• Mortal Kombat II opened to $63 million globally in its first weekend, a series best but below studio expectations
• Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage and Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana are the standout new additions, with fan-favorite Cole Young killed off early
• Critics gave the film a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, while fans pushed the audience score to 89%
• Producer Todd Garner publicly attacked critics before issuing an apology after backlash
• Screenwriter Jeremy Slater is already writing Mortal Kombat 3, with the ending setting up a trip to the Netherrealm

Mortal Kombat II finally gave fans what the first film promised and never delivered: an actual tournament. Five years after the 2021 reboot introduced audiences to a new universe — and one very divisive original character — director Simon McQuoid is back, screenwriter Jeremy Slater has stepped in fresh, and the result is a movie that knows exactly what it is and largely commits to it with both fists.

The film opened this past weekend to $40 million domestically and $23 million internationally, landing at $63 million globally against an $80 million production budget. It was beaten to the top spot by The Devil Wears Prada 2, which earned $43 million in its second weekend — with a Mother’s Day boost analysts say gave Miranda Priestly an unfair advantage over Shao Kahn. Still, by any franchise measure, it’s a win: the 2021 original grossed just $84.4 million in its entire theatrical run, and MK2 is already on pace to surpass that.

Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, and the Farewell Nobody Mourned

The biggest swing the film takes — and largely lands — is centering everything on Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) and Princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) while sidelining, and eventually killing, Cole Young (Lewis Tan). The original character created for the 2021 film was never embraced by game fans, and Slater made a conscious choice to give them the send-off they’d been demanding for years.

About halfway through the film, Cole steps up to face the hulking Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) on the iconic Dead Pool stage. He almost wins. Then Kahn — newly made immortal via a stolen amulet and Raiden’s siphoned power — heals from a slit throat and smashes Cole’s head into something that can only be described as unforgettable. The movie doesn’t pause to mourn him for long. It moves on.

For Slater, that was entirely the point. “Cole Young is someone the hardcore fans did not respond to in the first movie,” he told Forbes in a recent interview. “They really felt like he didn’t necessarily belong. The fans were just sort of calling for his death for the last several years. And so, we knew getting rid of Cole would be satisfying for those hardcore fans and would be really, really shocking for the casual viewers who had only seen the first movie and had no idea that Cole wasn’t from the games.”

Lewis Tan, for what it’s worth, does everything he can with what little he’s given before his exit. But the film’s best moments belong to Urban, whose Cage is introduced sitting alone at a comic convention booth — zero fans, surrounded by unsold merch — before being dragged into the fate-of-the-world business he very much does not want. It’s a weathered, washed-up version of the character, and Slater says that was a deliberate choice. “Our Johnny is older, he’s weathered, he’s much less successful,” Slater explained. “He’s kind of the cocky Johnny Cage from the games if all of his dreams slipped through his fingers.”

Slater said he used the Cliff Booth archetype from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as a reference point while writing — not writing for Brad Pitt specifically, but keeping that energy of the tired, capable, quietly tragic badass in mind. Urban brings it, though some critics feel the script doesn’t always give him the sharpest lines to work with. His chemistry with Josh Lawson’s Kano — another returning fan favorite, brought back from the dead specifically for his comedic value — is one of the film’s consistent highlights.

Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana, meanwhile, is arguably the emotional backbone of the whole thing. Her backstory — a young princess who watches Shao Kahn destroy her father and is forced to become his warrior — is what grounds the film’s otherwise breakneck pacing. Tati Gabrielle appears as her guard and companion Jade, though neither character gets quite enough room to breathe beyond the ensemble.

The Fights Are the Point — and the Film Knows It

If the plot exists primarily to move characters from one fight to the next, that is not entirely a criticism. Slater’s stated mission from the moment he pitched the job was clear: “A Mortal Kombat movie should never be boring. It should never have any downtime. It should be a blast from start to finish.” Warner Bros. hired him about thirty minutes after that pitch, and the film largely delivers on that promise.

