Starring Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehac Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Martyn Ford and Hiroyuki Sonoda

Directed by Simon McQuoid

Warner Bros., in cinemas now

Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) is a washed-up martial arts movie star. When he’s chosen as Earth’s fifth champion in the Mortal Kombat tournament he laughs it off. But when one of his fellow champions is killed, he has no choice but to compete.

This is a greasy 2am burger of a movie and it’s glorious. There’s a dozen characters, a dozen more fight scenes and the pacing never stops even if about half the cast are basically here to do very little but a fight scene or two. Brooks and McNamee, both great in the first movie, are reduced to expository cannon fodder and poor Tan, given the thankless task of playing an original character in a franchise with cast of thousands, fares even worse. He’s great, here, to be clear and the movie is obviously setting up something more for him in a third movie. But it’s frustrating to see an actor so talented used so minimally.

The flip side to that is the honestly delightful Jedi mind trick the movie pulls with Johnny and Kitana. Urban is the lead name here, and he’s great. He also gets every single one of the movie’s best pop culture jokes including a John Wick gag for the ages. But Johnny isn’t the main character here at all. That’s Kitana.

Adeline Rudolph as Kitana takes a role defined by a gloriously ludicrous costume and finds some real emotional depth in it. She’s a leader without a nation, playing both sides for the good of her people with all the emotional depth Johnny can’t have. Her closing fight with Shao Khan (an underrated and menacing turn by Martyn Lawson) has real grit to it and emotional weight. It feels like a fight with Stakes and it wraps the movie up in Kitana’s bow with more narrative resonance than you’d expect or dare to hope for. She’s great, and the good version of this movie is basically all her scenes.

The fun version? That’s all Kano.

Josh Lawson’s Kano returning was apparently a condition of this team making the sequel and it’s easy to see why. Lawson is effortlessly, relentlessly hilarious. Every line is foul mouthed, entirely without subtlety and abjectly hilarious, from his laughably unnecessary resurrection to his pivotal role in the closing fight. He’s incredibly good fun and he and Rudolph are worth the price of admission all by themselves.

Verdict: Mortal Kombat II isn’t great by any means but it’s always fun. The tone of the games is here as is the aesthetic and the whole thing fizzes with the energy of people who love the original games. If you’re a fan, you’ll love it. If you’re not, see it anyway, it’s a riot. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart