u/DenseCalligrapher219

I decided to go into theaters for MK2 unlike the 2021 movie because it actually has the premise of the tournament, Johnny Cage and even Shao Kahn as the main villain to make me interested in seeing it on the big screen.

And surprisingly enough the movie itself was actually enjoyable and a major improvement from the first one in different ways even though it wasn't without it's issues. Now keep in mind i only saw it in the theaters several days ago so my memory isn't crystal clear and i might get a couple things wrong.

So i will start off with the negatives of the movie before going to the positives.

The Cons:

1. The poor handling of revenants and some other characters.

In the prior movie it was hinted that the killed fighters would return back either as fully revived or as revenants similar to the second timeline. In the end the second part proved to be true but extremely inconsistent and lackluster.

To start off Kano doesn't come back as a revenant because of not having "enough soul" to turn him into one for some confusing reason. I think it was done that way to bring back Kano in a way so he can defect back to the good guys because Outworld has no casinos but if so why not just make it so everyone is revived back as a human then for consistency? It just feels like the writers want to have their cake and eat it at the same time.

And speaking of revenants out of those who died in the 2021 film other than Sub-Zero being back as Noob Saibot only Kung Lao comes back as a revenant and nobody else.

So no Goro, Kabal, Reptile and Mileena with that one being the most egregious given how Kitana is a semi-protagonist with the movie and her relationship with Mileena being removed on a whim despite how it could have been explored here. Also Sindel for some reason starts as human in the intro but come the tournament she looks like a revenant without any explanation as to when and why she became one and becomes completely forgotten when Shao Kahn gets defeated and killed with no mention as to what happened to her? In all seriousness Mileena would have been better in her role and Sindel remaining dead or used in the third movie.

2. Inconsistent handling of the tournament.

The tournament itself does have the prop of having a consistent rule of two teams fighting one another one v one who are randomly chosen until one side loses all of their fighters which is something the 1995 movie kinda had even though it wasn't made obvious and handling the fights well for the most part.

That said there were a few issues i noticed, in particular near the end.

To start off there's virtually no tournament atmosphere of fighting in front of an audience whenever it's a regular crowd or a selected audience which marginalized the feeling of the Mortal Kombat tournament being, well, a tournament. Which is strange because there was a crowd in the intro when Jerrod fought against Khan and later on during the final battle of Kitana against Kahn so why wasn't there much of a crowd during the tournament fights?

Another problem is how inconsistent the rules are.

For example despite the rule of one v one fights Shao Kahn arbitrarily decides to face off both Kang and Sonya at the same time despite how little sense that makes.

But the worst example is when Shao Kahn appears to have won and secured Outworld's victory only for Kitana to "renounce" his legacy, rule and what not and publicly defects to Earthrealm side...which negates Outworld's victory when Kitana now represents Earthrealm as it's fighter and her defeating Kahn ends Outworld's victory streak.

What kind of nonsense is that?! Aren't there rules to ensure such BS doesn't happen and that fighters are permanently sworn into their respective position? The only way i could see this work is that Shao Kahn violates the rule by killing a fighter outside of the rules in a very cheap way like what he did to Kung Lao in MK9 but that doesn't really happen here since, and correct me if i'm wrong, although Jax WAS technically killed outside of the tournament it happened in a way where Kahn had something of a legit reason to do so since they broke into his palace and not in a way that was dishonorable.

3. Cole Young's writing.

Now this bit is gonna be rather interesting.

On the one hand Cole Young admittedly was poorly written who on top of having virtually zero connection to Scorpion in terms of character and abilities outside of having a wife and daughter he cares for also doesn't have anything unique on his own to make him interesting with his power being just literal plot armor. So i can see why he was killed off pretty quickly to establish Johnny Cage

That being said the way the movie handled him was still disappointing since on top of being killed around early mid part of the movie but Shao Kahn in a admittedly cool fight he does very little throughout the movie, gets little character writing and ends up being forgotten by everyone after his death and isn't even brought up to Scorpion which makes you wonder what was even the point of his character?

