MORTAL KOMBAT II Movie Review | Karl Urban | Adeline Rudolph | Hiroyuki Sanada

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Yeah, this movie has like laser eyeballs and sombrero of death and you know just it's nuts.

[00:00:08]>> Mortal Kombat 2. It's the sequel to Mortal Kombat. And apparently there was a Mortal Kombat and I know this because we reviewed this here on our channel.

[00:00:18]Not because I recall having seen or reviewed it, but because I looked and there it is. And you and I talked about the first Mortal Kombat with Matt five years ago. He was sort of in that like post-pandemic haze.

[00:00:31]>> Well, we hadn't gotten inoculated yet, you know, I think was the deal was like April of 2021. So, we were almost back in theaters, but we weren't yet. And I I reviewed it here and I wrote a review for the rap and I still had to go look it up to remember what the hell happened in the first one because it just, you know, as you might guess, neither Christine nor I have ever played the game. So, we are not Yes. So keep that in mind as you hear this review because this is we are not that part of the demo. But >> and yet you sub subscribe and hang out though.

[00:01:02]>> Oh, for sure.

[00:01:06]>> Whoa. I really don't feel comfortable hitting a girl.

[00:01:09]>> Don't worry, you won't.

[00:01:12]>> But also what I think what's what is what is so fun about Mortal Kombat 2 is that it works for people who don't know anything about the mythos. So that's I would like to see more um video game movies take up that mantle. So yeah, uh there's another big interdimensional tournament. There's this badass named Shiao Khan who has like um killed all of these warriors and taken over other dimensions because that's how it goes.

[00:01:36]If you lose all these times, then he takes over your place. Um and now Earth realm earth with what's it called?

[00:01:45]>> The realms, right? Out realm. It's like earth realm I think. Uh anyway, see this is we don't know. Anyway, Earth, >> don't get mad, please.

[00:01:54]>> I know. Look, we we we we led separate lives than people who did this, and that's okay. That's that's how life goes sometimes. Anyway, Earth is now drawn into this tournament thing. And so a bunch of returning champions from last time, the Mott Brooks with the robot arms and the guy with the flames and the lady with the pulse energy and the we don't know. Anyway, so then they Johnny Cage, I know Johnny Cage, he is a he is a faded '9s action star played by Carl Urban and um he gets called up and he's like, I don't I'm nobody I can't get arrested in Hollywood. I'm a has been.

[00:02:33]are like, "No, you actually are one of the Earth's great warriors and you probably have some power you don't know yet." And so, of course, you know, reluctant hero, you know, goes through the whole thing and gets called up to do it and he doesn't believe in it first and then he very much believes in it and then he's willing to make sacrifices on behalf of the people for whom he is fighting. Also, there's a princess from the other dimension whose dad was killed by Kahan, but now she's secretly helping the Earth people so they can beat him.

[00:03:00]And you know, it's this it's it is a big R-rated like super CG heavy movie where people get sawed in half and there's like glorious gore to everything and the fight choreography because it's CG doesn't super play into it. Like there's a lot of quick cuts and a lot of you know probably erased wires or whatever.

[00:03:23]So that's not super blowing me away. But uh it's funny. This movie is funny. It has a sense of humor about itself. It gives you this whole arc of this Johnny Cage character who's fun. Like the the the clips we see from his old movies are very funny and very sharply observed for what a '90s action movie would look like. There's a whole recurring bit with his sunglasses that I thought was very entertaining. Um, and you know, he goes through the arc that you expect he's going to go through for a film like this, but uh there are some individual like battle sequences that are really impressive. Um, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that they kill a lot of people that you would otherwise think they wouldn't. Mainly because there's a necromancer here and resurrection is on the table. So, I think just because you died in this movie doesn't mean you won't come back in Mortal Kombat 3, >> right?

[00:04:11]>> In video game form. You die in the video game, you come back.

[00:04:15]>> Yeah. And as in and then and some people that you thought died in Mortal Kombat might turn up in this one. So, you know, Yeah. This movie has like laser eyeballs and sombrero of death and you know just it's nuts. But I had a very good time.

[00:04:31]>> I wish I had more of a good time. It is it is stupid but not stupid enough.

[00:04:36]>> Which I think I said about the first one as well because I had a whole lot of hope when you see the Johnny Cage 90s action movie like the titles like everything is just perfect like the camera angles and his little catchphrase and the sunglasses. I wish it had leaned more into a sort of self-aware kind of self parody and had fun with the insanity of this world but then also delivered the kind of gore that fans of the game would expect and it sort of >> never really achieves either fully like it's sort of trying to do both. They're trying to be kind of silly and self-reerential. And Carl Urban is a very appealing Scream presence and he knows what movie he's in and he's having a good time playing with his his, you know, his image. Kind of sad seeing him at whatever Comic Con it is and nobody wants him to sign anything.

