2026 is no stranger to video game movie adaptations, and Mortal Kombat II is no different in keeping the trajectory of popcorn action flick as straight as Scorpion’s iconic Spear.

Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat sequel starts with some backstory on main kharacter Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and how her world of Edenia got konquered by ruthless Outworld warlord Shao Khan (Martyn Ford). We also get another main kharacter focus: Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) as he ends up being picked to represent Earthrealm, under the watch of Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament that determines who rules all the domains. As you can gather from there, you’re going to be seeing a lot less plot and a lot more kombat of the violent variety.

Oh, and the first Mortal Kombat reboot movie’s main kharacter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is also part of the Earthrealm fighting group, but he’s klearly sidelined in favour of Kitana and Johnny Cage, each of them having their own personal demons to sort out and get to solving the Outerrealm problem. Kitana has to figure out her loyalty to the empire she’s representing while Cage has to find his inner martial arts skills and courage. While they’re all presented just fine thanks to both their actors’ portrayals, these plot points aren’t given enough room to breathe and are just sped through, making way for the actual tournament.

Heck, some bits like the inclusion of MK mainstay Quan Chi and Kano (Josh Lawson) coming back and going back to the status quo like nothing happened, to his part in the third act, just had a key scene or two missing in setting it up. At the very least, the same crude and comedic elements that made Kano a standout in the first flick is back in full force here.

To be fair, if Warner Bros., director Simon McQuoid, and his team had to make some narrative cuts, at least he made the sound choice in making the fights as visceral and gritty as possible. From fire-master Liu Kang fighting a literal past person back from the dead, to a three-way battle between big bad Shao Khan and Earthrealm’s finest, there’s a lot to love here in terms of kung fu and high-flying action. Johnny Cage, while portrayed as a coward at first, does get a lot of time to shine in getting his groove back in a good number of battles. It’s also great to see the coloured ninjas at it again -Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Bi-Han/Noob Saibot(Joe Taslim)- especially in a fighting backdrop that’s appropriate to the series’ outlandish lore.

And compared to his past live-action portrayals, Shao Kahn is every bit the badass he’s supposed to be, taking a lot of Ws in his fights especially in one that steadfast MK fans will truly cheer for. Appropriately, this one takes place in a famous Mortal Kombat 2 stage; clearly the producers have been listening to feedback from the first reboot film.

While still bogged by some questionable editing (for the non-fighting scenes) and the aforementioned plotholes in these sorts of martial arts films, Mortal Kombat II is still a huge upgrade over most of its live-action adaptations (and the first film, obviously) simply because it still has a good focus point. That, and its adherence to fan service and fighting galore (and making sure there’s a tournament in all of this) is still what holds this adaptation together. And the gore; can’t forget about the gore and fatalities.

Granted, it’s not going to dethrone the stellar animated Mortal Kombat films from Warner Bros Animation (specifically Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge), but it’s a good start to bigger and better Mortal Kombat adaptations of the live-action variant. Kome for the glamour, stay for the kombat.