610: Mortal Kombat II (4DX Theater Experience)

[00:00:00] Hello everybody, welcome back to the Film Buds Podcast. This is episode number 610 and my name is Henry. This time around, I'm going to be tackling Mortal Kombat II and I will also be discussing my first ever experience in 4DX.

[00:00:19] The film is directed by Simon McCoyd, stars Carl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Martin Ford, Taddy Gabriel, Jessica McNamee. And the synopsis is, the fan-favorite champions, now joined by Johnny Cage himself, are pitted against one another in the ultimate battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

[00:00:46] Warning, there will be spoilers coming ahead so just be aware. But I think I will talk about 4DX first. So, like I said, I had never been to 4DX before. I had been meaning to get around to it. I was always just kind of weary, heard mixed things. I still think IMAX 2D is the way to go for any film, doesn't matter what genre. Let me know what you think of 4DX. I'd be curious to know why you like it, why you dislike it.

[00:01:12] I actively hated 4DX. More than anything, I just found it very tiring. It felt like, what I told my wife when I left the theater, it felt like I got on a roller coaster and then the brake mechanism broke and I was stuck on it for two hours, just going endlessly.

[00:01:28] I liked more of the subtle touches to 4DX. For example, there's a scene in a garden where one of the characters is clipping flowers from a plant and you get this floral wind blowing through the theater. I thought that was really cool. Or there was a night scene where there's a rainstorm and you get cool, kind of moist air blowing. If there were slow-mo sequences of some character walking in a really epic way or landing from a jump, you felt that in your seat.

[00:01:58] And I really, really disliked the air blowing from the back of my head. That just gave me a headache. But there's so much twisting and twirling and jumping and slicing that the movements of the chair didn't even make that much sense. I just felt like I was being thrown around and I couldn't even focus that much on what was happening. So I feel like I missed a good bit because I was hanging on for dear life.

[00:02:21] I don't know how people bring food and drinks into 4DX. Like, a lot of people around me were eating popcorn, sipping soda. I was just thinking that would have made me throw up. But hey, more power to you. All in all, glad I tried it, but it is not for me as of now. Of course, that had no bearing on the quality of the movie itself. We did review the first one back in 2021, I think is when it came out. I think that was in COVID. And I really, really disliked the first one.

[00:02:49] I thought it was one of my least favorite films of that year. And even with that negative feeling, I was still interested to see this one. I had heard okay things. A lot of people said it was a step up from the first one. And I would agree with that. I don't think it's going to be anywhere close to a top 10 list or something I would feel the need to really go soon and rewatch. But I think for what it is, it's fun. It's incredibly stupid, as you can imagine.

[00:03:16] I thought Carl Urban as Johnny Cage, who I've always liked Carl Urban. He was in Lord of the Rings. He's been in Marvel, Star Trek. I thought he was great. Everybody else kind of hit and miss. I thought the actress who played Katana was not great. This has a different screenwriter than the first one. But that's not necessarily a good thing, because I looked at his resume and he has Godzilla Kong, The New Empire, the Death Note Netflix movie,

[00:03:44] and the Fantastic Four reboot from about 10 years ago with Miles Teller. And I know that there might be a lot of super fans who might say, oh, well, it doesn't matter if the script is stupid. We're here for the action. We're here for the references. Which, you know, I'm in agreement. I'm there for that reason, too. I don't go to Mortal Kombat 2 for the plot, but I don't understand why we can't have strong writing and have good action.

[00:04:10] The plot is essentially, this showdown is going to decide the fate of the world. But they don't give any reason as to why. Yeah, this guy is trying to become a god, but they don't really ever say how he's actually going to destroy Earth or the Earthrealm. I can kind of put the pieces together, but if someone went in blind to this, there's no reasoning for that. And some of the character arcs, like Katana with her dad and wanting to avenge him,

[00:04:38] the relationship between her and Jade, they build it up and talk like they're sisters, like they really care about each other, but there's no resolution to that really. Very little development. And so if all the plot stuff doesn't matter, why are we focusing so much on it? That's what confuses me in terms of the defenders of films like this. On the more positive side, I think all the action is much better than the first one. Much better choreographed, better special effects, it's paced better.

[00:05:09] One thing, though, that I was a little disappointed by is this franchise or the video games are known for their gore, the crazy stylized violence. And the first one was pretty tame, I think. But this one, yeah, it had a few moments, but I think if you're getting the R rating, why not go all out? I don't know if that's a studio pushback that's not allowing them to do that, or they think less is more, but I feel like this should be the action equivalent of Evil Dead or something.

[00:05:38] because half the time, the showdowns end with characters sparing someone, and then you're like, well, that was lame. The Baraka character, the guy with the crazy teeth, I think that whole civilization or species, that was really well done, and I think it looked really good special effects-wise. A lot of the humor, I think, was not even so bad it's good, it was just really lame. There was a woman in the back of my theater who was cackling at the top of her lungs at every single moment

[00:06:07] that there was even a hint at something being funny. But, for example, the scene towards the beginning of the guy in the bar saying, wow, Johnny, you usually look way more animated. Like, come on, man. The Lord of the Rings reference towards the end by Carl Urban was brutal. Nothing against this guy, but I am a little curious as to why the director got the opportunity to direct both movies. They're okay in terms of the direction,

[00:06:35] the editing, but there's nothing really that great about them, and he doesn't have a big history of films before him. Three out of five.