‘Mortal Kombat II’ is Ready to Feed its Bloodthirsty Crowd

May 6, 2026

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Are you being finished? (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Starring: Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Martyn Ford, Desmond Chiam, Ana Thu Nguyen, Max Huang, CJ Bloomfield, Joe Taslim

Director: Simon McQuoid

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: R for Gory/Spiky Violence, Deranged Cockiness, and an Ever-Present Middle Finger

Release Date: May 8, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Some are in it for the power, some are in it for the love of the battle. And the rest are wondering what the heck they’re even doing there in the first place! In the competition known as Mortal Kombat, that adjective means what it means. That’s bad news for anyone standing in the way of the emperor known as Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), who’s in possession of an amulet that has made him effectively omnipotent. He currently has his sights set on conquering Earth (or “Earthrealm” in the parlance of the MK community), so those with a stake in protecting the planet seek the legendary martial artist Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). Johnny considers himself little more than a washed-up movie star, but a certain crew of interdimensional fighters believe he’s not giving himself enough credit, as they recruit him into this deadly tournament. However, if Earthrealm is to be fully preserved, he’s probably not the only combatant who needs to accept his destiny right quick.

What Made an Impression?: Get Out of Your Cage and Into My Realm: I’m not terribly familiar with the actors of Mortal Kombat II, save for a few exceptions (including one of the stars of a current NBC sitcom, bizarrely enough). It seems like most of them were cast for their physicality and martial artistry, rather than their thespian bona fides. So while this is decidedly an ensemble piece, it helps a great deal that someone as charismatic as Karl Urban is at the center of it all. It’s also a stroke of rationality that his rendition of Johnny Cage is a mix of low and high status. He tries to charm his way out of all the deadly situations he suddenly finds himself plopped into, which works sometimes, but also gets him into even more trouble. Either way, there’s more charm than there would be otherwise, which is a net-positive for those of us watching.
How to Tell Your Blades Apart From Your Kitana: There are plenty of scenes in MKII without a single whiff of Johnny, which is nice if you’re looking for a message about the importance of collective action. But it’s not so nice if you want characters whose motivations go beyond the standard cookie-cutters of “You killed my parents” and “This is what the gods said must happen.” At least the costume and makeup designs are interesting and lovingly rendered.
Following Directions: The Mortal Kombat games are famous for their graphic brutality (as emphasized by the directives to “finish” a defeated challenger), and this latest adaptation does not blink when bringing all the blood and guts to big screen life. I wouldn’t recommend reveling in this sort of over-the-top mayhem every day, but I feel compelled to admit that there is a bit of Looney Tunes-style finesse to all the beheadings, vivisections, and pulverizings. Overall, I wouldn’t quite declare MKII the champion it aspires to be, but it’s having enough fun to justify the effort.

Mortal Kombat II is Recommended If You Like: Cheesy 90s Action Flicks, Jagged teeth, Funny hats

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Amulets

This Is a Movie Review: The God of Thunder Gets Stranded in the Louche ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

October 27, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Disney/Marvel

This review was originally posted on News Cult in November 2017.

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins

Director: Taika Waititi

Running Time: 130 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Colorfully Stylized Action Violence and a Glimpse of Hulk Butt

Release Date: November 3, 2017

Even in its stronger outings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has consistently exemplified the distressing 21st century trend of “franchise film as trailer for its upcoming sequels.” But putting at the helm Taika Waititi, the New Zealand director behind vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows and coming-of-age charmer Hunt for the Wilderpeople, would perhaps signal a willingness to kick back with an idiosyncratic one-off effort. And indeed, Thor: Ragnarok is not particularly burdened by setting up the next “phase” for all the other Marvel heroes, save for the mandatory post-credits scene as well as an early rendezvous with Doctor Strange that at least has the courtesy to be completely ridiculous. But as Waititi is not creating something out of whole cloth, it is still a bear of a job to wrap his sensibility around Thor’s personal history and Asgard’s extensive mythology.

One of the biggest disappointments of most MCU films, and what made Doctor Strange so satisfying when it bucked this trend, is their lack of imagination in design and music. Their craft is far from ugly, but it is no more than workmanlike. Ragnarok has plenty of personality, but it kind of gets in the way of itself. Mark Mothersbaugh’s prog-rock synth score is entirely fitting, but it never really fully rocks out until the end credits. All the new supporting characters make a convincing case to be the breakout star, but there is only room for so much of that in a busy 2 hours. I would never willingly sacrifice Cate Blanchett’s evil diva goddess Hela, or Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric sensualist Grand Master, or Tessa Thompson’s hard-drinking and unapologetic Valkyrie, or the most hedonistic version of the Hulk we have yet seen on screen. But this is a series of solo acts, not a supergroup. They play nice together, but they only intermittently gel as a unit greater than the sum of its parts.

The plot of Ragnarok is fairly straightforward, but a little overwhelming in its climax, due to the surfeit of moving parts. The titular end of Asgardian days is threatening to come to pass with the return of Hela, the long-imprisoned goddess of death and sister of Thor. Thor and Loki broker one of their many peaces to team up and save their home realm, but they are first waylaid onto the Grand Master’s home planet, where they get caught up in some gladiatorial combat.

By the end of it all, I found myself confused about who was defeated and who was victorious, and how much so on either count. Frankly, I am perfectly willing to forgo any prosaic interpretation for the sake of embracing a more expressionistic experience. This is not hard to do, as there are plenty of blasts of pure imagination (punneriffic reference perfectly intended). Trouble is, the story does matter to the people who made this movie, and even if it did not, it is too imposing to disregard. By the end of all these affairs, Ragnarok is the type of feast that overloads you with deliciousness but leaves you crashing instead of the kind that fills you up and floods you up with endorphins. It is adequately cromulent, but not very transcendent.

Thor: Ragnarok is Recommended If You Like: Doctor Strange, ’70s Glam Rock Stars, Kiwi accents

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Nonsense Circles