The fight choreography is a step up from the first film, and Slater credits that partly to the decision to lean into the cast’s real-world abilities. Ludi Lin, who plays Liu Kang, apparently showed up on set and asked if he could do a 540 kick instead of the scripted 180. “Everyone was kind of like, ‘Is that something a human being can actually do?'” Slater recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, watch!’ And he just does a 540 kick in the air, because he’s insane.” The so-called Blue Portal fight has been cited across multiple reviews as the standout sequence of the entire film — precisely because it relies on two world-class martial artists and almost nothing else.

The film also leans into the franchise’s dark humor in ways the first film didn’t. Kano gets a scene with the villain Quan Chi that features what can only be described as a very creative Harry Potter insult. Johnny Cage clocks that the whole tournament sounds like a real-life Squid Game. And when tasked with destroying an immortality amulet, Cage makes a Lord of the Rings reference — which lands especially well given that Karl Urban himself played Éomer in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. The film’s opening sequence, a deliberately over-the-top ’90s-style kung-fu movie that established Cage’s faded stardom, sets the tone perfectly.

Kano and Cage share the comic relief load, and the film is better for it. Lawson’s Australian energy and Urban’s Kiwi humor make them the two characters you most want to spend time with, even when the script around them occasionally goes thin.

Also returning: Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), Kung Lao (Max Huang), and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), along with Jax Briggs (Mechad Brooks) and Raiden (Tadanobu Asano). Several of them — including Liu Kang and Jax — are killed during the tournament, a choice Slater said was about keeping stakes real and surprising both types of audience members. “Liu Kang canonically kills Shao Kahn. He’s the one who wins the tournament. They’re expecting him to ultimately be the victor,” Slater said. “So we knew that death would be really shocking for the hardcore fans.”

Mortal Kombat game creators Ed Boon and lead writer Dominic Cianciolo were involved throughout production — something Slater says was a conscious correction from the first film. “It’s so different to be able to go directly to the horse’s mouth, the guy who has been interacting with the fan base for 34 years,” he said. NetherRealm Studios’ fingerprints are visible in the fan-service moments that land hardest.

The Producer Drama Nobody Asked For

Before the opening weekend numbers were even in, producer Todd Garner took to Twitter to vent about the film’s early critical reception, which had settled around a 65-66% Rotten Tomatoes score. “Some of these reviews are cracking me up,” he wrote. “It’s clear they have never played the game and have no idea what the fans want or ANY of the rules/canon of Mortal Kombat. One reviewer was mad that a guy ‘had a laser eye!’ Why the f*** do we still allow people that don’t have any love for the genre review these movies! Baffling.”

The backlash was swift. Critics and industry observers pointed out that a film adaptation should be able to stand on its own without requiring homework, and that reviewers aren’t obligated to be franchise fans. Garner subsequently walked it back. “I realize that, in my eagerness to defend the people who worked so hard on this film, I lost sight of the fact that our job is to create the best possible movie — not only for the fans, but for anyone coming to the cinema. Once that movie is out in the world, no one is above criticism. For that, I apologize.”

The audience, for their part, didn’t need convincing. Fans pushed the Rotten Tomatoes audience score to 89%, with the consensus reading: “Karl Urban as Johnny Cage alone is worth the price of admission.” The film earned a B CinemaScore from opening-weekend audiences, and 75% of ticket buyers were male, according to PostTrak — a demographic split that was nearly the exact inverse of The Devil Wears Prada 2.

What Comes Next

The ending of MK2 is not subtle about its intentions. Johnny Cage and the surviving fighters head toward the Netherrealm to retrieve their fallen friends — Liu Kang, Jax, Cole Young, and others — setting up what Slater describes as, essentially, Mortal Kombat in Hell. He’s already writing the script for the third film, though he’s staying tight-lipped on specifics. “We’re really taking a look at what the fans are asking to see. Who are the characters they really love who still haven’t shown up? Who are the villains that haven’t gotten their time in the spotlight yet?”

