| Warner Bros. | Release Date: May 8, 2026 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
11
Mixed:
14
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews
ColliderMay 6, 2026
May 6, 2026
Mortal Kombat II ends with a pretty clear set-up for a third movie, which is already in development, and fingers crossed it'll do what this movie did: Improve on what came before, take the piss out of itself whenever possible, and never forget, at the end of the day, the reason people want to watch movies like this in the first place.
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May 6, 2026
It might not be Oscar-caliber cinema, and hardcore fans of the game with encyclopedic knowledge of the game may have a bone to pick, but it’s big and loud and gruesome and not afraid to have fun. The bar for video game movie sequels isn’t very high, but this one not only clears the bar, it twirls it around like a bo staff.
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LooperMay 6, 2026
The question remains whether a "Mortal Kombat" movie could ever be expected to be better than this, considering the limitations of the source material. That this sequel translates the simple beat-em-up thrills of the video game into something narratively functional is about as triumphant as it could possibly get for this franchise.
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May 6, 2026
While Urban hurls himself into the role of Johnny with the commitment of someone for whom the phrase “sequel to a reboot of a fighting-game adaptation” signals only the latest opportunity to shine, the film, which was written by Jeremy Slater and directed by a returning Simon McQuoid, offers so little to work off of that even he gives off the faintest whiff of exasperation.
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May 6, 2026
No phrase terrifies me more than “for the fans,” because in the movies that tends to mean “awful and incomprehensible.” And so it does for “Mortal Kombat II,” an onscreen bucket of slop that people will give a pass to because losers cheer whenever a character, such as they are, is impaled or sliced in half.
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Next Best PictureMay 6, 2026
The story still isn’t the most captivating and has another bit of frustrating sequel bait that muddies some arcs towards the finale, but it has a clearer sense of focus, at least putting the exciting sequences to the forefront. The filmmaking still has a bit of a stiltedness to it, but it leans further into an energizing tone that is far more engrossing.
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RogerEbert.comMay 6, 2026
Sure, Mortal Kombat II has enough fight scenes and gore to deliver exactly what fans of the games expect from these movies. Then again, the makers of this new franchise-booster don’t seem to know how to fill the rest of their movie’s 116-minute runtime. They tie up loose ends from the last movie whenever they’re not nudging their new protagonists through the motions of another patchwork action-fantasy that’s too hip to be sincere and too hacky to be moving.
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Screen RantMay 6, 2026
What enjoyment there is to draw from the action, which has its ups and downs, is tainted by the skepticism of this whole endeavor that's baked into the filmmaking. Even knowing better which direction they should go in, McQuoid & Co. remain frustratingly unwilling to commit to it. What they've made is tellingly at its best when making fun of itself.
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SlashfilmMay 6, 2026
It's easily one of the biggest surprises of this year. While it doesn't yet settle the debate about where video game movies will go from here, it proves the subgenre is evolving. Video game movies, especially "Mortal Kombat" movies, don't have to be radical reinventions, nor do they need to be relegated to fan service slop. They can be more.
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The Film VerdictMay 6, 2026
Urban has never been funnier, and he makes Johnny’s character arc from cynical Hollywood burnout to a champion capable of self-sacrifice a believable one. Not that many people are buying to tickets to Mortal Kombat II for the character arcs, granted, but Urban’s performance is a delightfully unexpected pleasure in a movie that winds up being full of them.
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May 6, 2026
A bloody fun second round, Mortal Kombat 2 creatively resets the series for the better. Karl Urban adds irreverent energy as a post-Deadpool Johnny Cage, while the all-important fights mostly deliver the goods. A step up from 2021’s bizarrely tournament-less Mortal Kombat that lands some killer blows, but it’s far from a flawless victory.
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