Mortal Kombat II (2026) is directed by Simon McQuoid and written by Jeremy Slater. It stars Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Martyn Ford, Tati Gabrielle, Jessica McNamee, Ludi Lin, Josh Lawson, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Damon Herriman, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Max Huang, CJ Bloomfield, Ana Thu Nguyen, and Desmond Chiam. The film picks up immediately following the events of Mortal Kombat (2021), as Lord Raiden’s (Asano) Earth champions set out to recruit their final chosen fighter, washed-up 80s action star Johnny Cage (Urban). Meanwhile, Kitana (Rudolph), adopted daughter of the powerful dark lord Shao Khan (Ford), finds her loyalties tested on the eve of the Mortal Kombat tournament. As the fights commence, some alliances are solidified while others shift. With the stakes higher than ever before, Earth’s champions are forced to dig deep in order to claim victory. 

The performances from the returning portion of the cast are consistent with those given in the first film. That being said, this sequel does absolutely nothing to develop/advance these characters, even going so far as to unceremoniously kill off the previous main character and shift its focus to the two new additions to the franchise. Since this is almost entirely fight-focused in comparison to its predecessor, there’s almost zero time to actually attach oneself to these characters. This is admittedly fun in a shut-your-brain-off, “all I want is something that looks like the games” sort of way, but it has no depth. Because of this, the experience becomes a snooze-fest halfway through despite being nothing but action. It’s impossible to care about anything that happens/who dies, because we’re never given a reason to. The only character with a clear, relatable motivation is, as I mentioned previously, cynically killed off in order to appease the loudest, most hair-brained portion of the fandom. This leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth and results in laughably predictable confrontations that seem to lack stakes.

The choice to fully lean into what fans liked about the first film and drop everything else is a mixed bag. This leads to a more explosive and crowd-pleasing film, but also one that’s significantly more hollow. I’m not saying the first film is a masterpiece in terms of story and character, but at least it consistently feels like those two aspects are at least present. This sequel, on the other hand, often feels so disjointed that it plays more like a series of interconnected Mortal Kombat short films. Thankfully, the fights themselves feel like an improvement in terms of choreography and brutality. They’re consistently set in locations that fans are sure to recognize, and the increased implementation of the game’s iconic, gory ‘fatalities’ is undeniable fun for anyone who enjoys a bit of carnage candy. 

Overall, this is a brainless, but mostly faithful, adaptation of the Mortal Kombat video game. Despite improving on the first film in a handful of key ways, it does so at the expense of fundamentals such as character development and a coherent, compelling story. This will feel like an improvement to die-hard fans of the IP, but to everyone else, it will just come across as a dumber, louder version of what came before. This mostly feels like a case of two steps forward, two steps back. The only thing that might give this sequel the slight edge is its inclusion of Karl Urban as Johnny Cage. The guy elevates nearly everything he’s in, and this is no exception. C+