07]>> Yeah.

[00:11:07]>> It's sort of like when you're adapting a a game, right? You're you're tapping into the energy. Like remember remember like when Mortal Kombat was like first like being in commercials and stuff? You had that one of like the kid in the middle of the like the city uh going back and you got all those people rushing in and like it's so iconic that like everybody wanted to play this game that they they actually redid the commercial with like Dave Batista in um when they did Mortal Kombat 1 a couple years ago.

[00:11:39]like a full HD version, 4K new modernday version of people going Mortal Kombat and like it's because like you're you're trying to tap into that energy, right? Like in Yes.

[00:11:54]>> And with that energy, what's funny is like Mortal Kombat does have a story.

[00:11:58]like it does have a you know they especially when you get into like the modern day versions where like it's all about the story like it like it all became about the cut scenes in between each of the fights but with this movie I don't think they fully connect I don't think you have that energy with it I don't think like when you look at it visually right like you look at characters like you look at characters like Liu Kang you look at Kahan right you look at Kahan you're like visually he looks good, right? And you look at like the fight stages and you're like they kind of look good, you know, like there's there's a bit of like rampant CG, you know, and the blood's a little iffy. I I can't lie. Like I I >> Yeah. Real quick before we move on, like like dude, the CG was atrocious. Like I I don't know what happened here. Um you had money and time to make this look good. And I remember when we first saw the teaser, >> we were like, "Oh, >> that was our concern >> 100%.

[00:13:03]>> I hope this is just cuz they wanted to rush something out, you know, and show the masses." But >> dude, it it looks rough. And then on top of that, like I do like the look of the characters, but it's so goofy >> sometimes that you kind of are like, "Uh, okay, cool. I guess I'll have to deal with this for now, you know, because I have no choice. But some of the characters look goofy, dude. Um, >> the man on the screen right now, if you buddies are watching on YouTube at home, um, Kahan, right? Like >> he close up, he doesn't look 100%. You know what I mean? From far away, cool.

[00:13:44]But when you get close, you're like, "Oh, wait a minute. Let's let's let's zoom out a little bit." Same thing for um what was the sorcerer's name? The necromancer's name.

[00:13:54]>> Quani. But yeah, hilariously likewi they made him the butt of so many jokes because I I think >> I think even they knew he looked a little funky, right? Like to where they're like, "No, we have to point out that he looks a little funky."

[00:14:09]>> Yeah, he looked like a character from Annihilation, dude.

[00:14:13]That's how bad he looked, man. And like you said, the butt of a lot of jokes, man. and welld deserved because he didn't look great and even Shang Tsung like he looked very like just very caricaturized um in comparison to what we saw in part one. Um it kind of reminds me a little bit of Masters of the Universe with Dolph Fund and how they um treated their costumeuming for that movie. um very very like you know action figure like merchandise kind of stuff you know.

[00:14:48]Yeah, because like you can tell like it's tough because the movie it it's intentionally cheesy in a lot of ways, but then it's got the visual style of the newer games, right, of these new like you've seen since like um Mortal Kombat 9 and 10 like because like the visual fidelity is so at such a point these these like the games have become like oh realistic character designs and realistic stuff and So, you get that in the movie, but it's trying to do '90s Mortal Kombat movie jokes and tone, right? And and style in terms of the fights. You still have Scorpion, right?

[00:15:30]You have you have this accomplished actor, Hiroi Sonata, like he's he's doing ninja moves and he's like in this outfit and it looks super cool, but then he still has to do the ' 90s get over here sound, right? Like it's like, >> "Oh my god, Tex, I am so glad you brought that up because >> the audio for that was so out of the blue."

[00:15:53]>> Yeah.

[00:15:53]>> That I was like, "Wow." What? Super egregious, man.

[00:15:58]>> It's It still has to be the video game Easter egg, right? Like >> Oh, man.

[00:16:02]>> It it And like it's tough because you know, you it it's such a clash of ideas and tones. And on top of that, it's distracting because like where you know the story is not great either like like it's very paper thin. The like cool it's cool seeing the tournament, right? It's cool getting that. And the fights the fights are good. So like at least when it comes to like the action and the fighting like I I think they're all fine except like the Johnny Cage ones like Arturo said because like it's clear they're swapping about with like the stunt actor. Yeah, >> it's more prominent with Carl Urban than anybody else.

[00:16:40]>> It's like when you're watching Terminator 2: Judgement Day and you see Arnold riding the motorcycle in the in the hollowed out riverbed, whatever, where the truck is chasing him and then you see back and forth that that's obviously not Arnold, you know? It's right.

