Mortal Kombat 2 redeems itself by fixing the worst thing about the first movie

2021's Mortal Kombat is not a good movie. It's a little under two hours of pure, terrible decision making. It's filled with some of the series' most boring characters—and the select few interesting ones still end up sidelined. All of its so-called comic relief is put on Kano, whose attempts at quips and witty one-liners fell incredibly flat for me. Lest we forget sloppy choreography (khoreography?), amateurish editing, and kringeworthy attempts to hamfist in an iconic "fatality" line or two.

At the centre of it all was the movie's biggest offender: Cole Young. If that name doesn't ring a bell to you, that's because he's not in any of the games. A wholly original creation for the movie, a bland everyman to serve as the protagonist in an attempt to cajole people who've never done a quarter-circle forward in their life into watching the film without asking questions like "What's a Johnny Cage?"

That's not to slight actor Lewis Tan, who does the best job he can with the material he's served. But his talents would have been significantly more appreciated as a pre-existing Mortal Kombat character. Instead, entirely too much of the first movie is wasted on establishing his character, trying to implement some kind of stakes with his wife and child, with incredibly little time spent on the actual Mortal Kombat of it all.

Latest Videos From

So imagine my surprise when, around half an hour into Mortal Kombat 2, Cole Young had barely made an appearance at all. For how much the first movie revolved around him, his awkward relegation to a background character in this one was all the more obvious.

He gets a fleeting introduction from Raiden as he shows Johnny Cage around his gaff, little more than "that's Cole Young, he has cool armour, okay moving on." A quick line from Cole himself about how he left his wife and kid behind to come and fight, and how there was very little chance of him ever seeing them again.

And, well, he sure was right. Because not even halfway into the movie, Cole Young faces off against Shao Kahn on the iconic Dead Pool stage, and promptly takes a sledgehammer to his head, completely obliterating his dome into a brain-blood-skin smoothie. Shao Kahn drags his now-headless corpse off into the green sludge, and his time as a Mortal Kombat fighter is over.

And you know what? I quietly cheered. I even did a little fist pump. I'm not sorry about it.

I'm not sure whether it was the intention all along or whether some heavy pivoting occurred between the first and second Mortal Kombat movie, but Cole Young's quick death—and a pitiful passing "Oh Cole is dead? Ah, bummer," from the other characters—was a loud-and-clear indication that the focus was where it should have been all along: on the characters that Mortal Kombat fans know and love, and ones that newcomers could get to know and love.

Despite my cinema-appropriate hootin' and hollerin', I admit I did feel a little bad for Cole. He almost bested Shao Kahn—a crazy feat in itself—and only met his demise thanks to some amulet immortality shenanigans. In another timeline, he would have emerged victorious. Head intact.

But Mortal Kombat 2 is a significantly better film for his decentralisation and posthumous absence. It's one that puts Johnny Cage and Kitana—two actually interesting characters—in the limelight. I know Karl Urban's portrayal of everyone's favourite cocky Hollywood actor is divisive, but I personally loved it, while Adeline Rudolph absolutely killed it as the fan-wielding princess.

Liu Kang is still criminally underutilised, and Kano is regretfully brought back to life to continue being his incredibly irritating self. He does seem more tame in this sequel, which I'm grateful for, but I certainly wouldn't have said no to less of him regardless. He at least gets to share some of the comic relief with Johnny Cage, including a genuinely hilarious scene where he faces off against Baraka, unsightly prosthetic teeth only serving to be slightly distracting.

Do I think Mortal Kombat 2 is the best videogame movie to ever hit our screens? Absolutely not. But good grief, it is so much better than the first film. That surprise alone made me enjoy it far more than I had anticipated, even if it still lands as a rather mid adaptation. I'm not quite sure I can stomach yet another sequel—the final 10 minutes or so sets up all manner of third-movie plot points—but for a studio that's clearly listening, I have higher hopes this time around.