Movie Review: Mortal Kombat II

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Despite fairly accurately recreating the story-mode of the modern Mortal Kombat games, this latest attempt at a film adaption feels too much like a video game and only stays afloat by a couple of entertaining performances. On paper, the plot is pretty solid, and it continues on from the first film while essentially mashing together the plot of the first two Mortal Kombat games. Unfortunately, it has many of the same flaws as that first film including plenty of characters with little charisma. Most of these carry over from the previous film, but even some of the newer characters are pretty one-note. Thankfully, Karl Urban breathes life into the film with his cantankerous take on Johnny Cage. (There are also quite a few laughs provided by the returning Josh Lawson as Kano.) This leads to another of the film’s big flaws: It starts off as Kitana’s story before pivoting to being about Cage, and then not really committing to either before trying to appease both. (And that’s also at the expense of Cole Young, who goes from lead of the first film to just a side character here.) In theory, this film features really cool fight scenes, but in reality, they mostly fall flat. There’s an extensive use of CG, not just in all the special moves, but also the blood and guts. Even many of the locations look unrealistic. In general, the film struggles between serious and campy, and every time it looks to nail dramatic moment or a cool fatality, the cheesiness shines through and knocks it down a peg. On top of all of that, like the games it’s based on, death tends to have little meaning so anytime someone is killed you can’t help but think that they’ll be back.

** out of *****

TV Review: Daredevil: Born Again (Season 2)

**This review contains some SPOILERS***

Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube

In its second season, “Daredevil: Born Again” delivers a more focused story than the previous season’s heavily reworked attempt, but despite the new season not suffering many low points, it also never really has too many high points either.

The plot was surprisingly dialed back considering how season 1 wrapped up. It was implied that Daredevil would assemble a small army of citizens to fight back against Fisk’s authoritarian rule. Instead, it seemed to be just a handful of people working together to disrupt things. Even then, the only catalyst to kick things off was the sinking of the tanker at the start of the season and that never ended up being as important to the overall story as it seemed like it would be. There was also the introduction of government agent Mr. Charles, who comes off as a wildcard that was going to shake things up only to fade into the background for most of the season.

As far as the main characters, everyone had enough to do to justify screen time, but there just wasn’t a ton of standout moments for anyone. Daredevil’s story was more of the same, with a couple of good fight scenes to keep things interesting. It was only when he had a chance to be a lawyer again that his story regained its spark. Karen’s story revolved around supporting Matt and even thought she was active in the rebellion and they flirted with her having some of The Punisher’s more lethal views on justice, they really never dig too deep into her character. Fisk’s overall arc was fine, but even his biggest moments failed to deliver much new insight into him. Bullseye probably had the most complex character moments this season, but they had to straddle the line between keeping him a villain and giving the audience a reason to root for him. Matt’s ex Heather had a strange storyline that barely made sense for her character and felt like the were struggling to give her something to do. Other characters like Jessica Jones, The Swordsman and the new White Tiger seemed poised to make a big impact on this season, only to spend most of the time sidelined. (Honorable mention to Buck and Daniel Blake adding some interesting dynamics to the overall narrative.)

The show looked good for the most part. The action was solid, but only occasionally did anything really standout. Some moments seemed to be enhanced with CG and they usually didn’t look believable. While Bullseye’s costume grew on me, a few small tweaks could’ve really improved it. The real standout was Daredevil’s black costume that finally added the DD logo.

Overall,”Daredevil: Born Again” season 2 was fine but rarely did much to make a big impression. In particular, there were no emotional gut punches this season and the fight scenes tended to be too short. Even some of the moments that were supposed to be a big deal ended up feeling somewhat flat.

**1/2 out of *****