One character who didn’t make the cut this time: Tremor, the earth-bending ninja. Slater tried several versions and couldn’t make it work, and says the experience taught him something about the franchise going forward. CGI-based powers are less satisfying than watching real athletes fight. “Characters like Tremor, where it was much more about, ‘I’m going to generate earthquakes and throw big rocks at you,’ is not as satisfying as watching two great fighters really go at it.”

There’s also the matter of timing. MK2 opened on Mother’s Day weekend, going head-to-head with The Devil Wears Prada 2 in its second week — a scheduling decision that, in hindsight, looks like it cost the film some box office runway. An October release has been floated as a smarter window for the third installment, giving it room to breathe against a less competitive field.

Streaming will matter too. The 2021 film became HBO Max’s most-watched original movie of that year, and a strong streaming run for MK2 could go a long way toward justifying the third film’s greenlight. New Line Cinema is already eyeing it, and Slater is already writing it. Whether the box office math adds up enough for Warner Bros. to fully commit is the real fight still unfolding.

Oh — and for anyone curious: almost none of the cast actually knows how to play the game. Karl Urban’s strategy is to find one move that works and spam it until his opponent figures out a countermeasure. Director Simon McQuoid says the stunt team destroys him every time and he’s stopped trying. Ludi Lin only played the Genesis version growing up and didn’t know there was a block button until recently. These are the people who just made the most successful Mortal Kombat movie ever produced. Finish him.

The post Mortal Kombat II: Bloody Fun, Big Box Office Drama appeared first on Cream.

• Mortal Kombat II and The Devil Wears Prada 2 are both projected to earn $42 million domestically this opening weekend.
• Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage and has been widely praised as the sequel’s biggest upgrade over the 2021 original.
• The film holds a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes — “Fresh,” and more than 10 points above the first film’s 55% score.
• Audience scores tell a different story than mixed critics: preview night viewers gave it a 90% positive rating.
• Mortal Kombat II is theaters-only for now, with no simultaneous streaming release.

It’s a full-on brawl at the multiplex this Mother’s Day weekend — and not just on screen. Mortal Kombat II opened May 8 swinging, but it’s immediately running into a surprisingly fierce opponent: The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is already two weeks deep and pulling in audiences who want something a little more Meryl and a little less fatality for their holiday outing. Both films are projected to earn around $42 million domestically this weekend, with Prada’s running total closing in on $141 million. It’s genuinely too close to call.

For Mortal Kombat II, the timing is everything. It’s a new release with the full force of opening-weekend momentum behind it, and it’s carrying serious fan anticipation. For the Prada sequel, Mother’s Day is practically a gift — a built-in reason for families to revisit Miranda Priestly one more time. Whoever blinks first loses the weekend.

Karl Urban Walks So Johnny Cage Can Fly

Whatever else critics are debating about the film, there’s near-universal agreement on one thing: Karl Urban was exactly the right call for Johnny Cage. The The Boys star plays the role as a gloriously washed-up ’90s action star — think Nicolas Cage energy crossed with Tom Cruise swagger — and his dry wit gives the film a levity it desperately needs between all the bloodshed. “It allows the film to have a bit of fun,” CBR noted in their review, adding that Cage’s contradiction — loud mouth, questionable skills, somehow one of Earthrealm’s best hopes — is “what makes Mortal Kombat II so enjoyable to watch.”

Urban himself has been openly enthusiastic about the project. “I’m so excited for you guys to see Mortal Kombat 2,” he said ahead of release. “I think it’s probably, to my mind, the best video game adaptation that’s gone to film yet. This one fires and fires in a really good way.”

There’s a fun early moment — a Big Trouble in Little China nod during Cage’s introduction — that even the film’s harshest critics admitted landed. One reviewer called it the only moment that genuinely made them smile. That’s something.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=b24oG7qCwp4%3Fsi%3Dbzje6cMUV1xMpwSW

What’s Actually in the Movie

Director Simon McQuoid, returning from the 2021 original, opens with a flashback prologue set in the Kingdom of Edenia — a lush, idealistic realm that’s about to have a very bad day. The ruthlessly ambitious Emperor Shao Kahn, played by an imposing Martyn Ford, murders Kitana’s father, takes over her realm, and forces the young princess (Adeline Rudolph) into his army. It’s a strong setup, and Rudolph shows real promise in the role.

