The first trailer for Mortal Kombat 2 has dropped, giving us a proper look at Karl Urban in the starring role as everyone’s favourite idiot actor, Johnny Cage. And to my surprise, it actually looks rather good. Certainly better than Mortal Kombat 2021 which was enjoyable but completely forgettable.
This version of Cage appears to be washed up, his glory days as an action-movie icon far behind him. And yet somehow he winds up dragged into the Mortal Kombat tournament, despite the fact that he’s underpowered compared to everyone else and hasn’t really been keeping himself fighting fit. That ain’t gonna stop Karl Urban kicking some ass, though. Well, Urban’s stunt double, at any rate.
“Are you shitting me? You don’t have any powers!?” demands the returning Kano in the trailer
“Nope. Just incredibly handsome,” says Cage. I can already tell I’m going to have fun with this movie. And it should be a pretty badass moment when Cage does, presumably, get his abilities.
“We start him at a very low point. His career is completely in the dumps. He has no self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And at his lowest point, he gets called up to, essentially, be a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and fight for the very future of humanity.” Urban told IGN.
And yes, that means we have the tournament proper this time, which was noticeably absent in the first movie. By having Cage being completely unaware of the tournament and its rules, the movie has a good excuse for explaining everything to the audience. Honestly, this looks like it should have been the first movie.
We also get a glimpse at Mortal Kombat’s big boss, Shao Kahn. He looks pretty intimidating. Noob Saibot is in there too, which should be fun.
And probably best of all, Scorpion’s iconic “GET OVER HERE!” now sounds like it was ripped straight out of the games.
Talking to IGN, producer Todd Garner explains that they’ve got a much bigger budget this time around thanks to the first movie doing so well on HBO Max.
“They gave us more scale, more scope to do the fights, more fighting, which is expensive quite frankly.”
Mortal Kombat 2 will teleport into cinemas on October 24 of this year. Will it dethrone Mortal Kombat 1995 as the best cinematic version of the world’s bloodiest tournament? Of course not, because nothing will ever topic that fucking soundtrack. MOOOORTAL KOMBAT! Dun dun dun DUN DUN DUN. Still, this trailer seems to capture the hokey, cheesy insanity of Mortal Kombat in a way that MK 2021 just didn’t.