Reviews are now in for the Simon McQuoid-directed “Mortal Kombat II,” the sequel to 2021’s reboot of the films based on the video game series.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the title is sitting at 74% from 54 reviews – the best reviewed live-action film adaptation of the series to date and well above the 43% of the 1995 film and 55% of the 2021 film.
On Metacritic, the reviews are less glowing. It’s at a very underwhelming 50/100 score, which is still an improvement on the 2021 film’s 44/100 but behind the 1995 film’s 60/100.
The general consensus seems to be that the film tries to fix issues with the 2021 one; whether it succeeds or not depends on the reviewer. Here’s a sampling of reviews:
“Revived corpses, laser eyeballs, a Zen afterlife, fang-faced aliens, a ruthless sorcerer who skulks about like Joan Crawford – Mortal Kombat II throws one nutty idea after another at the screen, and the results are delightful nonsense.” – ALonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“Fingers crossed a third movie will do what this movie did: Improve on what came before, take the piss out of itself whenever possible, and never forget that at the end of the day, the reason people want to watch movies like this in the first place.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
“The film has its rewards, mostly of the unsophisticated kind, since the fight sequences come fast and furious and the cheesy dialogue has enough groan-worthy one-liners to inspire a thousand drinking games.” – Frank Scheck, THR
“Mortal Kombat II does just enough to keep you interested so you can watch a bunch of cool, weird characters fight for two hours. There are laughs, there’s gore, and at the end, you’ll be left smiling. Beyond that? For most, it won’t even matter.” – Germain Lussier, io9
“Even amongst video games, the Mortal Kombat series is far from the highest achievement of pure artistry that the medium has to offer, but its creators know exactly what their players expect from the fighting franchise and are happy to deliver.” – Cody Dericks, Awards Watch
“While Urban can do this kind of slack-jawed what-fresh-hell-is-this comedy in his sleep by now thanks to his roles on the similarly disgusting (but far more engaging) series The Boys, the actor is consistently undermined by McQuoid’s uneven tone.” – Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail
“Injecting a dash of schlocky B-movie energy into this lifeless video game sequel is like trying to defibrillate a fighter after a fatality has popped their head like a cherry tomato.” – Jacob Oller, The AV Club
“Organizing that chaos into a coherent blockbuster format is a key part of the assignment here. But in “Mortal Kombat II,” McQuoid fails to connect even the strengths of his own hard work from five years ago with the hit he should be releasing today.” – Alison Foreman, Indiewire
“Mortal Kombat II, a sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot, is still an old-school video-game trash extravaganza: all sound and fury and flying bodies and jargony world-building, propped up by a sludgy excuse for a story.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Mortal Kombat II” is set to open in cinemas on Friday.
