The creative minds behind Mortal Kombat II he sure knows how to make a ’90s style action movie. We get a glimpse of that with footage from “Uncaged Fury,” a portrayal of Hollywood playboy Johnny Cage full of one-liners, icy slow-motion and absurd stunts, all of which would have felt at home with Van Damme’s forgettable performance. With a nod to schlocky action cinema – definitely inclusive Mortal Kombat (1995)— director Simon McQuoid and screenwriter Jeremy Slater also make a statement: They know what not to do. That self-awareness ultimately makes it the best Mortal Kombat movie yet.
This sequence is essentially a point-for-point rebuttal of everything in “Unchangeable Fury.” McQuoid, Slater and crew have made the action more difficult than we’ve seen before in the franchise. The movement is very striking, the characters use the objects around them and everything is shot to emphasize the deep level of skill involved in creating a modern combat environment. There are quips, to be sure (including a nod to Big Trouble in Little Chinawhich directly affected the Mortal Kombat games), but it’s more than just a throwaway line.
Perhaps most importantly, it balances those (slightly) higher cinematic aspirations against the campier aspects of Mortal Kombat. It is still about the competition that will determine the fate of the world. People have great power. There is a necromancer. But there is still room to find humanity in these absurd characters.
The best example of this is Johnny Cage himself, who is just introduced as an annoying movie star in the games. In the film, you’re a washed-up star who attends a geek convention where no one knows you. As played by Karl Urban – the kind of actor he appeared in Xena: Princess Warrior, The Lord of the Rings and right now you have stars Boys – Cage is an essential sad sack. He hates himself so much, he can’t even accept a bit of praise from his former fan. Urban captures a man who has passed his prime, and his first step was leaving a formal martial arts career to make schlock movies.
When he’s chosen to fight in Mortal Kombat, it’s impossible for Cage to see himself as a real hero – after all, he only pretends to be. Urban gets to show off his comedic chops as he is thrown into his first fight, showing us a busy side of the character. But he’s compelling enough as an actor to make us believe in Cage’s gradual heroic transformation.
Warner Bros.When Johnny Cage stole the show, Mortal Kombat II it begins by introducing us to Kitana as the daughter of a princess who is forced to watch her father being brutally murdered by Shao Kahn. That loss puts his kingdom, and all its people, under Kahn’s rule. Inexplicably, he chooses to adopt her and take his mother as his wife. Kitana’s focus becomes revenge, all the while putting on the face of Kahn’s loyal warrior. Given the weight of his story, there’s little room for Kitana to lean as camp as Johnny Cage, but at least he gets a sick fan of knife fights.
Everyone else since Mortal Kombat reboot returns, including Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang and Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, a new character introduced in that film. They all get their time in the spotlight with elaborate fight scenes, which come up again and again, as the competition serves as the backbone of the film. In an interview on my film podcast, Filmcast, McQuoid revealed that his stunt team spent a lot of time looking at choreography and set pieces, which resulted in more intense action sequences than the first film. It’s something that I think even a casual audience, who aren’t that particular about fight choreography, will notice.
Now I won’t pretend that Mortal Kombat II perfect movie. It’s so dependent on previous logins that it would be completely nonsensical to anyone throwing themselves into it. And people who are less interested in the world of martial arts movies may not understand that the characters spend more time punching and kicking than talking. But if you can enjoy the wordless ballet of a well-choreographed fight scene, where the depth of character is revealed through the action itself, you’ll probably have a good time. Mortal Kombat II.
