Two different movie franchises have come into being since the video game “Mortal Kombat” stunned arcades in 1992. That game’s most popular catchphrases, “Get over here!” (to fight, that is) and “Finish him!” (self-explanatory), are repeated here at peak moments. Extra-peak moments, one should say, because the whole movie is a peak moment.
Directed by Simon McQuoid from a script by Jeremy Slater, “Mortal Kombat II” posits a fighter tournament to determine the fate of our world, or as it’s called here, Earthrealm, with its defenders led by the mixed martial artist Cole Young (Lewis Tan). The anti-Earthrealm forces of the Outworld are led by the metal-masked Shao Kahn, who wields a gigantic, spiked mallet, the better to smush the faces of his enemies with. Kahn’s noble adopted daughter, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), repelled by his despotism, has trouble remaining loyal to him. But other members of this bad boy’s team don’t have that problem, including the ice-generating warrior named Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). These miscreants are all scheming to secure an amulet that will make Kahn immortal, and some must venture into hell itself to get it. No, really.
Among Earthrealm’s champions are Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), an ostensibly washed-up action-movie actor, and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), who, contrary to her name, doesn’t do much slicing and dicing, but instead shoots energy rings from her bracelets. Johnny doesn’t want to be in this fight in the first place and is constantly grousing about his lack of a superpower. Also fighting for Team Human are Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), who can shoot fire from his hands, and Jax (Mehcad Brooks), whose metallic arms are, naturally, far more powerful than any human limbs.
In the ensuing battles, rib cages are indeed put under great pressure. Throats are cut. Daggers are thrust upward into necks. An entire intestinal system gets bisected by the razor-sharp rim of a steel hat. A skull is sliced off — two times — by what in the moment looks like an airborne buzz saw.
“Mortal Kombat II” is packed with such incidents, so you won’t have to wonder why it got an R rating. (With that rating pretty much a foregone conclusion given the violence, the characters have the latitude to drop a megaton of F-bombs.) The movie’s poster features 12 “Kombat” characters, and the movie has a few more. Again, if you’re not familiar with the games, you might worry that you won’t be able to tell the players without a scorecard, or a console. (The audience at the preview screening I attended broke into cheers not just when the catchphrases were uttered but when one of the game’s creators appeared in a cameo as a bartender.)
But don’t fret. The spectacle — its eardrum-shattering, eye-popping pyrotechnics, with the violence framed against all manner of phantasmagoric computer-generated backdrops — is its own reward.
Mortal Kombat II Rated R for ultraviolence and very persistent bad language. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. In theaters.
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