Soo.... I feel this one was so much better than the first one, which I must admit had a bit of a lukewarm reception, but it was still a "turn your brain off and enjoy" kind of film, so I went in with pretty low expectations after the first and this one at least did a pretty good job of understanding the assignment.
There's a lot more of the "kombat" element to it this time, versus the first film, which had a lot of origin story crap that really didn't have anything to do with the actual fighting. this one gets you into the action much quicker and doesn't let you out.
I'm not sure if karl urban's johnny cage is the best addition here, since he could've been the comic relief guy, but he does a pretty good job of being an old action man whose career was never really what he expected and who's just waiting on the sidelines for the right opportunity to strike out at shao kahn, who is played by adeline rudolph, who's really solid too, she's kind of the emotional core of the movie honestly, her whole arc of being taken in by shao kahn after he killed her real father and just waiting on the sidelines for the right time to turn on him gives her some actual weight compared to a lot of the other characters who are pretty much just there to fight and pretty much forgot the rest of the story is happening.
josh lawson as kano is also a real highlight too and is genuinely very funny and his puns happen more often than not and they do a good job of using him and cage together to lighten up scenes that would otherwise be way too self-serious for what is, at the end of the day, a movie about people punching each other with swords and ice powers.
The fights are really well executed, and they're violent in that "Mortal Kombat original" kind of way, with every hit having weight and impact to it.... this movie really shows an interest in the source material, even if the script doesn't always show the same care. long time fans are sure to be smiling the whole way through, with ample callbacks and nods to the actual games in here.
On the other hand, if you come in with the expectation of a tight plot with real character development throughout you'll be let down, this is spectacle and style over substance, and it takes a hard swing at those two things.
Truthfully i wasn't expecting much out of a Mortal Kombat movie anyways, but I got way more than i was expecting in the character department, primarily in regards to cage and kitana.
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Rating: 80/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/movies.
