It’s head splitting, blood drenched fun! Check it out!

---

Way back in 1992 the world was clobbered with one of the most violent video games of all time: Mortal Kombat. The ultra-violent, parent-angering, two person fighter was all the rage. With hitt a few buttons, you could throw a hook at your opponent, yell “GET OVER HERE!” and beat the crap out of them.  Sure, we had Pit Fighter, but this had real violence. For those of us who remember, the Super Nintendo version didn’t have blood, but instead used a grey spray which was called “sweat” or “spit”. 

Anyways, not too long after that, in 1995, Paul WS Anderson scrapped together what he could and made the movie adaptation. Which, true to his style, was horrible. Yeah, there were a few moments but overall, c’mon man. The sequel, Annihilation was, somehow, worse. 

Lets jump all the way to 2021 and the world is coming out of the COVID lock downs. Everyone is still masking up, sanitizing everything, but were hungry to go outside again. One movie that no one would have really expected to rock us was a serious (kind of) reboot of MK. The odds were definitely stacked against the movie as theaters were dying off and people were still scared to be in any kind of crowd. But that’s a whole other article. MK did fairly well: earning $84 mil on a $55 mil budget. Although the movie ended in a way that if that was it, the general audiences would have been satisfied. 

^{Hell yeah. Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano)}

So, was a sequel needed? No, I don’t think so, but it sure was welcomed. If you think you’re gonna get a hard hitting family drama about a character having to fight for their life, or an abrasive look at society and how it treats (fill in the blank) demographic, then this movie is not for you. We have body ripping, one liner spewing, blood bath soaking action that has as iron clad of a plot as the video games offer: Champs from all over the cosmic universes fight to the death for the Elder Gods. 

Not every movie needs to be Ben-Hur.

^{Lui Kang is my man! Ludi Lin.}

MK II picks up where MK left off: Cole Young (Lewis Tan) heading to Los Angeles to find the man, the myth, the legend: Johnny Effing Cage (Karl Urban). Cage was a 90’s action icon, (think of Jean-Claude Van Damme type), who is now washed up, using his glory days to sell autographs and pictures at conventions. Upon leaving a convention, he is confronted by Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), who inform Cage he is needed in a fighting tournament for world salvation. A few chuckles and jokes later, Cage is transported to Raiden’s Sky Temple, where the tournament is explained and we meet the other fighters. 

A bunch of ass beatings, cool sets, blood on blood on blood later, the credits roll with a set up for a third movie. What? You were expecting something else? 

OK, so I’ll be the first to admit these aren’t my kind of movies. In fact, I absolutely despise action flicks, aside from a few. I just can’t get into them. My brain just shuts off and I think about other things (go ahead and DM me your “But Chris, YOU like slashers!” Yeah yeah … ). In fact, I fell asleep during this, but I still dug it. There really is no actual plot to follow, and if you remember the games, then you’ll have a good time watching. There’s a paper thin idea of a plot involving Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), but it’s barely worth breathing about. 

Overall, there isn’t much to say as far as a story, or acting or anything really. This movie is as complex as a bag of popcorn with extra butter and an ice cold Sprite. Turn off and have fun!

---

Mortal Kombat II is now playing in theaters

Directed by Simon McQuoid

Written by Jeremy Slater, Ed Boon, John Tobias 

Starring: Adeline Rudolph, Karl Urban, Martyn Ford

Genre: Action

Runtime: 116 mins