What makes this even worse is that it also deprives us of what could have been very interesting character interactions with Johnny Cage where both he and Cole share similar backgrounds in martial arts but with the major difference being that Cole although never reaching great heights still has a loving family that he's happy which doesn't bother his predicament while Cage became a famous martial arts superstar in the 90's but ended up as a washed up has-been and irrelevant in modern day and without even a happy family like Cole has that has made him a tired and somewhat embittered person.

In my version of improvement Cole doesn't have the armor power due to it being temporary and instead has the green energy magic that Cage would later use and is someone who looked up to Johnny Cage as a role model and went into martial arts for that reason and although disappointed by the latter's lack of care about the tournament and martial arts due to his cynical attitude he tries his best to bring Cage back into his groove and teaches him some fighting techniques and moves that ends up gradually help Cage and Cole revealing his success and then failings as an MMA fighter who had his family to cheer him up and keep him happy despite that which makes Cage, who merely had flings and short relationship, wistfully yearn of wanting to have his own family to love.

Now Cole does die in the movie but instead it's at the hands of Noob Saibot after he wins a match and one that affects everyone majorly, especially Johnny Cage and is the catalyst to him taking things more seriously and become a better fighter.

One final mention as a negative is the music which sadly still sucks and is so painfully generic. Like seriously even MK media like the 1995 movie, Annihilation, Defenders of the Realm and Conquest have better soundtrack and they came out decades ago with Annihilation in particular being an atrocity of a movie.

Anyway those were the negatives, now for positives.

The Pros:

1. The Fights and Cinematography.

The fights in this movie are very awesome and major improvement from the first movie where they have stakes, better fight choreography and packing emotions that makes them all enjoyable with some noticeable highlights.

Liu Kang vs Kung Lao was great and done expertly in such ways that you aren't sure which one was gonna win which made it easy to get invested in and the tragedy of two brothers forced to fight each other, Cage vs Baraka was pretty cool both for it's humor and Cage regaining his groove and becoming a better fighter, Sonya vs Sindel for the Jiu-Jitsu style combat and the sick ass fatality, Scorpion vs Noob Saibot for being awesome ninja combat and of course virtually all Shao Kahn fights where he demonstrates impressive moves with his hammer and combat skills done in a way that makes both him and his opponent look good.

Meanwhile the cinematography has been majorly improved in several ways. Not only are the special effects great in the film but the environment and background has been the most improved where there's more colorful scenery and backgrounds familiar to MK games like the dead pools and Netherrealm, the castle looking impressive as well as the background of the Liu Kang/Kung Lao fight looking gorgeous and Edenia being a beatiful location that has this cool medieval fantasy look and this great visual effect where it turns from sunshine to darkness when Shao Kahn kills Jerrod and absorbs it into Edenia. Compare that to the first movie where it all felt very drab and lifeless, especially Outworld where it looked very pitiful.

Granted there are occasions where the fight choreography looks awkward and the cinematography not always being excellent but for the most part they do a great job.

2. The Characters.

While some characters haven't been handled gracefully like Cole and Sindel while a few like Shang Tsung and Quan Chi are utterly pointless in the film (why weren't they fighters in the tournament?) others have been treated fairly well with some being standouts in the film.

Karl Urban as Johnny Cage was something i felt skeptical of when i first heard it and after having seen the trailer my skepticism gradually subsided and watching the movie completely nullified it because Urban absolutely kills it as Cage and manages to make the character in a way feel familiar while also giving something new to Cage that makes his character and story arc engaging. Unlike Cole we experience his struggles as a washed up martial artist, who also is a movie star, and how it has affected his own personality by being a jaded washout. Yet when he first loses against Kitana it strikes him how he has let down Earthrealm and is from that point where Cage takes things seriously and whose fight with Baraka is what leads him to regain his strength and confidence as a fighter and ultimately regaining his lost Mojo which is also what causes him to unlock his green energy powers in the finale that leads to Noob Saibot's defeat and Kahn's downfall.

