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Explore behind the scenes of Mortal Kombat II with star Karl Urban and director Simon McQuoid, then check out a humorous scene from the final cut.
Featurette and scene: Warner Bros./New Line Cinema

Mortal Kombat II
Directed by Simon McQuoid
Rated R
Evicerated 8 May 2026
#MortalKombatMovie #IMAX

Mortal Kombat II is a sloppily made movie with blockbuster ambitions.

Kampy Kombat

Movie poster for Uncaged Fury, starring Johnny Cage

This unexpected sequel is a guilty pleasure that teeters on actually being good. While it easily surpasses its progenitor, that isn’t saying much. The first movie was a mediocre 2021 effort that was released simultaneously in theatres and streaming on HBO Max as the world slowly exited the pandemic. In that challenging environment, its theatrical gross was stymied at $84 million worldwide, so seeing this sequel come to light with a production budget around $68 million is a little surprising. With the ambitions contained in the story, however, they needed a bigger budget.

The best part of this sequel is its introduction of Johnny Cage, one of the original gaming characters dating back to 1992 and the very beginning of the ongoing violent video game series. As in the games, so he is in this movie. He’s a martial arts expert and a movie star.

Or, rather, he was a martial arts expert with five black belts and a world title whose career as an action star has waned. Now he shills autographs at fandom conventions, with his table – sadly – largely overlooked as excitable teenage girls fixate on the latest pop culture sensation across the aisle.

Karl Urban – who made an impeccable Dr. McCoy in the theatrical reboot of Star Trek – brings Johnny Cage to life with a certain panache. He drops the F-bomb with aplomb and his signature move is to adjust his sunglasses while giving the middle finger to the enemies he’s staring down ahead of another wild fight scene.

He’s an actor. A regular human being. He has absolutely no superpowers. But, unlike most of us, he’s impossibly handsome. Johnny serves as the main grounding point in what is otherwise a chaotic affair overloaded with lots of on-screen grisly, gory, bloody action.

The story? What’s it about? It has something to do with winning 10 blood-splattering Mortal Kombat tournaments. The winner claims dominion over everything, including piddling little humans.

Or something like that.

Rebel Without a Cage

Unfortunately, there’s no sense of anything really being at stake; there’s no tension or edge-of-the-seat danger at any point in Mortal Kombat II.

It’s also hard to buy into this movie’s Eastern philosophies. In the real world, they’re totally solid. Things like this pearl of wisdom from early in the movie: strength is in the mind and in the heart, not in the closed fist.

That’s great. But it’s hard to reconcile that Jedi-like mindset with the rest of the movie, which is all about the bloodshed. Granted, the closed fist is hardly impactful here. What is? Super-sharp blades. Blades in handheld folding fans. Hats with a buzzsaw brim. Blades everywhere. And those blades split brains (on screen) and shred hearts and bodies.

So. Yeah.

Nonetheless, Johnny is thrown into all this as a representative of Earth based on his status as an action movie star. Apparently, these gods be crazy and are clueless about Johnny’s inconsequential status.

But here’s the fun part: Johnny offers a lot of great, quotable lines. His back story is also loaded with goodies, including a fan’s reference to Johnny’s “masterpiece,” Citizen Cage. To that end, there’s also a ridiculous action scene from a fictional 1996 New Line Cinema Johnny Cage movie that’s appropriately cheesy for the era and very funny. (Suitably, Karl’s real-world son, Indy, portrays a teenage Johnny showing off his MMA chops.)

It’s the quotability (most of the quotes can’t and won’t be spelled out here) that is certain to bolster repeat viewings, if not in theatres, then certainly on streaming services. There are also plenty of pop culture references scattered throughout, including Transformers, Harry Potter, John Wick, Lord of the Rings, Stephen King’s It, Big Trouble in Little China and Necromancer. Mortal Kombat II also throws some of the machismo vibe of 300. Johnny Cage’s in-movie marketing all-too-closely resembles that of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible.

Shifty Moves

Originally set for release in October 2025, Warner Bros. pushed the movie to May 2026 based – apparently – on strong early screening reactions and the hope for bigger box office returns as an early movie summer season release. With more money expected in the till, during those six months of the movie sitting on a shelf, they should’ve put up funding to add some polish to the movie’s visuals.

This is easily one of the worst-looking “filmed for IMAX” movies to date. The CGI effects are mostly ghastly and the sets are – as with the first movie – awful. They look like movie sets instead of lived-in environments. Even worse, some scenes look like they were filmed “on location” in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Orlando.

Nonetheless, in addition to the quotability and pop culture Easter eggs, there’s another element that warrants a retake: the movie features many aspect ratio shifts, sliding between a standard theatrical ratio of (maybe) 1.85:1 to a larger picture for the IMAX screen.

In what might be a first, one shift is apparently nothing more than an IMAX sight gag. The shift is obvious and smooth as the screen expands vertically. It’s a build-up to a fight. But it’s a fight that doesn’t happen. Instead, the aggressor turns his attention to Johnny. It seems as though the ratio immediately shifts back down (several IMAX bits are super short). But that’s something that needs to be confirmed. If it is the case, it’s a funny industry insider joke of some sort.

Perspective

While Johnny takes center stage, there are other highlights on the character front. Adeline Rudolph is a standout as Kitana, a young fighter with a tragic back story. In her world, anything and everything can be used as a weapon. Obviously, her bladed folding fan can do a lot of damage, but it’s also put to other fanciful uses that wink at Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But a blue ribbon can also be turned lethal in the right hands. Such as hers.

What’s surprising is how effectively Johnny and Kitana are inserted into this sequel which brings back many of the characters from the first movie. Maybe that’s because Johnny and Kitana are memorable while the others aren’t. Even the over-the-top, testosterone overloaded Kano (Josh Lawson) is a long-forgotten holdover from Mortal Kombat.

And there’s one superb cameo. Ed Boon, one of the creators of the Mortal Kombat game series, makes a brief appearance as a bartender at Johnny Cage’s favorite watering hole. Nicely done.

Of course, there’s a setup for a third installment. If that does happen, the Brothers Warner and New Line Cinema should up the game and provide the proper budget – along with a stronger team in the director’s chair and behind the keyboard – to give Mortal Kombat the big-screen experience it’s been seeking for decades.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.