Then the film jumps 20 years to the present, where Johnny Cage enters the picture and becomes the de facto center of gravity for the story. Alongside him, the Earthrealm team reassembles: the quietly commanding Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), bionic vet Jax (Mehcad Brooks), his partner Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), and a returning — though notably reduced — Cole Young (Lewis Tan). Franchise favorites Hiroyuki Sanada and Joe Taslim are back as Scorpion and the resurrected Bi-Han/Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot, and their sequences reportedly pushed the visual effects team to its limits. There’s also a cameo from Mortal Kombat franchise creator Ed Boon, a detail that’s gone over well with the fanbase. Josh Lawson’s Kano is back too, and apparently still hilarious even when a character is getting eviscerated in the same scene.

The film’s mission statement is pretty clear: honor the game, deliver the carnage, keep the popcorn moving. By that measure, most reviewers agree it succeeds. The fight sequences are brutal and relentless, the fatalities are creative enough to keep even genre veterans on their toes, and the visual effects — while occasionally uneven — are largely spectacular. McQuoid and screenwriter Jeremy Slater are sprinting through the lore of the first three games, which means the plot moves fast and character moments get squeezed. Whether that bothers you depends almost entirely on what you came for.

The Critics Are Split — But the Fans Are Loud

Mortal Kombat II has officially cleared the bar its predecessor couldn’t, landing at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes — “Fresh,” and a meaningful jump over the 2021 film’s 55% “Rotten” score. That said, the critical conversation is genuinely divided.

On the positive end, reviewers praised the film’s self-awareness, its willingness to lean into camp, and Urban’s performance as a genuine upgrade to the ensemble. One reviewer gave it a B, calling it “cinema’s version of fast food” — satisfying while it lasts, and clearly engineered for a third installment. Another called it “a reminder that sometimes movies are meant to simply give us a break from the world and bring us joy through all the chaos.”

On the other end, one of the more scathing takes argued the film feels less like a movie and more like “a supercut some fan has uploaded of a bunch of disparate, disconnected cut scenes.” That critic took particular issue with the film’s structure — Kitana set up as a protagonist in the prologue, then essentially sidelined when Cage takes over — and with the way side characters are introduced through clunky exposition dumps rather than actual storytelling. The harshest review called it “excruciatingly dull,” which feels like it might be written for a different audience than the one buying tickets.

Slater, for his part, had set high expectations before release — he told IGN that test screening audiences reacted the way he reacted to Avengers: Endgame. “They were cheering and jumping out of their seats,” he said. “Every joke is landing and they are loving it.” That quote has become something of a lightning rod in the critical conversation — a Rorschach test for whether you think this film delivers on its ambitions or just mistakes enthusiasm for craft.

The audience scores, though, are hard to argue with. Preview night viewers handed the film a 90% positive rating — the people who showed up opening night ready to love it left satisfied. That’s the core audience, and they got what they came for.

Mortal Kombat II is in theaters now. The Mother’s Day box office verdict drops Sunday — and at this point, both films deserve to win.

The post Mortal Kombat II vs. Devil Wears Prada 2: Box Office Showdown appeared first on Cream.

• Mortal Kombat II is now in theaters, with Earthrealm winning the tournament after Kitana kills Shao Kahn
• Liu Kang, Jax, and Cole Young all die — but surviving heroes set off for Netherrealm to bring them back
• There is no post-credits scene; the third film is teased entirely through the story itself
• Writer Jeremy Slater is already working on Mortal Kombat III and says some deaths were planned as “the first part of a larger puzzle”
• The film holds a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Josh Lawson’s Kano and Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage drawing the most praise from critics

Mortal Kombat II has finally arrived in theaters, and if you’ve just walked out of the arena and your brain is still processing what happened to Liu Kang — you’re not alone. The sequel to 2021’s pandemic-era surprise hit doesn’t do anything subtle with its ending. It kills off multiple major characters, sets the surviving heroes on a mission straight into hell, and leaves you with a very clear picture of where Mortal Kombat III is headed. No post-credits tease required.