Josh Lawson is back as Kano and he still manages to be as funny and enjoyable as ever with his interactions alongside Cage being entertaining and him rejoining the good guys because Outworld didn't have any casinos or luxury that he wanted was pretty neat and in-character of Kano. Plus the references to Harry Potter by him and Cage manages to be actually hilarious in an endearing way, especially the "Voldemort's nutsack" line. That's how great and entertaining their characters are.

Kitana has surprised me a lot given that i expected her to be at most a major side character who is relatively important but not the main focus. Yet she ends up as being the semi-protagonist of this film like how Cole was in MK 2021 and even sharing a somewhat similar story to his but the major difference is that she's actually a far more compelling protagonist since on top of having more agency to her character where she makes more active decisions of her own and isn't dragged by the plot and other characters she has far more emotional and character connection to villain given how he directly killed her father in front of her and turned her mother into a loyal revenant and one that motivates her desires to free her realm and people from Kahn's tyranny while Cole's only connection to Scorpion is just merely lineage and nothing else and the same is pretty much true for Sub-Zero where there is virtually no personal animosity between them which makes the character and his story feel very boring. If anything it feels like the writers actually learned lessons from the previous film.

Shao Kahn is a great villain who is handled with a lot of grace where compared to the games from MK9 where he is treated like an brutish imbecile for a ruler or demoted to a side character in MK12 as just a general in this movie he manages to be both a great fighter and an excellent schemer in regards to stealing Raiden's powers into Shinnok's amulet and using it to make him semi-immortal with a powerful healing ability and that aspect is MOST IMPORTANT since Kahn in the 1st timeline was actually written to be not just someone with raw power but an intelligent thinker who planned the invasion of Earthrealm in MK3, used a clone to fake his own death by the hands of Shang and Quan to be in the shadows and gained the loyalty of the Shokans by healing Goro and taking back his throne after Onaga's demise via Mileena who controlled his fortress via the Edenian army due to disguising as Kitana. So it's really nice to see Kahn showcasing his cunning mind like the 1st timeline where through that he manages to gain a sense of immortality while also incapacitating Raiden at the same time that put Earthrealm warriors in a bad predicament.

Furthermore his fights are handled very well where he is portrayed as being a powerful and a skilled fighter but not to such egregious extent that it makes his opponent look laughably weak and instead they end up looking very good despite losing to Kahn. Can you imagine if Kahn got random BS power-ups for no reason?

3. Story and Plotline.

Finally there's story and surprise surprise the tournament is here.

Not just that but there's also an actual story and goal for the heroes to work toward in order to overcome the bad guy.

In the prior movie the story was just basically a training arc where our heroes don't really learn that much from Raiden and just get powers on a whim where the "Arcana" stuff makes very little sense and where the plot of the villains attacking the heroes is a plan to win the tournament...by canceling it via killing Earthrealm's champions because "there would be no opposition left" which honestly made very little sense because Outworld already has won 9 out of 10 victories to adsorb Earthrealm so why would they need to hatch this scheme in the first place? And the plotline of stealing Raiden's powers into amulet to make Kahn impossible to kill makes the previous one look utterly pointless because if this was the goal why even bother the fighter killing plot of the prior movie? In fairness Kahn's plan of being immortal to win the tournament also has a bit of an issue where Outworld already won 9 out of 10 tournaments with him likely being a competitor based on what we have seen so him being immortal to win despite having never lost made didn't make much much sense. I can forgive it since it showcases Kahn's intelligence and maybe was done likely because it's the tournament where Outworld winning would let them absorb Earthrealm.

