As huge fans of Johnny Cage and all of his action films, we were thrilled yesterday when we got a mysterious package with a DVD of Cage’s latest movie, Uncaged Fury. Little did we know that Cage himself went missing for a little while, apparently getting pulled into a tournament known as Mortal Kombat II. Today we got the first glimpse at a trailer for a film chronicling the events of Cage’s sudden disappearance.
In all seriousness, I wasn’t the biggest fan of 2021’s Mortal Kombat reboot. However, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be interested in a follow-up. My main issue with the film was that I wanted a tournament, and a new installment would essentially guarantee one. Based on this trailer, that seems to be the case:
From a POC standpoint, Mortal Kombat (2021) did way better than Mortal Kombat (1995), given it was led by Lewis Tan, Raiden was actually Asian (played by Emmy-nominee Tadanobu Asano), and the cast featured a veritable who’s who of terrific POC actors like Mehcad Brooks, Max Huang, and Ludi Lin. It even centered around a really terrific story between Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and Scorpion (the incomparable legend, Hiroyuki Sanada).
The issue was that Tan’s character, Cole Young, was original for the film but, unfortunately, happened to be the least interesting by having the weakest backstory and power of any character in the franchise — game or film.
Ironically, after evaluating the trailer for Mortal Kombat II, I’m still slightly disappointed the character doesn’t appear to be featured. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Cole, and though Tan is apparently in the film, this movie had the opportunity to at least turn him around as a good central character. We’ve seen movies do this before (Rick Flag Jr. in Suicide Squad vs The Suicide Squad). However, based solely on this trailer, it seems they’re replacing a lead Asian male role with a Caucasian lead. That’s not really great, to be honest.
I like Karl Urban a lot. With Urban’s swagger, having him bring Cage to life is a stroke of genius. He deserves to be in the movie and it brings the film a lot of clout, given his popularity from shows like The Boys. I also love Johnny Cage as a character, and I would indeed prefer to have a game character as the lead rather than a random uninteresting original character.
But I still pose the question, couldn’t it have been possible to promote Liu Kang, Raiden, Bi-Han, Kitana, or Scorpion to full lead status, or at least improve on Cole’s story and power set to make his arc more interesting? Don’t get me wrong, I love the amount of diversity that still exists in this film. They have some amazing POC actors playing or reprising some of the most iconic characters in video games. I just kind of wish the protagonist wasn’t necessarily now a very White American. Especially since the diversity in the Mortal Kombat franchise makes it all the more possible to make a non-White character the lead for a specific film or a full film franchise.
In any case, the movie still looks fun. I enjoy that it’s leaning very heavily into the camp, and taking itself a lot less seriously than its 2021 predecessor. Apparently early test screenings have generated Avengers: Endgame levels of excitement. There’s a lot of potential for this to be a much better movie than the previous one. I just wish, in some ways, it didn’t need a White savior to get fans excited.
Oh well. Get ready to fight!
Mortal Kombat II hits theaters this October!
Check out all of the character posters released today too!
