Mortal Kombat II and What’s Making Us Happy

Mortal Kombat II brings back more of the unforgettable characters you might have grown up eviscerating. Based on the ultra-violent video game franchise, it centers the story on warrior princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and washed-up action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). And of course, there’s fighting. Lots and lots of fighting. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/letterboxd.com/nprpopculture http://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour https://plus.npr.org/happy See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from Rosetta Stone, offering an alternative approach to language learning. Without relying on traditional memorization, the platform guides users to intuitively think in a second language. More information at rosettastone.com.

• 0:19Stephen Thompson?

  The ultra-violent video game franchise Mortal Kombat has spun off into movies, comic books, a TV show, and more. Now, the latest sequel brings back more of the unforgettable characters you might have grown up eviscerating. I'm Stephen Thompson. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is Jordan Morris. He's a podcaster and co-writer of the Marvel comic series, The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-versity. Hey, Jordan.

• 0:44Speaker 02

  Hi, and just real quick, I told your producer that for this episode, I wanted to be introduced as Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris. So anyways, if you just want to take that again, or we could do it in post if you want to.

• 0:58Stephen Thompson?

  If anyone really starts to lose an argument in this conversation, I will, as host, be obligated to yell, "Finish him."

• 1:08Stephen Thompson?

  Also with us is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the Film and Television Review Podcast, Leaving the Theater. Hey, Ronald. Hello, Stephen. I'm normal.

• 1:16Stephen Thompson?

  So trying to summarize a movie like Mortal Kombat 2 can take you in some very different directions. You could go on and on about the lore of the outworld and the Earth realm and the epic battles that determine who might rule various realms, which doesn't even begin to touch on the various fighters and their backstories and fighting styles. But you could also sum up Mortal Kombat 2 in like three words. There is fighting. Because there is fighting on top of fighting on top of fighting with finishing moves that evoke memories of the Final Destination movies. The stakes for all of this very bloody fighting are extremely high. And also, there's an amulet. Everyone wants the amulet. As a movie franchise, Mortal Kombat was rebooted in 2021

• 2:00Stephen Thompson?

  when it became a pandemic-era streaming hit. So now we've got Mortal Kombat 2, which centers the action on Katana, a warrior princess played by Adeline Rudolph, and the washed-up action star Johnny Cage, played by Carl Urban. Listen, I'm warning you.

• 2:19Stephen Thompson?

  I got a Saturn Award for best fight in a feature film, so don't mess with me. So you've got your battles for the fate of the world. You've got your comic relief. You've got your spirit realms and you've got so much fan service. The new film is in theaters now. Jordan, I'm going to start with you. What did you think of Mortal Kombat 2?

• 2:39Speaker 02

  I regret to inform you that this movie absolutely whips butt and I loved every single second of it. I can see the poster now. Mortal Kombat 2 whips butt NPR.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  I am the target audience for this. The Mortal Kombat games were huge when I was a kid. You know, I've played every version. I play them now. They're still cranking them out. This is a collection of Easter eggs and references and music cues that I got and I loved every second of it. I totally had a blast. If you haven't played the games or the games mean nothing to you, should you see this movie? I would say probably not. I think if you're a huge martial arts fan, there's a lot of great fight choreography in this. So, you know, if you, if you love martial arts movies and your like, local indie theater is not showing an old Jackie Chan movie, I think this is a good option. But yeah, but I think this is the litmus test here. This movie features a zombie with a magic hat.

• 3:34Speaker 02

  When I say that, are you like, oh, cool? Or are you like, no, thanks? That's a pretty good indication as to whether or not you should see the movie.

• 3:42Stephen Thompson?

  Is the zombie with a magic hat a playable character?

• 3:45Speaker 02

  Right.

• 3:46Stephen Thompson?

  If you ask that.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly. So, you know, I think you will know pretty quick as to whether or not this movie is for you. But I think if you're curious, I think if, you know, if you love seeing all your old buddies, Kung Lao and Shao Kahn, Katana and Baraka, if these names mean something to you, I think you're going to have a pretty good time in this movie.

• 4:06Stephen Thompson?

  All right. How about you, Ronald?

• 4:07Speaker 03

  Okay, so I think this movie is way better than the first one that came out in 2021. However, I don't think the first one was very good. So that does not bode well for my opinion of this one. I didn't like it, the movie itself, that much. However, Jordan, sitting in the theater and listening to everyone else enjoy it was a really good time. And listening to the target audience tell me that they liked it is enough for me to justify its existence. And to say, make a hundred of these. I hope they make a billion dollars. Because for all the quibbles that we'll get into that I have with it, I have no issue with a movie like this existing. Because at times when it was fun, it was fun.

• 4:47Speaker 03

  But if you think about it for even just a little bit, just like one slight second, you start to realize two things. One, this movie makes no sense, but also the game really doesn't make any sense. And it was really just about gathering with your friends and having a good time on your super Nintendo Jordan. That's true. It was about hanging out with your friends, eating snacks and having a good time.

• 5:06Speaker 02

  I've got a solution to that. Don't think about it. Just don't.

• 5:12Speaker 02

  Just don't do it and you're fine.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  Fair point. Yeah, it's going to be fun for people who like it and Jordan is evidence of that. But if you have no connection to this franchise, I don't see how you'll end up liking this movie.

• 5:23Stephen Thompson?

  Right. I don't think there has been a clearer example in recent memory of a film where I can really kind of determine from talking to a person whether they should go see this movie. Like there is a very clear subset of the movie going audience that should go see this movie. And there is a very clear subset of the movie going audience that should not bother. And for me, like I came in, I did not really play Mortal Kombat. The original game came out when I was 20. I had just kind of gotten out of my Smash TV phase and not really into another video gaming phase. I just kind of stepped away from video games for a long time. I really kind of was only dimly aware of Mortal Kombat from a few catchphrases,

• 6:05Stephen Thompson?

  from a few characters who I mostly knew from characteristics more than backstory or name. So it's like the flame fist guy.

