Did you miss Mortal Kombat 2 in theaters and your attention span barely makes it to ten minutes? We’ve got the perfect video for you.
For the moment, Mortal Kombat 2 has fallen short of expectations. With a massive budget of $80 million, director Simon McQuoid’s sequel was supposed to win back cinema audiences after a first installment hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. After five weeks in theaters, it grossed a little over $128 million—not nearly enough to cover operating and marketing costs.
Perhaps it will rebound on video-on-demand, where action B-movies of its caliber tend to thrive. After all, the first one reportedly did brisk business in this format, then on HBO Max. Warner Bros. decided to stack the odds in its favor by not only releasing the first scene, but the entire first ten minutes of the film on YouTube, in an effort to convince the fence-sitters.
Ten Minutes of Mortal Kombat Brawls
In the United States, Mortal Kombat 2 is therefore available on VOD since June 9. It was on this occasion that this (long) excerpt was posted. A logical choice, the opening sequence accounts for roughly 80% of the slim plot. We witness Shao Kahn’s brutal conquest of the Kingdom of Edenia (not to be confused with the Eternia of the Masters of the Universe, though it’s almost the same) as enacted by the formidable Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), as well as the murder of good King Jerrod (Desmond Chiam).
It’s also the origin story of Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), whose subjugation by the new king and the hunger for vengeance will be at the heart of the stakes. We even see her clashing with Jade (Tati Gabrielle), her loyal adoptive sister to Shao Kahn. That’s two brawls in ten minutes, and it’s only the beginning: Mortal Kombat 2 is essentially a string of fights more or less successful, that don’t skimp on digital gore. At least this time, the title isn’t lying.
The cast also features Karl Urban in the long-awaited role of Johnny Cage, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden and, of course, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion. Among others. Fans of the saga will have to settle for this for now, as Jeremy Slater recently reminded that the third installment hasn’t been greenlit yet. And given its box-office score, that’s far from a given.
