Mortal Kombat II (2026) Movie Review: Karl Urban Brings the Right Energy to a Brain-Dead, Mostly Inert Sequel

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“Mortal Kombat II” is both a fairly incompetent, underwhelming slog and the platonic ideal of what a video game adaptation should look like. With the rare exceptions of “The Last of Us” and this year’s “Exit 8,” a vast majority of video games don’t have the potential to be fully articulated narrative presentations, as they rely on the player to bring their own emotional baggage to a storytelling method that is all viscerality.

“Mortal Kombat” is the predecessor to many contemporary fighting games, but it was also a breakthrough because it merged kung fu, high fantasy, and science fiction into a new format, despite its broad similarities to existing films. To bring that story to life on the big screen is to remove the activation felt by the individual, a fact not aided by the bland characterization and story. This isn’t something that’s new to “Mortal Kombat II,” as it’s a cinematic franchise that has existed for over 30 years, but the latest installment doesn’t signify that there’s any significant unattained potential.

It is to the credit of “Mortal Kombat II” that the film does honor its namesake by being centered on the brutal tournament competition itself, as its direct predecessor was little more than an extended setup for the premise of the fighting game. 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” received an oversized reaction because it was released (at least in the United States) on HBO Max the same day that it debuted in theaters as part of Warner Bros.’ “Project Popcorn” strategy. While it’s unclear how the film would have performed with more definitive performance parameters, it managed to garner enough enthusiasm from HBO Max subscribers to warrant a sequel that brought back director Simon McQuaid. With one notable exception, “Mortal Kombat II” retains much of the same characters as its predecessor.

“Mortal Kombat II” benefits from a more interesting villain in Shao Khan (Martyn Ford), an all-powerful warrior from the Outerworld who plans to win the Mortal Kombat tournament, which is held to determine which faction gains control. Resisting him are the heroes from the previous film, including Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Kano (Josh Lawson), Liu Kanng (Ludi Lin), and Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), who have also formed a secret alliance with Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), an acolyte of Shao Khan who has sworn vengeance upon her master for his killing of her father.

Kitana has a tight friendship with another warrior of the Outerworld in Jade (Tati Gabrielle), which makes the fatalistic games more dynamic. However, the biggest addition to the human cause is the washed-up action movie star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), who is chosen by fate to help wage the ultimate battle to save life on Earth.

The narrative makes enough sense, as one might imagine, and it certainly does help to have some knowledge of the source material going in. That being said, this is as straight-up a martial arts competition film as would ever be possible for a studio project of this scale, and the outline of the genre makes it easy enough to fill in the gaps.

The familiarity of the story does assist in doing some of the prerequisite worldbuilding, as “Mortal Kombat II” isn’t interested in fleshing out how its world operates or what the stakes are, other than the broad declaration that it is all for the fate of the eight million humans on Earth (which no one seems to be particularly concerned about). Despite significantly more action-oriented and presumably a bigger budget, compared to its predecessor, “Mortal Kombat II” feels small in scale because of how mundane and dull its environments are. The description of a big blockbuster as “looking like a video game” used to be a broadly derogatory statement, but the banality of “Mortal Kombat II” is far less realized than many contemporary games.

The reason that “Mortal Kombat II” is any different than previous entries in the franchise, and the sole justification for seeing the film, is Urban in the role of Cage. It’s a fan-favourite character known for his slick, cool demeanor, and casting an action star as accomplished as Urban was a smart decision.

Urban is keenly aware of both his own reputation and the cult fandom surrounding the character, and thus the idea of Cage as a movie star caught in a fish-out-of-water situation is quite fun. Urban sells the ludicrous nature of the material, adds personality to the silly hand-to-hand combat, and also presents an outsider’s perspective because he can comment on how little of the film makes sense. There’s not an original thought behind the character, not any one-liners that can’t be predicted, but Urban somehow makes it work.

It’s both an advantage and a detriment to the film that Urban seems to be having such a blast that the remaining cast feels so dull in comparison. The self-aware schtick doesn’t work if the characters operate from within the universe, and the broadest of caricatures are utilized, which means that any non-Cage scenes are deathly boring.

While an argument could be made that these actors were cast primarily for their experience with stuntwork, there’s not much in “Mortal Kombat II” that feels authentic, as the stodgy visuals have a way of making any potentially interesting choreography lose its luster. There’s only so much exaggerated fighting that can be done with personality-free characters before it becomes dull, as even the ridiculously gory deaths lack the hand-crafted nature needed to feel truly shocking.

Judging by the sheer number of familiar lines, cameos, and nods made to appease fans of the game, “Mortal Kombat II” was made with a very specific target audience in mind, and might have been halfway passable had it not waned on for nearly 2 hours. Still, it’s easy to imagine that a tighter and less self-enamored film with more Cage, less lore, and more streamlined combat might have been more appealing. By implying a grand mythology and adorning itself with expensive spectacle, “Mortal Kombat II” is the safest, most inoffensive version of something that could have stood to be a niche work of punk rock cinema.