Maybe a narrative involving Cole's conflict with Lin Kuei alongside Special Forces against Black Dragon Clan that gets intertwined and ties into the tournament for it's sequel would have made more sense than what we got but that's for another time.

Here not only do we have the actual tournament story but we also get the aforementioned subplot where Kahn schemes to simultaneously become immortal and incapacitate Raiden to remove a a major threat to his plans.

What makes this work well is because not only does it showcase Kahn's intelligence and cunning mind that was sorely missing from the 1st timeline games as well as removing Raiden being too OP to fix any issue, one that led to contrived bullshit in the prior film that gave our heroes plot armor, but it also gives other characters like Johnny Cage, Kano, Jade and Scorpion relevancy and contributive to the plot instead of being glorified side character with nothing to do as well as Cage in particular allowed to have character growth thanks to the subplot.

Furthermore Shinnok's Amulet subplot by being interconnected to the main plot of the tournament gives it important value to the overall story as opposed to a completely separate plot detached from the tournament, an issue that plagued Mortal Kombat Legends Battle of the Realms where the tournament and the Scorpion/Sub-Zero plotlines might as well have been separate films with how little connected they were.

And lastly the story's intro and final act with how they are tied together as parallels to one another in a narrative but with opposite outcomes works so much better compared to the prior film.

In MK 2021 the story's start and end point that are meant to be tied together suffers from being poorly executed such as Cole never really defeating Sub-Zero on his own and needed help from Scorpion for that to happen that takes away what is meant to be HIS important victory in saving his wife and daughter from Sub-Zero that Scorpion failed for the sake of shallow fan-service which even if that happened it wouldn't have worked that much because, well, the story of Cole Young and his connection to Scorpion and Sub-Zero in regards to lineage and enemy respectively are underdeveloped and lackluster where no effort was put in to make the connection seem meaningful.

By contrast this movie starts with Kitana witnessing her father's death at the hands of Shao Kahn and the subsequent merger of her realm with Outworld where it's people are subjugated at the hands of Kahn and thus motivates her to plan against the tyrant to free her people and ends with her defeating Kahn in the same area where his fight with Jerrod took place which is where Edenia becomes free again from Outworld's grasp.

The parallell narrative works much better because on top of Kitana having more involvement with the narrative by being a witness and experience the actions of the main villain that plays a major role in the plot of MK2 and has a great impact to the finale there's also how Kitana actually defeats Shao Kahn mostly on her own that makes her victory feel more impactful and where even acts such as Sonya freeing her and the Amulet's destruction by the heroes including Jade that takes away Kahn's immortality are done in a way that doesn't undermine her personal and important victory against Shao Kahn.

Conclusion:

Overall Mortal Kombat 2 is a decent movie that manages to mostly deliver on it's promises and not only give us better fights, as well as the actual tournament, and great writing for our important characters but also well-handled plot structure that gives other characters relevancy and allowed to do something and a better handling of the narrative in regards to Kitana's story compared to Cole Young.

Granted there are issues here like the revenant aspect being very badly handled with how only Kung Lao returns as a revenant, how the Outworld team is composed almost entirely of Kahn's family, Jade and Revenant Kung Lao, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi being almost useless in the film, barely any other Outworld characters, some fight choreography being kinda awkward, the inconsistent rules of the tournament and Cole Young being completely wasted in a way that signifies how the writers gave up on him which not only makes the prior movie of him being the protagonist feel pointless but also throwing away any chance of actually making him interesting where character interactions with Johnny Cage.

But in the end this was still an enjoyable movie and far better than MK 2021.

Days ago my account was suspended because of apparently it was due to "spam" for some bizarre reason and despite countless appeals and pleading for communication to resolve this issue Pinterest moderators outright REFUSES to engage in a conversation and gives me the same response all the time no matter what. I wasn't even like temporarily suspended for several days but got instantly banned on a whim which is such utter nonsense.

So i'm asking for help in how to deal with this issue.