Mortal Kombat II’s Shocking Death Makes the Action Movie Way Better

Mortal Kombat II has been much more well-received than the first film, with fans already looking forward to a third entry. One of the reasons for that, specifically, is a surprising death that ends up making the movie much better than the first.

Mortal Kombat’s surprise moment was the right choice

In 2021’s Mortal Kombat, fans were introduced to Cole Young. Young, a descendant of Scorpion, was the movie’s everyman, a character that served as a stand-in for non-fans of the series to get to know. The problem with that is mostly everyone who watched Mortal Kombat was a fan, so the introduction of Young (a wholly original creation for the movies) was not met well. The team behind the second movie handles this rather quickly.

During the beginning of Mortal Kombat II, we’re reintroduced to Cole Young, now serving as one of several champions of Earthrealm. As the 10th and potentially final tournament for Earthrealm begins, Young is one of several fighters ready to compete. However, it’s here that things take a surprising turn for the better. About a quarter of the way through the movie, Young is summoned to fight Shao Khan, who, unbeknownst to Cole, has recently been imbued with immortality thanks to having stolen and powered up Shinnok’s amulet.

During their fight, Young is killed. The character does initially “beat” Shao Khan, giving him a seemingly dignified exit, but Khan quickly heals and turns the table on Young. The moment left fans surprised at how the star of the last film was quickly defeated.

Although it did come across as surprising, killing off Young in the movie was the right move. Much of the criticism of the 2021 Mortal Kombat stemmed from the fact that the film had little to do with the actual games. The movie tried its best to fit in references to the legendary fighting game franchise, but never really adhered to it. That’s not the case here, though, as the second movie fully scraps a lot of the disliked aspects of 2021’s film (including the Arcana plotlines) in favor of a more straightforward movie all about, well, mortal combat.

The dislike of Young is no fault of someone like Lewis Tan, who performed the role of Young well enough. Rather, it was the decision to create the character in the first place. The world of Mortal Kombat is a vas one, filled with legendary character fans already have grown attached to. Getting to see them in the sequel, as we do with a number of characters, was much more fun, and gave audiences more of a reason to be invested in what happens.

Source: Comingsoon.net