A follow-up to 2021’s gory big-screen adaptation of the much-played fighting game might finally show us the tournament but it’s all far too unexciting
A sequel to 2021’s gory, garish big-screen transfer of Mortal Kombat was an inevitability not just because of how the industry typically works and not just because video game IP is arguably hotter than ever right now but because of something far more crucial. While the film – the second attempt to bring the game to the big screen after a dodgy Christopher Lambert-led 1995 version - was a predictable string of fight scenes pieced together with what could generously be described as a plot, it pulled a major, and to some rather shocking, punch. For all of the fight scenes it did show, it stopped short of showing us those one would naturally expect, denying us an actual Mortal Kombat tournament.
It was all laboured scene-setting, one reason why it didn’t connect with many critics and fans, other than it also not being very good, another little problem. The film was part of Warner’s Christopher Nolan-alienating Covid year, when its slate was launched on both the big screen and HBO Max simultaneously, and while it did so-so theatrical numbers, it was the platform’s most-streamed movie of the year, beating out grander titles such as Dune. The sequel is receiving a splashier rollout but its predecessor’s outsized small-screen success wasn’t just a sign of that particular strange time but also where fans might best enjoy these films, on TV late at night, expectations that much lower. Treated like a premium format blockbuster does not do a film like Mortal Kombat II any favours, its junkiness less charming and more distracting, a street fighter suddenly forced to go pay-per-view. While this one might actually be true to its title – there is a Mortal Kombat in Mortal Kombat II - there’s still nowhere near enough here to warrant an Imax screen.
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