Here’s everything that went down, with full context from the people who made it — and yes, major spoilers from this point forward.

How the Tournament Ends — and Who Doesn’t Make It Out

The film’s central conflict is the tournament itself, something the 2021 original notoriously failed to deliver on. This time, director Simon McQuoid and new screenwriter Jeremy Slater built the entire sequel around it: Earthrealm versus Outworld, with the fate of the planet on the line. Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) needs ten consecutive victories to claim a realm as his own, and he’s already gobbled up every other corner of the universe.

Earthrealm’s champions — Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Cole Young (Lewis Tan), and newly recruited washed-up action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) — ultimately win. But the cost is brutal.

Cole Young has his skull crushed by Shao Kahn’s hammer (followed, because this is a Mortal Kombat movie, by an acid bath). Kung Lao, brought back as a revenant under Kahn’s control, dies again after an epic Blue Portal showdown with Liu Kang, who drags his former friend onto his own spinning hat. Jax is impaled on the pointy end of Kahn’s war-hammer. And then Liu Kang himself goes out the same way — but upon death, the powerful Shaolin warrior ascends to Fire God status, promising to bring Kung Lao’s spirit back from the Netherrealm as flames consume him.

The final battle comes down to Shao Kahn versus Sonya Blade, who is defeated but not killed. She manages to free Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), who had been imprisoned after Kahn discovered her betrayal. Kano, Scorpion, and a newly powered-up Johnny Cage — who finally accepts his destiny and unlocks his abilities — destroy the amulet held by Bi-Han (Joe Taslim), also known as Noob Saibot, which had been giving Kahn his immortality. Cage delivers the final blow with a Shadow Kick. Kitana finishes the man who murdered her father by slicing through his head with her bladed fans.

With Kitana now serving as queen of Edenia, the surviving heroes — Sonya, Johnny Cage, Baraka, Kano, and Raiden — set off for Netherrealm with a captive Quan Chi, determined to resurrect their fallen friends. And yes, the movie leaves open the possibility that even Cole Young might be coming back. Maybe.

One thing you won’t find: a post-credits scene. Instead, the film closes with a credits sequence set to the classic “Techno Syndrome” by Belgian duo The Immortals — the iconic tune from the original 1995 film that fans have been waiting to hear again.

What Jeremy Slater Is Saying About Mortal Kombat III

Slater, who also created the underrated Exorcist TV series and wrote Marvel’s Moon Knight, came to this project with no involvement in the first film — a fresh set of eyes that proved deliberate. He’s already deep into writing the third installment, and in a conversation with io9, he was candid about what those deaths actually mean for the franchise’s future.

“It’s sort of baked into the DNA of Mortal Kombat as a franchise,” Slater explained. “If you know how to do the fatalities, every one of these matches ends with one of your favorite characters getting his spine ripped out or his skull smashed or something like that. And then the next time you put in a quarter, they’re all alive again.”

He was also refreshingly honest about his own motivations. “I’m as guilty of that as anybody because I was like, ‘I’m not going to write this movie unless you let me bring Kano back.’ Josh Lawson was my favorite thing about the first movie, hands down.”

But Slater is careful to say that death still carries weight within the story, even if the franchise’s DNA provides a get-out-of-jail-free card. “For the characters, death is still real. It still matters. And so you have to approach it and treat it with severity. When characters die in this movie, it’s painful for the survivors, and we want it to be shocking for the audience. We want it to be a little bit of a gut punch.”

Then came the tease. “Some of these characters and actors, we have big plans for them in the future, and just because some of them met a bad ending in this movie, it doesn’t mean that’s the last time you’re going to see them in a Mortal Kombat… Some of those deaths were because we do have bigger plans for some of those characters down the road, and that their deaths in this movie is the first part of a larger puzzle.”