[00:16:54]>> It was unfortunately the same thing. And then what's a more egregious, it's like, yo, it's 2026, dude. you couldn't like, you know, deep fake his face or like, you know, like CG his face onto the onto the freaking stunt guy. Like, I don't understand why we had to go that route because like I said earlier, if you're gonna do that, you might as well just got a different actor who's capable of doing the stunts, you know, and capable of actually having some kind of charisma on screen.

[00:17:21]>> Yeah. Um, >> especially because let's be honest here, I don't think, like you said before, right? like it's kind of underserved.

[00:17:30]Like Carl Urban is saying these really cheesy lines and you're like and you know Carl Urban could pull these off, right? And you're like >> he could do that with his eyes closed, man. But like the material is not there.

[00:17:43]It's not there.

[00:17:43]>> The material is just not there. And it's so wild that you know you got you give you give Kano better material and even then like come on. Like >> Kano was awesome though. Like I'm glad they had Kano cuz they knew that the audience needed some kind of comedy relief. Some kind of real comedy relief.

[00:18:02]>> Yeah, we needed something.

[00:18:03]>> Yeah. Yeah. And a real character to actually lean on. And funny enough, that was Kano, dude. And he was actually the standout in this whole movie now that you brought him up. Like >> he saved the world, man.

[00:18:15]>> Dude, he literally did. He literally saved the world. And um kudos to that actor and to that guy making the most out of his time on screen for sure because he was definitely um overshadowed by all these other crazy characters. And then you have this guy who didn't even have the Kano metal piece, you know, like it was just his regular face. So, but he pulled it off.

[00:18:37]And I think his addition into the fold was super important to keep us engaged throughout that last act of of the movie because dude, this movie was long, dude.

[00:18:47]It was long and then you felt the length because >> I >> I wanted more fights because of that too because it's like yo I'm feeling this too much like there was too much talkie talkie and not much fighting fighting and the fight scenes I thought were a little too short on top of that too. Um like I get in Mortal Kombat when you're actually playing it's they're quick fights because of the nature of the game but this is a movie >> you know what I mean?

[00:19:12]and you're trying to like keep us engaged throughout and like text mentioned um they had a really cool um way to show the fights. Um they had the whole fight structure down three rounds, one round was like one fighter each, the next round was like three fighters and stuff like they kind of were all over the place with that. But I did like where they were going with that structure. I wish they leaned a little bit more on that. Um I don't know why they had to rush everything because you had all this time. You could have like eased the fights into all these little sections, but you like rushed the the three fights, especially the one with Cole where he died. At least like you should have given him like a better ending if you were going to like destroy him, you know?

[00:19:52]>> Yeah, cuz we keep bringing back the like the OG Mortal Kombat and it's because like that was able to work the tournament into the story, right? Like it was and the fights that happened happened when they walked into certain locations.

[00:20:08]>> They literally took the blood sport kind of structure where they were like, "Hey, there's this tournament that you have to be in, but there's other [ __ ] going on around you that you will have to legit deal with while still being actively in this tournament."

[00:20:21]>> Yeah. It's like make sure you get to your place that you need to fight by a certain time. And yes, >> and you know, with all the different locations here, that could have been an opportunity, but instead they were kind of like teleported there, right? To like to make sure you get the stages. And you're like, cool, but you couldn't work those in naturally, right? Like you couldn't figure out a way to like you could have had like yes, uh the teleporting thing, I get it. You could have done that for like one or two fights maybe, like as a surprise. Like maybe the first one. The first one I get it because Johnny Cage, it's a surprise on him, right? He fights Katana >> and like fine, right? But like you couldn't This is the thing. It's >> it's structure, it's story, it's the fact that like the writing still doesn't work. Like it it's trying to be cheesy, but it looks like the modernday ones. So it's got like a serious overtone and those things are fighting each other in this, right? Like >> like with Katana, her story is entirely serious, right? like her her thing is like, you know, her father was killed and she's been trying to get her revenge all this time, but like >> then it cuts to Johnny Cage and you're like, okay, you're like, who is this?

[00:21:34]Who is this for here? And >> they I give Mortal Kombat 2 credit for being made in a way where you don't need to see part one to to get into part two.

[00:21:47]Like they literally do it to where like Johnny like they explain what happened in part one for like a minute, you know?

[00:21:56]>> Like right right when Johnny shows up, they're like, "Yeah, this is what happened, but now you're here, but we need you."

[00:22:01]>> Yeah. This is what happened. We got, you know, we we went under test to get your p we got powers out of it. Cool. Now you're in this, you know. And so, you know, I give him credit for that for like trying to write off part one, especially like Cole's death. But like at the end of the day, dude, like I man I I'm I'm struggling here. And at the end of the day, our show, >> let's let's get into this.

[00:22:26]>> Yeah, dude. Yeah, let's get into it for sure.

[00:22:28]>> Yeah. How we do things here at the Borg on a rating scale of pay for it, which is go check it out in the theaters, go see it immediately. There is wait for it which is uh you can wait around till it's more convenient for you whether it's you know streaming or whatever.

[00:22:44]Then there's stay away from it which is you don't really need to see it you'll be fine. Uh, I'll stop with I'll uh lead us off here first. Arturo for Mortal Kombat 2. I give it a wait for it, which is like uh you know, honestly, it's on the lower end, too, where it's like you I don't think you'll miss out if you don't see it. But if you want to see it, you can.

[00:23:10]Like I this is this is like kind of the worst kind of wait for it like a recommendation that I've given because it's just like I don't think you like I I'm not Wait as long as you need to. Wait till it's like on TV and you're doing stuff and then watch it because Yeah. Like dude, I I think they'll be fine without it. I'm sorry to say, but see it like h see it cuz at at least it's at least better than the first one. That first one's a total stay away from it. But the second one, you see some fights if you if you want to see Mortal Kombat, you know? I don't know. What say you about Mortal Kombat 2?

[00:23:50]>> I'm in the same boat, man. It's a big wait for it for me. Um, right. I'm in the middle of right in the wait for it.

[00:23:54]Not in the pay in the pay wait for it or stay away from it. Wait for it. I'm like right in the middle. It's like, hey, you choose what you want to do with your time with this, you know? Um because honestly like we said it here the first iteration the first cinematic iteration of this franchise of this property was the best one the best one and still is the best one and funny enough it still holds value and stands the test of time the best it was a 94 95 right and >> what freaking 20 30 years later, whatever it is, dude, it's still the best one.

[00:24:34]>> We're still using the theme. Like, we're still using that theme because it's so good after all this time. Come on.

[00:24:42]That's got to tell you something.

[00:24:44]>> Exactly. But it's like we said though, it's it's about the story and how you write it. Because at the end of the day, we're trying to watch a movie here.

[00:24:51]We're not playing a video, you know? And when you watch a movie, you need to be able to follow it.

[00:24:59]It really is that simple.

[00:25:01]>> Yo, put it in the dirt, man. It's over.

[00:25:03]It's fatal. Fatality of the day. We're watching a movie. Um, and this brings up concerns, buddies at home, about Street Fighter and and about how that's going to come off as well, you know, because we have another fighting game coming out. And it's and like I said, it's not like these horror properties or like or like Metal Gear Solid where they want to make that too where there's legit a real story there where you can easily kind of manipulate that into you know into a movie. The fighting games a little harder. I'm hoping Street Fighter has a better job doing this uh bringing this uh kind of a format to the screens here.

[00:25:40]Um Tekken's tried it before. It's been a mess. That's like straight straight to home video kind of nonsense, you know.

[00:25:47]Oh, they did uh Dead or Alive, I believe they did, too.

[00:25:50]>> Yes, they did Dead or Alive as well.

[00:25:53]They haven't done Virtual Fighter yet, you know. Um, but yeah, these these fighting games are hard to translate into movies. So, I really am hoping that we see something better and more watchable with Street Fighter. But as for Mortal Kombat buddies at home, >> it's not that great. You should definitely wait for it and not spend some money on this thing. But let us know in the comments below what you think about the Mortal Kombat franchise in general. The movies from the 90s from recent time, Mortal Kombat 1, Mortal Kombat 2, the video games in general.

[00:26:22]Let us know what your experience and what your love for Mortal Kombat is down below. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:26:27]This is the Morg where we dissect the latest and greatest in the world of entertainment. We are your host Arropadilla along with Mr. Nick Valdez.

[00:26:35]A big shout out goes to you guys out there for listening and for watching. We have all these episodes everywhere up on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast streams. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, leave some stars, leave a review. We would highly appreciate it. A big shout out goes to Delvirus for all the artwork you've seen in front of you throughout the years.

[00:26:54]And last but not least, buddies at home, it is a scary world out there, especially with this Mortal Kombat nonsense, but we are here to walk you through it.