MORTAL KOMBAT II

Here's the honest tension in this one. There's real craft and even a real moral spine here — a story about defeating a tyrant and restoring a kingdom that prizes liberty, carried by Karl Urban's comic energy as Johnny Cage. That's worth acknowledging.

But the content is excessive by the source's own accounting: at least 71 obscenities, including roughly 44 "f" words and two strong profanities that use Christ's name, plus graphic violence — heads and bodies sliced apart on screen. Layer in an occult framework of "Elder Gods," a sorcerer's black magic, and a magical amulet, and you have a film whose content overwhelms its message.

The source is blunt about the result: excessive and ultimately unacceptable. That's the standard here, and it holds regardless of the film's better moments. Skip it.

Princess Kitana of Edenia watches her father's kingdom fall to Shao Kahn, the ruthless ruler who kills him, takes her mother as his queen, and rules in his place. Years later, still grieving and still plotting, Kitana seeks help to take her kingdom back — from Lord Raiden, the god of thunder, and Jax, a Special Forces major and Mortal Kombat champion.

They also need Johnny Cage, a washed-up action star with no powers of his own — and no interest in dying for someone else's fight. Convincing him is where this story begins.

Three stars means this one earns real credit, even with its problems. The source is candid that the film starts "a little bit corny and silly" right after its opening tragedy — but it gets better from there. Karl Urban brings genuine comic energy and fun action sequences as Johnny Cage, and Josh Lawson's Kano supplies more welcome humor. Underneath the fights sits a sturdy moral premise: defeating tyrannical evil, restoring a kingdom that prizes liberty.

Compared to the 2021 film it follows, this sequel trims some of the occult talk about gods — but tips further the other direction on both language and graphic violence, which the source calls "slightly stronger." Good bones, rougher execution.

This film's worldview is pagan through and through, but it isn't empty of value. Its moral premise is genuinely good: defeating tyranny, restoring a kingdom that prizes the liberty of its people. That's a theme Scripture honors too — freedom from oppression matters to God.

What complicates it is the theology underneath. The universe runs on "Elder Gods" who supposedly created the realms, a character literally worshiped as a "god of thunder," an evil sorcerer wielding black magic, and a magical amulet — a spiritual framework that stands at odds with the God of the Bible, who tolerates no rivals: "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 45:5). There's a small counter-note worth naming: at one tense, comedic moment, a hero makes the Sign of the Cross, and the film lightly promotes the idea of sacrifice for others — gestures toward something truer than the mythology surrounding them.

The ache running through this story — captives wanting to be free — is real, and Scripture answers it more completely than Edenia ever could: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).

There's a good story trying to get out here — tyranny defeated, liberty restored, a reluctant hero finding his courage. But the source's own math is the math that matters: excessive profanity, graphic violence, and an occult framework that together make this one unacceptable, whatever your age. Our answer stands: skip it. Looking for something to watch instead? Start here:.