He didn’t name names, but Liu Kang is the obvious read. His death is the most emotionally loaded moment in the film, and it’s directly tied to the mechanics of how Kung Lao can be saved. The Netherrealm mission in part three seems to orbit entirely around him — an Orpheus-in-hell structure that would be genuinely mythological territory for a franchise that has mostly stayed closer to the arcade.

Slater also confirmed he’s paying attention to how audiences are responding now that the film is out. “For a very long time, I’ve been writing and developing Mortal Kombat III sort of in a vacuum. And now that fans are seeing [part two] and responding to it, we can see tonally what’s working. We can see, in terms of the characters, who are they responding to, who are they going to want to see more of in a part three,” he said. “In the same way that we took the lessons from one to make two even better, I want to take the lessons from two and make three the best one yet.”

The Cole Young Question

Cole Young’s death — skull crushed, acid bath, done — reads like more than just a plot beat. It feels like an acknowledgment. The character, invented for the 2021 film and not from the games at all, was deeply divisive with the fan base, who took issue with him being the POV hero over beloved canonical characters. His exit in the sequel is so gruesome, and so early, that it landed more like a wink to the audience than a genuine narrative gut punch.

Director Simon McQuoid addressed the situation directly in an interview with LA Weekly, separating the character from the actor. “I would work with Lewis [Tan] again in a heartbeat,” McQuoid said. “It was just unfortunate that he was the guy who was portraying this new character.” He added that conversations about Cole’s future are ongoing, saying: “Lewis is not wrong” when it comes to teasing future plans, but that it’s “way too early to sort of divulge anything.”

The fan consensus seems to be exactly what McQuoid described: everyone likes Lewis Tan. Nobody embraced Cole Young. Whether a Netherrealm resurrection can change that math is a question for part three.

What the Critics Are Saying

Mortal Kombat II is sitting at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the highest-rated video game movies ever made — behind only Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the micro-budget Werewolves Within. The reviews, predictably, are split along a pretty clear fault line: fans of the games are having a blast, and critics without that context are bouncing off the lore.

That divide became briefly dramatic when producer Todd Garner took to X/Twitter to call out reviews he felt were unfair, saying some critics clearly had “no idea what the fans want or ANY of the rules / canon of Mortal Kombat.” His sharpest example: “One reviewer was mad that a guy ‘had a laser eye!'” — a reference to Kano’s signature ability, which has been part of the character since 1992. Garner later clarified that his frustration was specifically directed at reviewers who objected to foundational elements of the IP itself, saying those critics were “dead in the water going in.” Not everyone agreed — critic Griffin Schiller pushed back publicly, arguing that “films should be reviewed on how they function as films, not as a piece of fan service.”

Garner also got some blowback from the Mortal Kombat fan community itself, who reminded him that the first film invented Cole Young and the concept of Arcana — neither of which came from the games. His response to that particular criticism? “Fair.”

Among the reviews themselves, the throughline is consistent: Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage and Josh Lawson’s returning Kano are the film’s biggest assets. IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, calling it a big win and noting that between Kano and Cage, “the pop culture wisecracks flow” in this adaptation of “colorful weirdos beating the s#!t out of each other.” Collider rated it 7 out of 10, calling it a “bloody good time” and suggesting Lawson’s Kano should be considered the definitive version of the character. Empire gave it 3 out of 5, acknowledging shallow characters but calling it “a lot of dumb fun.”

On the other end, the Chicago Tribune’s Katie Walsh gave it 1.5 out of 4 stars, calling it “astonishingly stiff” and arguing it lacks the cheesy charm of the original. Mashable’s Kristy Puchko called it an “ugly, nonsensical mess” — though even she gave Kano credit as the only character who refuses to take any of it seriously.

The Houston Chronicle offered perhaps the most accurate summary of the experience for general audiences: it “starts out dumb but gradually becomes kind of awesome — and a little bit smarter,” with fight choreography that grows increasingly impressive as the film finds its footing.

How They Fixed What the First Film Got Wrong

Slater came into this project with a specific mandate: figure out what the first film did right, double down on it, and quietly fix everything else. The 2021 original had to prove that an R-rated martial arts fantasy movie could find an audience — and it did, mostly on streaming, where it put up massive numbers despite a limited theatrical release during the pandemic. But the fan base was vocal about what didn’t work: the invented concept of Arcana, the absence of an actual tournament, and the prominence of Cole Young over characters people had been playing for decades.

“We’re very careful in the movie to never contradict the idea of arcana,” Slater told io9. “But that word is also never mentioned in the movie very deliberately.” He compared it to midichlorians in Star Wars — sometimes you don’t need to explain the mechanism. You just need to enjoy the result.

He also made a point of bringing Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon into the process far more meaningfully than the first film did. Rather than Googling iconic stages or fan-requested fatalities, Slater could go directly to the source. “He can say, ‘Yeah, they’ve been begging for this for 30 years,'” Slater said. Boon even appears in the film as a bartender — a cameo that, according to McQuoid, drew audible cheers from the preview audience. The director told LA Weekly he’d happily have Boon pop up in every future installment, Stan Lee-style.

The decision to delay the film from October 2025 to May 2026 also paid off. Slater was initially disappointed — “This is a summer movie,” he said — but acknowledged that the extra time allowed the visual effects, particularly the Netherrealm sequences, to be finished properly. “You look at those Netherrealm sequences, and they look so much cooler than they did a year ago.”

Now, with the movie in theaters and fan response rolling in, Slater says he finally has the data he needs to shape part three. “I want to take the lessons from two and make three the best one yet,” he said. “That is the ultimate goal.”

The surviving heroes are headed to Netherrealm. Liu Kang is waiting. And if Slater gets his way, the best Mortal Kombat movie is still to come.

The post Mortal Kombat II Ending Explained: What’s Next appeared first on Cream.

• Mortal Kombat II earned $5.2 million in Thursday preview screenings ahead of its full opening weekend
• The Warner Bros./New Line sequel is projected to open between $40M–$50M, potentially topping the box office
• Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage alongside returning cast members Ludi Lin, Jessica McNamee, and Josh Lawson
• The film holds a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes — the highest critics’ score in franchise history
• Producer Todd Garner sparked buzz by calling out negative reviews on X, even as most critics gave the film a thumbs up

Mortal Kombat II is ready to fight. The Warner Bros. and New Line action sequel pulled in $5.2 million during Thursday night previews, setting up what could be a genuine box office battle this weekend against 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Projections have Mortal Kombat II opening somewhere between $40 million and $50 million — Warner Bros. is playing it conservative with an internal estimate of $35 million, but some forecasters believe it could push past $50 million on the strength of fan turnout and solid word-of-mouth. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is expected to pull $38 million to $42 million in its second weekend after a massive $77 million debut, buoyed by Mother’s Day audiences. Lionsgate’s Michael continues its blockbuster run in third place, projected for another $35 million to $40 million in its third weekend out.

For context: the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot opened to $23 million — and that was with a simultaneous HBO Max release in the middle of the pandemic. This sequel carries an $80 million budget (up from $55 million), more characters, more fatalities, and a whole lot more ambition. The film was originally slated for an October release before Warner Bros. pushed it to May, betting it could perform like a summer tentpole. That call looks smart right now.

Adding to the momentum: Mortal Kombat II is also releasing in China without any edits or modifications — a first for the franchise. “Mortal Kombat II is releasing in China with no cuts,” star Ludi Lin told Variety. “This is why it’s trending internationally, rather than just focusing on domestic.” That could push the global opening weekend close to $80 million.

What Critics Are Saying

The film currently holds a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes from 93 reviews — the highest score in the franchise’s theatrical history and the first fresh rating any Mortal Kombat movie has earned. For comparison: the beloved 1995 original sits at 44%, the notorious Mortal Kombat: Annihilation bottoms out at 4%, and the 2021 reboot managed 55%.

