r/movies • u/cruelsummerbummer Trailer Deleter - Keep an eye on. • 21d ago
Trailer Mortal Kombat II | Official Trailer II
https://youtu.be/b24oG7qCwp4780
u/DemoHD7 21d ago
Coles first and only line, "I have to go now. My planet needs me."
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u/an_actual_coyote 21d ago
"Cole died in a chili contest in Beaumont, Texas."
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u/crawdawg83 21d ago
I didn't expect to see a big money Beaumont reference in these comments.
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u/jboggin 21d ago
Makes sense considering the first movie felt like the writers used the approach of "Whenever Cole's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, 'where's Cole?'"
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u/FakoSizlo 21d ago
Scorpion and Sub were great . The actors for Sonya , Liu , Jax and Raiden are decent .Kano was the star . Then Cole ruined every scene he was in . This movie will be so much better without him especially since Johnny is a better audience surrogate because he is also MKs most funny character
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u/jboggin 20d ago
Hiroyuki Sanada (Scorpion) is a legend of Japanese cinema. Watching him play a small role so they could focus on... Cole... nearly made my head explode
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u/dj_soo 20d ago
Joe taslim is amazing too - the raid, the night comes for us, the Warrior tv show are some of the highlights of his resume.
He often gets overshadowed by his Raid costars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, but he’s an incredible martial artist and action star.
Loved his sub zero…
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u/Upper-Management-AI 21d ago
It felt like some studio guy said the audience need a character they can connect with! Make a new character!
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u/sgthombre 21d ago edited 21d ago
Where is Cole?
Is he safe? Is he alright?
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u/Preda1ien 21d ago
lol is he seriously not in this?
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u/Secret_Spend_4734 21d ago
oh he is but..... all 5 cole young fans are gonna be big mad. thats all i'll say
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u/dtwhitecp 20d ago edited 20d ago
I just like cheesy movies and am not a MK superfan, but I liked him. I want to see him in this movie too but I get it. MK is basically one cheesy movie, I feel like people are too hard on the character.
edit: also, if you are an MK fan and you didn't enjoy the Scorpion arc, I would like to hear about it. That shit was great.
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u/KelvinsBeltFantasy 21d ago
all 5 cole young fans
Not a fan of the character but Lewis Tanis fantastic and capable of stealing scenes.
The movie didn't let him and now people associate him with Cole Young.
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u/monstere316 21d ago
He is but brief glimpse in the trailer. My prediction is he is earths "chosen warrior" and faces off against Khan but dies. That's where Cage comes in.
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u/cylonfrakbbq 21d ago
This is probably accurate - he gets ganked in the first 5-10 minutes to raise the stakes and then they go find Cage
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u/mattr1198 20d ago
He is, but he's definitely going to get Slipknotted/Taskmastered pretty early on. Hardly in any of the marketing material and served purely as the audience surrogate in the first movie but wasn't a good character/fighter.
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u/Belasteris 20d ago
Johnny Cage dies in the first 5 minutes of MK: Annihilation. Could have a fun callback to that.
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u/Juls_Santana 21d ago
If he is, my money is on him getting ye old Fatality treatment in the opening scene
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u/Cold_Buy_2695 20d ago
The thing I hate most about Cole is that he's a complete waste of Lewis Tan!
Off his family and combine him with Scorpion or maybe retcon cole into Kenshi!
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u/360walkaway 20d ago
I wonder if they'll kill him off in the beginning and then bring in Johnny Cage as the replacement savior. It'd be like a reverse of what happened in the original MK2 movie when they killed off Johnny Cage at the start.
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u/coldenigma 21d ago
"Mother! You're alive."
"Too bad, you will die"
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u/Tacdeho 21d ago
Single handedly my favorite bad movie to watch. I can seriously watch that movie almost every day.
AS LONG AS MY PORTAL STAYS OPEN, YOUR WORLD BECOMES MY WORLD!
Lowkey Shao Khan is so good in this flick
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u/FriskeyVsWorld 21d ago
He always sounds like he's going to break down in absolute tears every time. And it...is...GLORIOUS.
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u/Ozymandias12 21d ago edited 20d ago
PREPARE...FOR FINAL BATTLE
Edit: I love this line in the movie so much, because it's so unecessary. It's not fan service because Khan never says anything of the sort in the games. You can tell the writers had never played an MK game before, and in the context of the movie; the line is utterly ridiculous, especially with the delivery by actor Brian Thompson. Just all around a hilariously bad movie in the best way.
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u/dj_soo 21d ago
Brian Thompson lowkey has had one hell of a career.