[00:05:30]>> They just want to see the the YouTubers and the Tik Tockers, you know.

[00:05:33]>> Yeah. Very sad. Um, but then, you know, it's also trying to be a serious movie about revenge and legacy and, you know, the power that you never knew was inside of you all along. And you have Czechov's hair ribbon with Katana. And again, like the first one, it's a lot of fan service. You know, if you want to hear Scorpion say get over here, or you want to see what happens with Katana and her ribbon and all that, they don't lean too too hard into it. Like, I don't recall anyone at any point in saying like flawless victory or whatever. that they say. I brought Nick with me. Nick has seen >> to translate.

[00:06:08]>> Yes, Nick has seen this. Um, and he thought it was okay, but again, also sort of liked more of the the Carl Urban kind of comedy because it's also trying to have stakes and characters that you care about, but they're all written so flimsily, like why bother? Um, I did enjoy Kano here and there. He's quippy and says inappropriate things. the whole like Mad Max realm with the people with the giant sharp teeth like that was kind of cool because there was a weight to it like a tactile quality to it that is lacking elsewhere. So much of it is just swirly kind of like something on the side of a van in the 70s you know and there's no like substance to it. Having said that, that fight between the dude with the buzzsaw hat and the dude with the fire hands, like that was really impressive. Like that was choreographed as well.

[00:07:00]>> No, definitely. For sure. Yeah, I I I mean I I maybe just caught me in a better mood. I don't know. But uh yeah, the first one I agree with you. I was sort of like I I didn't feel committed to it. It felt a little flimsy. And this one is I think I I feel like it's sort of owning the flimsiness. And and I think that the Johnny Cage character is this way to kind of anchor it with recognizable human beings that we don't usually get from the rest of the movie because you've got these other champions of Earth and they're like but they're they're so two-dimensional and everything they say is so kind of flat and like you know to then insert this actual sort of living breathing quipping character among them I thought kind of elevated everything. So yeah, I don't know. It's for me it worked as somebody who wasn't super into it and my understanding is that people who do follow this and understand this world really well are also enjoying it. It had a really good opening weekend and like came very close to unseeding Devil War Prada 2. And certainly when the video game fans don't like a video game adaptation you hear about it a lot. Um and I kind of that my sense from just being online or whatever is that people are like yeah this is this is what we wanted to see. This is how we want them to do it. And as somebody who was an outsider to that, I felt welcomed in enough to have a good time with it.

[00:08:19]>> Yeah. It didn't seem alienating, you know, like seeing what Kitana does with her fans, for example, >> to destroy somebody is straight out of the game. Uh, and I think anyone can connect with, oh, okay, this is the powerful thing she has to do. And tada, it's gross. Uh, yeah. Hiyuki Sonata shows up and there's like way overqualified. He's the first one as well. He did Shogun in between and won a thousand awards for starring in Shogun and now has to go back and do Mortal Kombat 2. Here you go. Hi Yuki Sonata star.

[00:08:51]>> But you know what? He there's nothing he is not condescending to this material at all. He is completely in it and doing it and you know yeah he definitely brings that with him you know.

[00:09:02]>> Yes. Same same director as the first time. Simon McCoy is your director from the first film. He's back and seems to have have improved his craft somewhat.

[00:09:10]This seems less jumpy and incoherent than the first one. So, uh, okay. So, what's your number then on Mortal Kombat 2?

[00:09:16]>> Uh, I'm a straight up seven. Um, I I think that it I I just I had a good time. It's from uh Jeremy Slater wrote it, by the way, who did the Moonnight series on Marvel. Okay. Uh, Disney Plus that we liked.

[00:09:28]>> Um, yeah. I just I think it it is a solidly entertaining movie that gets its own silliness. And I didn't feel like because I didn't because to this day I can't name these characters for you and that did not keep me from feeling somewhat engaged with the material. What about you?

[00:09:46]>> I will say a five right down the middle.

[00:09:49]The most fun for me was Nick and I saw this on Mother's Day and got soda and candy and laughed the whole way through because it was stupid. But like again, not stupid enough. Lean harder into all that Carl Urban self-aware stuff and that would have been a much better movie. So >> fair enough. Okay. Uh, Mortal Kombat 2 does not need us to say anything about it because it did really, really great.

[00:10:08]But if you've seen it, let us know.