TAKE 5!- SPOILER FREE REVIEW- Mortal Kombat 2

GET OVER HERE! And listen in to Daryl's personal review on Mortal Kombat 2!  Action, fan service, and hardly any plot! Did the sequel build on that foundation and finally deliver the Mortal Kombat movie fans have been waiting for? And how did Karl Urban do as the long awaited Johnny Cage? Tune in now to hear it all! 

Transcript

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Hey, welcome back everybody to another episode of Real Talk with D. This is our Take 5 segment, and today we're going to be doing a spoiler-free recap of Mortal Kombat 2. I know I'm a little late to this, but I figured better late than never. So just to give you guys a quick uh update on this, I love video games. If you guys know me, you know how much I grew up with video games. I've been playing them since I was a kid. But to be 100% honest, out of all the video games that I played, Mortal Kombat was actually not one of them. So I didn't get introduced to Mortal Kombat until I was probably roughly 10 years old. It was when I went to a childhood friend's house and he introduced me to it. And I definitely got engaged in it in it. I really liked the characters, I liked the fighting. Did remind me a little bit of Street Fighter, which I am more of a Street Fighter fan than Mortal Kombat, but goes without saying, I did enjoy it. I'm also a huge fan of the 1995 movie that came out. I thought the martial arts was great. I thought the story was great. Of course, the soundtrack is amazing, but it really just holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Now let's jump to the 2021 Mortal Kombat that had come out. There were a lot of fans out there who were not crazy about this movie. And I think a lot of it had to do with Lewis Tan's character, Cole Young, who, if you guys know the Mortal Kombat lore, is not a part of it. They created a brand new character to introduce into this story. But to be honest with you, that didn't bother me that much. I actually enjoyed the movie. I thought the movie had a lot of great action. I loved the rivalry between Scorpion and Sub Zero, and I loved the story of Cole Young. I thought it was a really engaging story. I really felt for the character. Anytime something happened with him, I liked that he had growth along with it, but it was kind of neat. But I know I'm probably the outlier that thinks that. But with all that being said, I thought the movie itself was just a fun movie. It did it have much of a story. I mean, it sort of did, but not as much as it probably could have. But I do remember it having a lot of brutality with it, a lot of cool fight scenes, iconic characters, including Sonya, Liu Kang, Jax, you name it, you know, so all of our classic characters that we know from these games, and plenty of moments that made me just feel like I was watching the game come to life, which I thought was really cool, just with better effects. I guess the looking back on it, I do remember the scene stealer for me was definitely Kano, and he did not disappoint in that one, and he also did not disappoint in this new one either, which I'll get to in just a minute. But I think the movie did spend a lot of time setting up the future events. Uh, we never actually got the Mortal Kombat tournament in the movie, which I know a lot of people were disappointed with. We were essentially watching just a huge setup of what to expect for this new movie that's about to come out. And yet, despite all of that, I enjoyed it. I had a great time. I'm just kind of pinpointing what I think people had issues with. So, with that being said, I think one thing that um the audiences just have to understand is that sometimes we all just want to go in and have a great time. And I think both of those movies have done that for us. Now, not every movie does need to be a deep character study. I don't think every movie needs to have like an Oscar-worthy moment. Sometimes you just want to go and you just want to see great action. And usually for me, I'm pretty easy to entertain. I can easily just walk out of that theater and ask myself, was I entertained watching the movie? And that's how I felt with Mortal Kombat. So let's jump to Mortal Kombat 2. I will say, from a fan's perspective of the actual lore, the sequel definitely had the chance to fix a lot of issues from the first movie. It had the tournament, number one. It was pretty much the entire movie. I will say it did lack a plot. There wasn't really much of it. The movie centered a lot around uh Katana, and then of course, we finally got introduced to Johnny Cage, played by Carl Urban. Now, I do want to talk about Johnny Cage for a minute because I know there was a little bit of division on how people felt of uh him portraying Johnny Cage. To me personally, I've always known Johnny Cage to be kind of like kind of like this young stud kind of guy who, of course, you know, is a washed-out actor, so on and so forth. But Carl Urban kind of takes more of the veteran side of it, and he's, you know, aging up a little bit, but he was still able to embrace the character pretty well. I actually thought he did a pretty decent job. I know there were some people who weren't crazy about it. I actually liked him. I do like Carl Urban a lot, and I thought he did a fine job. That being said, I didn't know how I felt about the movie centering around both him and Katana, especially when our one of our primary characters from the Mortal Kombat lore is Liu Kang. I have been feeling like Liu Kang has been getting really sidelined in both the first one and this new one. And I will say this though, him and Kung Lao probably had the best fight in the movie without giving overly too much away. I mean, that's shown in the trailer. That probably was the best fight of the whole movie. Um, so I know I keep jumping around all over the place here, but overall, the fights in the movie were great. Johnny Cage, of course, is one of the most beloved characters in the franchise. The character himself brought a lot of humor, he brought a lot of personality, he had a lot of great one-liners. But as I mentioned, I think the one that really sold it for me in this movie was uh Kano. I really, really laughed every single time he was on screen, every single word that he said, you just cannot help but laugh. I really hope that in the future, because it does seem like they're gonna set it up for a Mortal Kombat 3. I really hope that we finally bring in Nightwolf. Ever since I was introduced to Mortal Kombat, Night Wolf has always been one of my favorite characters. He was not in the original 1995 version, but he was in Mortal Kombat Annihilation. And, you know, he's an indigeno indigenous character. I thought that's that was really awesome. But I miss him. You know, they kind of hinted at him in the 2021 version, but he still has not made an appearance. So I really hope that they do find a way to bring him in. And I do hope it's played by Martin Sensmeyer, but it's just my opinion. Also, before I forget, the character of Baraka, I literally felt like I was watching Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. And I kid you not, you will probably think the exact same thing. But with that being said, the franchise always has one of the deepest rosters in the gaming, and there are still plenty of fan favorites who deserve their moments, you know, to be on the big screen. Like I said, Nightwolf is one of them, uh Koda Kodok Khan is another one. But I guess what I'm hoping for for part three is just a stronger story. We can keep the action, we can keep the fatalities, keep the over-the-top fun, but just give us a story that we can really invest in and follow along with the rivalries that have the emotional weight, everything. Because I think if Mortal Kombat can come can combine the fun from this current movie and maybe the plot from the first movie, sort of say, I genuinely think the third one could be top-notch. But at the end of the day, that is just why I'm excited. Um, it definitely showed potential. It was a lot of fun. I do highly recommend it if you want to just go and have a great time, see some great action, some funny moments. But I again don't go in expecting much of a plot. But with that being said, everybody, I want to hear what you think. Did you enjoy Mortal Kombat? What are your expectations for the second one? Uh, do you have any expectations for the third one? Which character are you most excited to see? With that being said, let me know how you feel. And until then, everybody, we'll see you at the movies.