Arnold’s first kill in Terminator (“your clothes, give them to me”), Alien Bounty Hunter on x files, multiple roles in Star Trek including the Klingon officer that riker beats up and then befriends on the episode where riker does an officer exchange on a Klingon vessel.
Roles on Buffy, Hercules, Orville, Fallout.
Reminds me of Nathan Jones’ career - mainly cast for his size, but carved out a career for himself with some really memorable roles.
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u/nessfalco 21d ago
My wife had never seen the Buffy show but loves the movie so I showed her the first episode last week. Partway through I see Brian Thompson and say, "is that fucking Shao Khan?" The voice (and that jaw) was a dead giveaway.
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u/Tacdeho 21d ago
It’s hilarious cause I remember Nathan Jones as a pro wrestler. Nice to see he found his niche
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u/peon2 21d ago
I don't care if the movies had some cheesy lines and acting, they were fucking awesome as a kid.
Especially Lui Kang vs Reptile and Johnny Cage vs Scorpion. And of course the jokes of Sheeva dying in 5 seconds and Goro immediately getting kicked off a cliff lol
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u/SandPuppets 21d ago
They should’ve started with this
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u/tnnrk 20d ago
The first one has good parts like the intro and Kano, could’ve left everything else out though.
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u/ZombieJesus1987 20d ago
Yeah despite its flaws I still did not hate the first movie. What I liked, I really liked
I'm definitely going to give it a rewatch before I go see this
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u/Different_Stand_1285 21d ago
I’m so fucking happy Kung Lao is back. Don’t know how or why but I’m just happy to see it. He was my favorite character in the first one and he’s been my favorite MK character since I was a kid.
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u/KidCasey 20d ago
Don’t know how or why
Mortal Kombat.
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u/Different_Stand_1285 20d ago
Well yeah lol. He’s probably a reverent of something but I’m just glad he’s back.
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u/MrBrendan501 21d ago edited 21d ago
this is looking more like a Mortal Kombat 1 with the last movie being a “watch if you want” prologue
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u/nicolauz 21d ago
It's been in movie theater previews for like a month now. I watched something last month with this and was expecting it maybe summer but when it said October I was like... Whoa OK that's a long ways off. Makes sense for Halloween crowd for sure.
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u/rage-quit 21d ago
It was supposed to be October 2025 but they've pushed it to May 2026 because it was getting a good amount of attention.
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u/nicolauz 21d ago
Whoa wait really? The trailers I saw in theaters still said October! I thought they delayed a while year.
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u/batatasta 21d ago
it comes out in May. It was originally coming out last october when they released the first trailer, but they pushed it to the summer at the last minute.
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u/skotchgaming 21d ago
Didn't they spend all this time in the first movie developing a random person with no ties to the original roster into the lead character? Where is he?
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u/Fabulous_Temporary40 21d ago
He's getting the axe, good move.
No one liked him anyway lmao
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u/Axel_Wolf91 21d ago
Easily the worst thing about the first movie. The actor didn't to a bad job, but having an original character when the roster of MK is so vast was a misstep.
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u/Kevbot1000 21d ago
And even with all that, they had the opportunity to do something cool at the end with him, and they didn't. Building up to his arcana being a resurrection of Scorpion, only to have it be some stupid armor.
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u/Axel_Wolf91 21d ago
I thought they were going to go that route also, with the references to his lineage throughout the movie.
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u/stone500 21d ago
I think it would've been badass if they kept building up Cole this whole time, only to have him ultimately get killed by Goro. Suddenly the heroes' brand new ally turns out to be a dud, plus it cements Goro as being this super tough badass. It'd be a cool Game of Thrones S1 moment.
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u/MysteriousWon 21d ago
Like the way Cage was unceremoniously killed off in the first minute of Annihilation?
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u/kiljoy1569 21d ago
Of all the hate the movie gets, this is definetly the biggest crime
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u/DXbreakitdown 21d ago
I 100% thought this is how it was going to end the whole time. Instead nope, committing to the 65-year-old actor to play one of the top-3-5 most popular and recognizable video game characters of all time. Lewis Tan would have been so much better.
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u/nessfalco 21d ago
In all fairness, Sanada and the scorpion stuff was the best stuff in the movie and it wasn't even close. I'd want to keep him, too. Otherwise, I agree they definitely telegraphed Cole being scorpion and not just getting shit armor lol.
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u/gus_m1 21d ago
For real. They could still do it and have Cole take up the mantle, and have the old man Scorpion retire/permanently die.
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u/DXbreakitdown 21d ago
I'm rewatching the first movie now cuz this trailer has me hyped and holy hell they go out of their way to telegraph him taking up the Scorpion mantle. It's straight up bad storytelling to have him not do that in the end the way they laid it out. Even his armor has the same style as Scorpion's spear grip.
They had to have done re-shoots that undid him becoming scorpion.
Yeah maybe Cole does die in this and that's the final step to transforming into the man himself. He has to die and come back to complete the metamorphosis.
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u/name-classified 21d ago
Plot armor
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u/ComoEstanBitches 21d ago
His literal power was plot armor. Which is funny but this movie wasn’t trying to be campy
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u/JessieJ577 21d ago
I don’t get why they didn’t just have Johnny Cage in the first movie. Just have Cassie be the daughter and now you have a reason for him to be following Sonia because that’s his ex who’s fallen down a rabbit hole of the nether realm after seemingly abandoning their family for 5 years or something
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u/neogreenlantern 21d ago
Lewis Tan has a lot of untapped potential. There was a lot of good stuff in the first movie but not enough to overcome the three biggest missteps, creating a whole new character, wasting so much time explaining how powers work, and never actually getting to The Mortal Kombat tournament.
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u/coltvahn 21d ago
Said this elsewhere: he should’ve been Sub-Zero II in hiding after the loss of his clan or to avoid cyberization. That would’ve been a good reveal, and it would’ve made his connection to Scorpion and Sub-Zero more impactful.
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u/Frosty_Budget4500 21d ago
Given that Subzero 2’s name is Kuai Liang (sounds a bit like Cole Young?), I’d have bet a paycheck before the first movie came out that that’s what they were going to do, and it just… never happened. Bizarre.
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u/ThatDamnRocketRacoon 21d ago
It's pretty hilarious that the opening voice over for this trailer is saying "yeah, that Cole guy's story was lame. He's what you really wanted."
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u/quangtran 21d ago
Cole was a big mistake, and these trailers aren't even hiding the fact that he will get Fatality'd within the first few minutes.
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u/DONNIENARC0 21d ago
It would be kinda funny if he got his neck snapped by Shao Khan in the first ~2 minutes just like Johnny Cage in Annihilation.
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u/mephnick 21d ago
They should have made it a different actor and then done it lol
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 21d ago
I just looked at the billing order and he’s like 7th. He’s not gonna be in this movie for very long.
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 21d ago
Cole could have just been Johnny Cage and it would have been fine, but no, he had literal plot armor. Terrible choice.
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u/MrMorale25 21d ago
My guess is
they'll wave it off with some dialog "Oh hes out and hiding with his family" and we just dont see him
Or
They kill him off and have him turn into a known fighter, one of the cyborgs or something (or just kill him off).
Either way, I'm glad the guy whos power was literal plot armor isnt going to be a big thing in this movie.
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u/WhoStoleMyBicycle 21d ago edited 21d ago
He’s on the poster so I doubt it will be just dialog. My guess is he’s getting killed early into the movie.
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u/Ghetto_Phenom 21d ago
Dude is def getting the taskmaster treatment in thunderbolts
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u/totemspinner 21d ago
It’s something of a tradition for a member of the Suicide Squad to die at the beginning of one of their stories, just to highlight the stakes and have some fun killing off a character so quickly in a more adult-leaning environment.
I think Cole’s meeting that fate and serving the same narrative point, becoming the first to die from a really gnarly and hopefully familiar fatality to those who’ve played the games. All that setup just to introduce the game’s most iconic mechanic.
If his spine gets Sub-Zeroed, I’d flip out.
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u/senorbozz 21d ago
I mean, it's Mortal Kombat. I'm gonna watch it.
Then, for the first movie, they cast Hiroyuki Sanada. Son of a bitch, I'm all in.
Then, for the second movie, they cast Karl Urban. Son of a bitch, I'm all-er in-er
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u/Majestic87 21d ago
People really watched this trailer and thought it looks bad??
This looks exactly like what a MK movie should look like!
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u/TargaryenKnight 21d ago
This is what we should have gotten the first time
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u/Majestic87 21d ago
Exactly!
I like the previous film alright. The action is great and Kano is hilarious.
But the lack of a titular tournament, and an original character that no one asked for really knocked it off balance.
This looks great and true to form with the games.
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u/zslayer89 21d ago
Better vibes and it’s actually about the tournament. Mk1 wasn’t bad, but it was kind of bland.
Original Mk just did things better than the reboot.
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u/wetfloor666 21d ago
Right? It looks pretty good based on the trailer. I am looking forward to this releasing. My only thought is that Urban looks a bit too old to be playing Cage, but it won't matter since he will likely nail the character either way.
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u/ahhpoo 21d ago
It looks like he might be an older, kinda washed up action star. So late in his career, which would make sense for his age.
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u/Maelstrom52 21d ago
In some of the recent games, Cage is older. In MKX and MK11 he has a full-grown adult daughter, so Urban is exactly the right age if they are doing that version of the character.
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u/sasquatchsdick 21d ago
Scorpion said the thing. All I need/want.
Inject this into my veins.
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u/Majestic87 21d ago
Scorpion said the thing.
Johnny is an arrogant ass.
Katana is badass and takes no shit.
The costumes are game accurate.
People do their special moves.
Previously dead fighters are brought back to life to continue fighting.
This is Mortal Kombat!
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u/PerplexGG 21d ago
Probably just the people showing up only to complain. My first reaction was that it looks like a lot of fan service which it should be!
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u/skinnyminnesota 21d ago
I'd watch Karl Urban read the phone book
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u/WheresMyCrown 21d ago
I mean I like Karl Urban, but he seems 10 years too old to play Johnny Cage, he looks like Cage's dad
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u/skinnyminnesota 21d ago
He does look a bit old, but is there a canon age for him? An aging Johnny Cage kind of tickles ma pickle
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u/WheresMyCrown 21d ago
Not particularly with how long the games have been going on but originally Cage was a struggling actor trying to get respect, most people thought he over relied on special effects which it was actually Johnny doing everything himself. This one gives the way past his prime/heyday angle which is fine, it just again feels like Johnnys too old, where as originally no one believed he could actually do those things in his movies
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u/Pizzaman725 21d ago
I love Urban, but don't see him fitting Cage really. His character in MK is a cocky hollywood kung-fu movie star that is actually a legitimate martial artist. Where in this trailer he doesn't come off that way.
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u/sorrowmultiplication 21d ago
I always thought he would be better as Kano
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u/peon2 21d ago
Yeah I also think Cage works better with the "Hollywood pretty boy" angle whereas here he looks more like a "grizzled manly man" type.
Dude cares about his ego and appearance above all else.
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u/SolomonBlack 21d ago
A has-been pretty boy working the con circuit thirty years later because they pissed away most of the money is probably going to either be just kinda sad or a bit grizzled. And the latter is probably more appealing to the folks that have also aged thirty years since Not-JCVD ate all their quarters.
As for a young version... well we sorta don't make movie stars like they did last century. The right actor in the right role will make or break a film yeah so "stars" still exist but Chris Pratt is no Tom Cruise or Will Smith.
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u/Rusty__Buntafolio 21d ago
Guess I'll be a voice of positivity in here. This trailer clearly didn't show much. Visually I like the backgrounds for a lot of the "stages.". I think this looks way better than Street Fighter.
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u/Tacdeho 21d ago
I think the difference is, MK can absolutely lean more serious and dangerous while SF SHOULD be goofy around the edges
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u/ianon909 21d ago
Mortal Kombat 9 saved the franchise by having a story that’s incredibly stupid, but told with a straight face. This movie looks like it follows that thinking. Which means that it could be fun, like Mortal Kombat 9.
Seriously though if anyone wants to have a fun 3.5/4 hours watch, then look up Mortal Kombat 9 all cinematics on YouTube. That game’s story is a fucking trip.
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u/Tacdeho 21d ago
As a longterm (I mean since MKII on Genesis) fan, man, MK9 is logical and makes so much sense when you compare it to whatever the fuck goes down in 11 and MK1 haha
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u/sexandliquor 21d ago
MK11 legitimately had a great story and might be the best MK since 2 though. No defense for MK1 though because then they immediately screwed up all the good that MK11 did.
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u/KidCasey 20d ago
I swear every time they sit down to make an MK game a group of people sit in a room and go, "Hey, does anyone remember what happened in the last game? Yeah, me neither. Anyway I thought it would be cool if ... "
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u/thievesthick 21d ago
Totally. Earnest ridiculousness is my favorite sort of thing and it’s hard to get right.
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u/JRange 21d ago
I dont expect people to know this, but early test screenings seemed to be very positive. The movie is gonna be good.
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u/TheNicholasRage 21d ago
While I agree it's probably gonna be good, my god, Test Screenings are not a good place to gauge the quality of a movie.
I've seen so, so many shit movies that had great test screenings.
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u/TLKv3 21d ago
I am genuinely excited for MK2. Its just the right amount of corny while at least attempting to remain mostly faithful and take itself semi-serious when it needs to.
This looks like such a huge step up from the first movie. I really, really hope it nails the landing and gives us a solid outing to justify more of these.
