Mortal Kombat 2 Reviews Are Split Down The Middle, And For Once That's Literal
Overview & Key Takeaways
After a lengthy wait and a last-minute delay, Mortal Kombat 2 is finally bicycle-kicking its way into theaters this week. The sequel to 2021's Mortal Kombat has been promising bigger fights, deeper lore dives, and Karl Urban hamming it up as fan-favorite character Johnny Cage, but what do the early reviews say? Currently, they're more divided than one of Kung Lao's opponents after they've been subjected to his fatality.
GameSpot's sister site Metacritic has begun gathering up reviews, and so far, the metascore aggregate is sitting on a dead-average 50 from 21 sites at the time of writing. This number will change as more reviews go live over the next few weeks, but it looks like opinions are all over the place when it comes to Mortal Kombat 2.
When it comes to positive reviews, IGN called Mortal Kombat 2 a showcase of "big and loud" action, while SlashFilm described the sequel as one of the biggest surprises of the year. On the opposite end of the review spectrum, outlets like The AV Club described it as a campy mess without any heart, Radio Times labeled Mortal Kombat 2 as a serviceable follow-up at best, and Variety says the movie is all style without any real substance. The lack of a cohesive story appears to be one of the major complaints from reviewers, but Urban's portrayal as a washed-up martial arts movie star drafted into protecting the realms has been generally well-received.
After a lengthy wait and a last-minute delay, Mortal Kombat 2 is finally bicycle-kicking its way into theaters this week. The sequel to 2021's Mortal Kombat has been promising bigger fights, deeper lore dives, and Karl Urban hamming it up as fan-favorite character Johnny Cage, but what do the early reviews say? Currently, they're more divided than one of Kung Lao's opponents after they've been subjected to his fatality.
GameSpot's sister site Metacritic has begun gathering up reviews, and so far, the metascore aggregate is sitting on a dead-average 50 from 21 sites at the time of writing. This number will change as more reviews go live over the next few weeks, but it looks like opinions are all over the place when it comes to Mortal Kombat 2.
When it comes to positive reviews, IGN called Mortal Kombat 2 a showcase of "big and loud" action, while SlashFilm described the sequel as one of the biggest surprises of the year. On the opposite end of the review spectrum, outlets like The AV Club described it as a campy mess without any heart, Radio Times labeled Mortal Kombat 2 as a serviceable follow-up at best, and Variety says the movie is all style without any real substance. The lack of a cohesive story appears to be one of the major complaints from reviewers, but Urban's portrayal as a washed-up martial arts movie star drafted into protecting the realms has been generally well-received.
Set shortly after the events of the first film, Mortal Kombat 2 sees the tournament to protect EarthRealm from being invaded by Outworld finally kick off. Most of the first film's cast returns, alongside new faces like Adeline Rudolph (Kitana), Martyn Ford (Shao Kahn), Damon Herriman (Quan Chi), and CJ Bloomfield (Baraka).
Overall, Mortal Kombat 2 has a better metascore than The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (37 from 45 reviews), but will it be as commercially successful? Probably not, but Warner Bros. Discovery is predicting an opening US weekend haul of $40 million to $45 million across the 3,400 screens it'll debut on. A third Mortal Kombat movie was also greenlit back in October 2025.
Later this year, there'll be a third video game movie on the big screen in the form of Street Fighter. A new trailer for the movie recently went live, and it looks like this adaptation is embracing the goofiness of the classic Capcom franchise.
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