I watched the new Mortal Kombat 2 recently, and I’m going to keep it all the way honest: the fight scenes were cool… but the movie itself was awful.
And that’s the frustrating part, because there are pieces here that should work. Mortal Kombat is not some impossible franchise to adapt. You give us the tournament, the realms, the rivalries, the fatalities, the over-the-top characters, and the wild martial arts fantasy violence. That should be enough to make a fun, ridiculous, crowd-pleasing action movie.
But somehow, Mortal Kombat 2 still finds a way to fumble.
The action is easily the best part. When the movie stops trying to explain itself and just lets these characters fight, it comes alive. The choreography has energy, the fatalities hit, and there are moments where you can tell the filmmakers actually understand what people came to see. The movie is bloody, loud, flashy, and full of fan-service moments that will probably get reactions from longtime Mortal Kombat fans.
The problem is everything around the fights.
The story feels thin, the dialogue is rough, and the pacing does not give the characters enough room to actually matter. It is one of those movies where people are constantly saying dramatic things, but none of it really lands. The plot feels like it is just dragging us from one fight scene to the next, and while that might sound fine for Mortal Kombat, even a movie built around fighting still needs some kind of personality and rhythm.
And then there’s Johnny Cage.
I went into this already not liking Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, and I came out hating the choice even more. I know a lot of people know him as Billy Butcher from The Boys, and that is exactly part of the problem. He never fully disappeared into Johnny Cage for me. Johnny Cage is supposed to have that cocky Hollywood pretty-boy energy — arrogant, funny, flashy, annoying, but still charming. This version felt like they tried to force the character into Karl Urban’s lane instead of finding somebody who naturally fit Cage’s vibe.
Urban trained hard for the role and has talked about how physically demanding the movie was, so this is not about effort. He clearly put in the work. But casting is casting. Sometimes the performance can be committed and still not feel like the right fit.
The wild thing is, Mortal Kombat 2 clearly tries to be bigger than the 2021 movie. It brings in more recognizable characters, including Johnny Cage, Kitana, Jade, and Shao Kahn, and the sequel leans more into the actual tournament/world-saving setup that fans expected. But bigger does not automatically mean better. More characters, more realms, and more lore can actually hurt the movie when the writing is not strong enough to hold it together.
That is where this movie falls apart. It feels like a video game cutscene stretched into a full feature film — and not always one of the good cutscenes. The fights are fun, but the connective tissue is weak. Characters show up, say something intense, fight, disappear, repeat. After a while, even the cool stuff starts to lose impact because the movie does not earn enough emotional investment.
I know some people are going to defend it by saying, “It’s Mortal Kombat, what did you expect?” But that excuse only goes so far. A movie can be dumb fun and still be good. A movie can be violent, cheesy, and ridiculous while still having memorable characters and a story that pulls you in. This just felt like it was checking boxes.
Fatalities? Check.
Fan-service? Check.
Big characters? Check.
Good movie? Not quite.
And honestly, watching this made me nervous for Street Fighter. Because if studios are going to keep adapting legendary fighting games, they have to understand that the fights alone cannot carry everything. The characters are the brand. The attitude is the brand. The style is the brand. You cannot just throw recognizable names on screen, add CGI, and assume fans will accept anything.
Mortal Kombat 2 has moments. I will give it that. There are some fight scenes worth watching, and if all you want is blood, punches, kicks, and fatalities, you might have a decent time. But as an actual movie? It is a mess.
I wanted to walk out saying they finally figured out Mortal Kombat on the big screen.
Instead, I walked out thinking: cool fights… awful movie.
Final rating: 2 out of 5.
The action gets over. The movie does not.