The praise is concentrated in a few areas. Karl Urban, fresh off his scene-stealing run on The Boys, gets consistent credit for grounding the movie’s chaos as Johnny Cage — a washed-up movie star recruited into an interdimensional death tournament. Reviewers note that Urban’s arc from burned-out egotist to reluctant hero gives the film an emotional anchor it badly needs, and that his dynamic with Josh Lawson’s resurrected Kano provides the movie’s most entertaining stretches. Lawson, who was already a highlight of the 2021 film, reportedly dials things up to eleven here — described by one critic as “too corrupt to be corrupted further” — and steals nearly every scene he’s in.

Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana also earns praise, with her backstory — watching her father King Jerrod lose his realm of Edenia to the villainous Shao Kahn as a child — providing the sequel’s emotional spine. CJ Bloomfield’s Baraka, brought to life through prosthetics and practical makeup, is called out as a standout among the film’s many fighters. And the fight choreography overall gets strong marks, particularly a mid-film showdown between Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and a resurrected Kung Lao (Max Huang) set against an ethereal blue portal that fans of the Sega Genesis games will immediately recognize.

Director Simon McQuoid, returning from the 2021 film, gets credit for giving the action room to breathe — wider shots instead of rapid-fire cuts, fighters with distinct styles, fatalities that reportedly drew cheers at screenings rather than groans.

The criticism, where it exists, tends to cluster around the same issues. Villain Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) is widely described as a one-note “final boss” whose immortality-granting MacGuffin amulet drains tension from the fight sequences. The script, written by Jeremy Slater, is called overstuffed — too many realms, too many rules, not enough internal logic. The tournament’s Elder Gods are repeatedly cited as a plot hole: if Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung are constantly cheating, why don’t they intervene? And fan favorites Hiroyuki Sanada (Scorpion) and Joe Taslim (Sub-Zero), who drove much of the 2021 film’s energy, are largely sidelined until the third act.

The Wall Street Journal called it “vulgar, violent, vacuous.” The Detroit News gave it a D+, arguing it lacks the cheesy charm of the original and that McQuoid can’t quite balance the film’s competing tones — the self-serious mythology stuff sitting awkwardly beside Cage and Kano’s irreverent banter. But the majority of critics land somewhere in the “entertaining enough” zone: a bloody, crowd-pleasing action movie that knows exactly what it is and mostly delivers on that promise.

The Producer Weighs In

Not everyone connected to the film was content to let the reviews speak for themselves. Producer Todd Garner took to X to call out the negative notices — even as the majority were positive. “Some of these reviews are cracking me up,” Garner wrote. “It’s clear they have never played the game and have no idea what the fans want or ANY of the rules/canon of Mortal Kombat. One reviewer was mad that a guy ‘had a laser eye!’ Why the [frick] do we still allow people that don’t have any love for the genre review these movies! Baffling.”

When followers pointed out that most of the reviews had actually been favorable, Garner clarified he was reacting to a handful of specific quotes. Still, the post drew some pushback — one commenter noted that Garner probably shouldn’t be “tossing any stones” about lore accuracy given that the films invented the character Cole Young and reportedly got key details about Kitana and Mileena wrong. The whole exchange was, to put it charitably, a very online moment for a movie that’s already winning.

The full cast includes Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Ludi Lin, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Damon Herriman, Max Huang, Hiroyuki Sanada, Joe Taslim, CJ Bloomfield, Ana Thu Nguyen, and Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn. Game co-creator Ed Boon also appears in a cameo as “Ed the Bartender.” The film is rated R, runs 116 minutes, and is playing in standard theaters and IMAX.

Whether Mortal Kombat II tops the weekend chart or gets edged out by The Devil Wears Prada 2, it’s already done something none of its predecessors managed: made critics and fans mostly agree. That’s a foundation the franchise hasn’t had before — and if a third film gets greenlit, it’ll be starting from a much stronger position than any previous Mortal Kombat movie ever did.

The post Mortal Kombat II Opens With $5.2M in Previews appeared first on Cream.