Mortal Kombat II is fine, and that is great.

 Early in Mortal Kombat II, Karl Urban’s washed up 90’s star Johnny Cage tells a mildly enthused fan that no one wants to see actors doing karate poses anymore. That the world has moved on to grittier, more violent and grounded action films such as Keanu Reeve’s John Wick.

 As strange as it feels for a franchise built on a foundation of violence and gore to be yearning for a tamer kind of martial arts picture, Mr.Cage does have a point. Recent action movies take a far more economical approach to fight scenes. Fast, efficient looking strikes that appear designed to cause maximum damage with as little effort as possible. As an audience, we want more bozos killed in less time. That’s not to say the fight choreography in films like Wick and Matt Reeve’s The Batman is not impressive; it is, but it lacks a certain drama.

 There is a magic to watching two contenders trading their best techniques back and forth, hell bent on defeating the other. The stakes are clear, the drama is right on the surface.

 In adapting the Mortal Kombat games to film, this story structure is almost a given. The older games featured one-on-one duels to the death. The character motivations for being enlisted in this blood duel usually exposited on the back of a games box or within the dog-eared pages of an instruction manual.

 The plot of the movie serves the same function as it did in the games (and for that matter, every other Mortal Kombat film adaptation), an excuse to move between a number of cool locations and watch some gruesome fights. We open on a young princess, Kitana, watching her father be narrowly but horrifically defeated in single combat by the Outworld Emperor Shao Khan. We cut to the present day, and as an adult Kitana is expected to participate in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament on behalf of her conqueror. She plays the role of a dutiful adopted daughter to her father’s killer, all while secretly working with series main-stay Raiden (pronounced Ray-den, to my eternal chagrin) to unseat Shao Khan from his throne.

 Back on Earth, the protectors of our realm look to fill their depleted roster with the previously mentioned Johnny Cage, a former actor with genuine combat talent. He refuses the call at first, but winds up in the fight anyways because, as it turns out, you can’t refuse the destiny the gods have chosen for you in this universe. Seems like someone should have explained that to him, but so it goes.

 Kitana and Cage serve as the protogonists for this second installment. This seeks to remedy two of the common criticisms of the first movie: the sidelining of legacy characters and a perceived lack of star power.

 Karl Urban provides the bulk of that star power, and does an admirable job of trying to give a rather thin premise some genuine gravity. Urban’s American accent has always been…okay, but it always feels like he is starting to slip into a little bit of Billy Butcher, The character is a lot of fun. Cage is my personal favorite MK character, and I felt he was done right here by both the acting and writing, despite it all feeling a little rushed.

 I can’t talk about some of the other performances in the film without spoiling some character reveals, but in short, everyone does well, and no one really stands out.

 Honestly, that could be my one-line review of the movie at large. I enjoyed it. It was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday evening. My wife and I picked up some food on the way home and started to boot-up the old Sega Genesis before getting distracted and doing something else.

 There has to be a place in the world of cinema for features like this, though. Mid-budget action flicks that are just a good excuse to go out and grab some popcorn and candy. Theaters aren’t dying because the movies are bad (although many are), they’re dying because there is nothing to see. Many weekends I have checked the showtimes at my local theaters to find my options limited to religious films, weepies, and concert recordings.

 Since the pandemic, a film like this would have been dumped on streaming service and forgotten inside of a week. I’m glad it showed up in theaters. I’m glad I got to see it’s big dumb fights on a big screen, and got hear that legendary Mortal Kombat dance mix that still rattles the bones of anyone who worked a skating rink or laser tag in the 90’s. God bless those brave soldiers.

I don’t think we’re going to do stars here at Ghost Mountain Monster, so I will conclude in saying that I had fun. Would I remember the names of the characters had I not heard them announced 1000 times from an arcade cabinet? Probably not. Will I check the IMDB pages of the young cast to see their other work? Not likely. My life doesn’t need to change every time I buy a movie ticket though.  MKII is fine, and I think that is great.