To call the larger narrative that attempts to tie the Mortal Kombat series together a story would feel like a gross overstatement. Since 1992, the series has been massively popular, but I think it is fair to say that fans are not returning again and again to learn more about the goofy intricacies and lore of the franchise. Mortal Kombat is, and always has been, a fighting game, and the story that ties those fight scenes together has been paper-thin at best and outright detrimental to the games at worst.
And yet, despite this, the new movie, Mortal Kombat II, directed by Simon McQuoid, is a film that goes all-the-fuck-in on attempting to sell general audiences on this lore as the franchise’s defining feature. And it is all the worse for it.
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “MORTAL KOMBAT II”
5. A No Good Script
There are a host of issues with Mortal Kombat II, but the root of many of them is the script itself. Writer Jeremy Slater is clearly a massive fan of the overarching franchise, showing a deep understanding of the ins and outs of the series, which has been running for multiple decades and spans over a dozen installments. While that does have some advantages, it is mostly a negative here, as the script feels like a kid let loose in a candy store with no real restrictions. It grabs ideas in handfuls and throws them into the mix without much thought about whether they actually form a cohesive or compelling film.
Mortal Kombat II seems like it was probably a blast for Jeremy Slater to write, and that part is hard to deny. However, the film itself suffers from a near-total lack of structure. Characters appear, disappear, die, return, and suddenly become central to the story on a whim, creating a narrative that is both convoluted and oddly dull. On top of that, the film’s insistence on taking itself seriously only makes these issues more noticeable, which brings us to the next problem…
4. A Whiplash-Inducing Tonal Problem
Mortal Kombat II cannot decide if it wants to be a franchise fan’s wet dream, an adaptation that takes the material so earnestly and seriously it aims for a The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring-level defining moment for the series, or a film willing to roll with the punches and serve as an accessible entry point for new audiences through sarcasm and irony. In that second version, it leans into a more Marvel Cinematic Universe-coded approach, positioning Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage as the wisecracking guide who constantly pokes fun at the chaos so viewers can ease into the absurdity.
The result is a film trying to have its cake and eat it too. It simultaneously demands to be taken extremely seriously while also winking at the audience to soften the blow of its own lore, plot, and mechanical gibberish.
3. Who is Who/What is What
I’d like to imagine that the most die-hard fans of Mortal Kombat will get a lot of mileage out of Mortal Kombat II and its wide array of references, catchphrases, cameos, and everything in between. However, as someone who has genuinely enjoyed the games over the years but has never been deeply invested in the lore, this felt like an unending parade of ideas being crammed into every possible corner of the film.
There are multiple moments where a location gets a reverent introduction or a character walks through a portal, drops a line, and fires off an attack, all with the same underlying signal of “please applaud.” It has a similar energy to beats in films like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Deadpool & Wolverine, where the intent is clearly to trigger audience recognition. The difference here is that those films at least build toward those moments in ways that give them some weight.
In this case, it often feels like the movie is asking for excitement purely on the basis of presence alone, without doing much of the work to make those appearances feel meaningful within the actual story.
2. The Protagonist Problem
Mortal Kombat II starts off with one protagonist, then shifts to two, and eventually ends up with a whole crowd of them. The film begins by focusing on Kitana, who receives a full flashback prologue that sets up both her character and the broader story. On paper, that structure makes sense. Then, just a few scenes later, the movie cuts back to the cliffhanger ending of the previous installment, which after an entire film of build-up finally teed up the actual Mortal Kombat tournament.
But instead of diving into it, the film pivots again. The group of heroes decides they are not ready and need one more addition in the form of Johnny Cage. This turns Cage into the primary focus for a significant stretch of the runtime, functioning as an audience surrogate of sorts.
As the story continues, both Kitana and Cage are treated as dual protagonists, and they are arguably the most developed characters in the film, although that is a very low bar given how thinly written everyone else is. The issue is that even these two central figures repeatedly disappear from the narrative. By the third act, the film is juggling nearly a dozen characters as if each one is the lead, resulting in a chaotic, unfocused structure that makes the entire story feel increasingly disjointed and difficult to follow.
1. Even the Action is Boring
If you are a fan of Mortal Kombat, you have probably spent most of this review so far defending Mortal Kombat II by repeating the same argument I raised earlier: the franchise is not really about story, it is about fighting.
The issue with that defense is simple. In a video game, you are an active participant. You control the character, you make the decisions, and you project your own motivation into the experience. In a film, you are passive. You are only watching events unfold without any agency, which means the movie has to do the work of making you care.
For fight scenes to land in this format, there needs to be emotional grounding. You need to understand why the conflict matters, what is at stake, and why these characters’ struggles should matter in that moment. Mortal Kombat II consistently fails to establish that foundation, which makes the action feel strangely hollow.
On top of that, the choreography, staging, and cinematography start off mildly effective but never evolve beyond that baseline. The film remains stuck in the same visual and tonal gear from start to finish. The result is repetitive, monotonous action that eventually becomes draining rather than engaging, to the point where you are left waiting for it to simply end.
RGM GRADE
(D-)
Mortal Kombat II is a baffling picture. I was really hoping for a rip-roaring good time at the movies, and instead received one of the most boring films I’ve seen this year. Wish it was better, but it is not.
