Overview: From New Line Cinema comes the latest high-stakes installment in the blockbuster video game franchise in all its brutal glory, Mortal Kombat II. This time, the fan favorite champions - now joined by Johnny Cage himself - are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

Verdict: Once the runt of movie genres, video game movies are in vogue after the success of the Minecraft, Sonic, and Mario Bros franchises. As such, 2021’s alright-I-guess adaptation of Mortal Kombat hopes to ride that wave of popularity with a sequel, starring The Boys’ Karl Urban.

He plays Johnny Cage, a faded action star who is unwittingly selected as Earth’s new champion in Mortal Kombat, a tournament to defend Earth from the evil clutches of the Outworld dimension.

Feeling like a soft reboot, not least because the characters from the original movie are treated almost like a convenience, this follow-up eschews the sincerity of its predecessor in favor of something bloodier, and funnier. Most of the laughs come from Urban, playing a man saving the world with sheer bluster and action hero catchphrases, making the movie a lot more self-aware, and all the more enjoyable.