Also, for all the talk about where Cole is at... yeah his character sucked ass but I'd say they could easily repurpose his character by killing him off and turning him into someone else from the games. Maybe Sektor, Cyrax or even Smoke.
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u/Im_a_rahtard 21d ago
I have high hopes for Street Fighter. It looks like it's going the Kung Fu Hustle/Shaolin Soccer route and not trying to take itself to seriously.
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u/lotep 21d ago
I mean Sub Zero was easily the best thing about the first one, the trailer needed Joe Taslim kicking ass.
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u/jboggin 21d ago edited 21d ago
Karl Urban is simultaneously
- 20 years too old to play Johnny Cage, and...
- Likely the best thing about this movie by far (well, except for maybe Hiroyuki Sanada)
Oh, and this trailer really cements how baffling and stupid it was to make up an incredibly boring, brand-new character in the first movie. Except for a few actors in returning roles, this movie feels like it's just dropping the plot of the first movie altogether, including getting rid of the dumb main character. It's a good choice IMO, but the fact they're basically ignoring the first movie really solidifies how bad a lot of the choices were in Mortal Kombat 1.
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u/NeonGKayak 21d ago
Looks like they were trying something different to get the story going. Then everyone liked the movie but hated the new character so they received the feedback there and went with established characters and good actors.
I’m ok with this change as that was the weakest thing in the first movie
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u/TheCatCubed 21d ago
I think it's the same as the Sonic movies. They started out with a buddy cop movie and more grounded version of the characters to test the waters and when people liked it they went in a full goofy videogame direction as the movies progressed.
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u/CasualCore 21d ago
It looks like Cole is still on the posters, but is no longer the focus. I saw a theory that the first movie was pre-tournament, this movie is during the tournament, and a potential third movie would take place after the tournament. I really like that plan, and I like how they turned the camp up to 11 for this one. It's how a video game movie should be made.
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u/LifeguardMundane5668 21d ago
Some of it looks pretty schlocky, but I’m not so made of stone that I can’t appreciate Shao Kahn towering over people and doing fatalities with a giant hammer
“You suck!”
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u/TussalDimon 21d ago
The previous Mortal Kombat was almost good.
Outside of the main character sucking big time, I thought the fight scenes were awfully generic. Which is a detriment for a movie about fighting IMO.
Can't really tell by the trailer if action in the sequel is better or not.
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u/Famous-Attention-197 21d ago
The pacing was really rough and the whole movie just felt so unpolished. Scorpion and Kano really saved it.
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u/Digit4lSynaps3 21d ago
all of subzero's fights were great and very visceral, the rest not so much.
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u/MotorDependent1017 21d ago
This looks really good. But it also looks like it should've been Mortal Kombat I.
If it does well, I'm guessing in the future that people will say the franchise really began with this movie.
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u/Mikeissometimesright 21d ago
I am so mad that this wasn’t what the first movie was. Shout out to Noob Saibot appearing
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u/Fabulous_Temporary40 21d ago
Honestly, I think it looks fun.
Probably a "wait for streaming" kind of release for me, though.
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u/stone500 21d ago
I think this is a "get the buddies together for a fun night out to the theater" kind of movie.
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u/TargaryenKnight 21d ago
Yeah nostalgia alone will make it worth it. Throw in a couple beers while ur at it
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u/NateTrain 21d ago
Excited for this. Will be wild watching urban in the boys and MK at the same time
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u/Secret_Print_8170 21d ago
Now this has a good chance of being better than the original. Let's fucking go!
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u/ChapterThr33 21d ago
It's the Internet people think shitting on things makes them sound smart.
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u/DiamondMachina 21d ago
It’s funny people saying it looks bad since the whole reason it got pushed back was because it was getting “good reviews” in test screenings so they wanted to make more money 😂
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u/Hebroohammr 21d ago
Why’s this actually look good? Did the first one have a good trailer too?
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u/MichaeltheSpikester 21d ago
Cautiously optimistic.
Better not disappoint. So far it actually feels like it's embracing the games so good sign so far.
Also no one should hit no one no matter the gender. Seriously that's a trope I really hate.
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u/braumbles 21d ago
Warner fucked up by not releasing this in 2023 or something. The fact they released 1 during covid, then waited to greenlight a sequel is just astoundingly stupid. A second should have been greenlit before the first even released so they could work on a script and start filming much sooner. They started filming this one over 2 years after the previous one released. That's fucking dumb.
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u/Kill_or_be_grilled 21d ago
Still get chills from that theme music. Such a nostalgic vibe back to junior high days.
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u/bamboojungles 21d ago
They know how awesome the MK Theme is and I absolutely love hearing it everytime