By Gene Ching
This is the year of fighting video game movie adaptations. Mortal Kombat II premieres worldwide on May 8, 2026, and then later this year on October 16, 2026, a new interpretation of Street Fighter debuts. It’s the echo of the double barrel movies of 1997 and 1998. In 1997, Volcano and Dante’s Peak opened within two months of each other. And the following year, Antz and A Bug’s Life came out separated by just a few weeks. At least Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter have the decency to break clean with a half year separation. But still, it begs the question – where’s Tekken?
Round 2 of Mortal Kombat is the direct sequel to the 2021 reboot of the live-action film. That was a challenging year for martial arts blockbusters. Audiences were still emerging from wake of the pandemic three major martial films came out: Mortal Kombat, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi was the clear winner earning $432 million worldwide. Snake Eyes flopped, earning only $40 million (it needed $175 million just to break even). Mortal Kombat did okay, coming in at $84 million on a $55 million budget. Mortal Kombat II reinvested the earnings back into production; the estimated budget is nearly twice that of the 2021 film.
And that reinvestment shows. The production value of Mortal Kombat II is noticeably higher. This means bigger set pieces, more lavish costumes, and more spectacular special effects. Mortal Kombat spent a lot of attention on world building. Mortal Kombat II dives deeply into that world, or those worlds – it’s Earthrealm versus Outworld with side trip to the Netherrealm added for good measure. These ‘Kombatverse’ locations are wonderfully actualized with rich fantasy architecture and sweeping alien landscapes.
Fatality!
Mortal Kombat II is a true sequel, picking up soon after part 1 left off. The final scene of the first film teased part 2. Clearly the filmmakers knew exactly where they were going with this. Part 2 reunites the cast of part 1 including Lewis Tan (Cole Young), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Josh Lawson (Kano), Max Huang (Kung Lao), Chin Han (Shang Tsung), Joe Taslim (Bi-Han/Sub-Zero), Tadanobu Asano (Raiden), and Hiroyuki Sanada (Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion). But hang on. Didn’t a lot of those characters die in part 1? Indeed, there were many fatalities. For the sequel, the dead are brought back by some nefarious necromancy. It’s just enough to justify their appearances that allows the ensemble cast of warriors to continue, no matter how grisly their demises were. After all, Mortal Kombat is based on a video game. If you die, just insert another token and get another life.
Video game movies seldom have profound stories, and Mortal Kombat II is no exception. This isn’t a movie to see for deep thinking. It’s a ‘park your brain outside and enjoy the bloody ride’ sort of movie. There are many clichéd tropes including the reluctant ‘chosen one’, an all-powerful magic artifact in the hands of the villains that needs to be destroyed, taking hits for the team with self-sacrificing plays, and of course, revenge – sweet revenge for blood debts that have spanned across centuries.
Karl Urban takes on the iconic Johnny Cage, a has-been movie star who gets sucked into the Kombatverse against his wishes. But the fate of the world is at stake, so will he rise to the cause? It’s an old plot device and the climax is unsurprisingly true to form.
The plot of first film was parallel. Cole Young is a struggling MMA fighter, sucked into the Kombatverse to save the world. And it looks like Street Fighter will be about Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) being a washed-up fighter who gets sucked into the Street Fighter world. All these stories express feelings of being the outsider, of learning to cooperate, and self-realization of personal importance and inner strength, all themes that resonate with fans, especially nerdy gamers. Yes, we’ve been here. We’ve been here so many times before.
Let’s get to that sweet revenge.
It's Called Mortal Kombat for a Reason
Being based on a fight game, the spotlight of the Mortal Kombat franchise is focused on our favorite film topic here at KungFuMagazine.com – the fight scenes. Chan Griffin was the Fight Coordinator for part 1. While part 1 did deliver some decent fights (the Sanada versus Taslim sword fight was a treat), with all the high level martial talent in the cast, it fell a bit short.
In part 2, Malay Kim and Michael Lehr take over. Kim is known for Shang-Chi and the TV spin-off of the John Wick world, The Continental (2023). He is also a Futsan Bak Mei Instructor. Lehr also worked on The Continental, as well as Extraction (2020), Day Shift (2022), and many others. He is an avid martial artist too.
From the first installment, Mortal Kombat stacked the fight card with some of the strongest martial actors in the business right now. Tan, Taslim, Huang, Lin, and Sanada are all accomplished martial artists beyond their acting careers and have already had leading roles in many hard hitting action films. In some ways, as odd as it sounds, Mortal Kombat is beneath their skills. They have all delivered outstanding cinematic fights in many films that were more conventional martial arts movies. They can all handle those long one-shot fight scenes where they knock out dozens of complex moves in one take. Those fight scene one-ers are revered by martial fans for their complexity and stamina. But that’s not the style of this film.
Mortal Kombat II delivers superhero fights on the order of an MCU epic, only much more sanguineous and profanity ridden. Beyond the classic kicks and punches, there are plenty of physics-defying aerials and lots of fire and qi blasts. This style of action choreography can come off super cheesy if handled wrong, but Kim and Lehr deftly integrate solid martial arts techniques with the special effects to deliver seamless action where supernatural powers blend smoothly into good Kung Fu.
Also joining the sequel are Adeline Rudolph as Kitana and Tati Gabrielle as Jade, both of whom starred in the Netflix show Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2020). Like Urban, neither have a notable martial arts background, but under the watchful direction of Kim and Lehr, plus some help from stunt doubles and CGI, they all manage to sell their strikes satisfactorily. In the Kombatverse, heroes and villains have an innate ‘arcana,’ a hidden magical power that lets them shoot laser beams from their eyes or cover themselves with impact-absorbing armor. It’s something they must discover through training. These superhero fights are fun, as long as they aren’t taken too seriously.
Where Mortal Kombat II transcends the genre is in its graphic kills. Whether it be lopping off fingers, chopping someone in two, or smashing someone’s skull with a giant hammer, the gore factor of this movie rivals a zombie flick. It’s not for the faint of heart. Quite the opposite, it’s for audiences that revel in blood splatter. If Mortal Kombat II is ever shown in 4D, audiences will get drenched with the constant spray of blood.
What redeems this gory spectacle is the constant comic relief quips in Mortal Kombat II. Johnny Cage’s dialog is riddled with witticisms that never lose sight of the absurdity of the Kombatverse. And almost every line of Kano’s is a barb. When someone gets their head sliced into slabs by circular saw-like weapons, the jokes keep the carnage light and laughable.
Just like in part 1, there are many fatalities in part 2. But just like in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Mortal Kombat II establishes that death is impermanent in the Kombatverse. This is canon for the video game. And the final scene of this sequel has the surviving Kombaters looking to resurrect their fallen comrades. This opens the portal for a threequel, as long as part 2 succeeds in the box office. Hopefully this will happen and KungFuMagazine.com will be there for it.
Author:
Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips. His long-running martial arts movie column ‘Fast Forward to the Fight Scenes’ can be found in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.
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Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.