• 6:13Speaker 03

  Ah, old flame fist.

• 6:15Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, right. I was talking to my partner about this last night, having no idea that she had ever played these games. And she was like, well, tell me about the movie. And I was like, well, you know, there's like this washed up action star. Oh, Johnny Cage, you know?

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Come on, Steven.

• 6:29Stephen Thompson?

  Right, exactly. And so I'm not necessarily coming into these films with the backstory already uploaded into my brain. And so for me, was I lost? No, I was not lost. These films are fairly easy to follow in part because all that kind of portentous lore about different realms is being fed to me by Charlie Brown's teacher. Not only am I not like processing it, I am not hearing it. It is just want, want, want, want, want.

• 6:59Stephen Thompson?

  But then you get to these like incredibly bloody battles and like there's literally a scoreboard in the sky that tells you how the movie is progressing.

• 7:07Speaker 02

  Right.

• 7:08Stephen Thompson?

  All it really needed was like an actual line of like with like a score and like the little health meter.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  The health, right.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  The characters have their extra lives projected in the sky. At some point, I was just waiting for someone to say like, well, we can get an extra one if we collect a hundred coins.

• 7:29Speaker 03

  I would have been here for it, honestly. I would have been here for it.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 7:31Stephen Thompson?

  And at the same time, I mean, we talked about this a little bit. We kind of reconvened our fan service panel from Super Mario Galaxy for this conversation. There is an element of this film that feels a little bit like a playthrough. You know, where it feels a little bit like you're watching a video game and if that is not necessarily your bag, but if it wasn't your bag, you're probably not going to see Mortal Kombat 2. And so I did appreciate in this film, kind of as opposed to, I think, some of the other films in this series, not just the 2021 film, but the films from the 90s. There is this sense, I think, a little bit more of like they're going for a certain amount of meta self-awareness here. And kind of creating a little bit of a permission structure for some of the sillier and more portentous stuff,

• 8:16Stephen Thompson?

  some of the really, really clunky dialogue. And one of the ways that they kind of get you to that point is with that Johnny Cage character played by Carl Urban, who is very silly. He is a washed up action star, which gives you a chance to kind of set the film's vibe in that like silly direct to video, early 90s cop action genre.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  Steven Seagal.

• 8:40Stephen Thompson?

  Steven Seagal. Yeah, like, so it's it's kind of like having its cake and eating it too, where it's like commenting on these silly movies while being a silly movie. For me, it was constantly straddling the line of like, is this corny on purpose?

• 8:57Speaker 02

  I will say that I really liked the Carl Urban character, Johnny Cage. I think he did a good job.

• 9:02Stephen Thompson?

  Yes.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  Does he have the greatest American accent in the world?

• 9:06Stephen Thompson?

  He does not.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  But I thought it was really funny. I really liked, because he is supposed to be a Steven Seagal or a Chuck Norris, or one of these types of guys who's washed up. And they show some clips from his, like, probably direct-to-DVD action movies. And he has two catchphrases. One of them is, "It's showtime." And the other one is, "You should have sent more guys." So yeah, I think this movie gets what it is. I think that it is so similar to the Super Mario movie in a lot of ways, you know, despite one of them having multiple decapitations.

• 9:39Stephen Thompson?

  I mean, when I, when I say the gore is like Final Destination, I mean, there are some grisly kills in this movie.

• 9:45Speaker 02

  Someone already dying, and then further mutilating their body for no good reason, other than it looks cool. Like Super Mario, when they set out to make this movie, they didn't ask themselves, "But what if the Mortal Kombat games happened in real life?" They asked, "What are the fun things about these games, and how can we put them on screen?" The logic of the Mario movie is so great, because it's just like, Mario gets big when he gets a mushroom. We don't need to explain it, people know that. And this movie is just like, the guy shoots fire out of his hands, because that's what the guy does.

• 10:19Stephen Thompson?

  Because that's what that guy does.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  And yeah, and all the kind of crazier stuff. You know, there's probably a bad Studio Noteperson where they go into the physiology of fire guy's hands and stuff like that. But it understands that the game is fun, because people shoot fire out of their hands, so let's have that in the movie. And yeah, and that, I think, is the more fun choice.

• 10:39Speaker 03

  I agree with you. Just a note about Karl Urban.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  I've recently been watching a lot of him in The Boys, and I hate him so much as Butcher in The Boys. Hate him. Hate him to the point where I started to wonder, do I even like Karl Urban? And then watching this reminded me that he's acting, and he's a fairly good actor as well. And I say fairly good tongue-in-cheek. I think he's a great actor. And I think watching him kind of endeared me to him a little bit more, because I started to remember all of the other roles in which I liked him in. I remember that he has a whole spectrum of roles. He's so fun in this film. He's very funny. They give him a lot to do. But the one drawback- Back, I would say is this movie seems to be confused about who the star of the movie is. At some point, I'm thinking, is this Katana's story or is this Johnny Cage's story?

• 11:27Stephen Thompson?

  I mean, it's both.

• 11:28Speaker 03

  It kind of is, but at some point, I think towards the end and the climax of the film, I remember watching it. And thinking, am I watching a Johnny Cage coming of age story or am I watching a Katana coming of age story? And I felt like because I was watching both, it drew away from me caring about them. But then also because the stakes are so low. You know what I mean?

• 11:49Stephen Thompson?

  Oh, the stakes are so low.

• 11:50Speaker 03

  If if you're gonna zombify people after they die, then I don't know how much I care about their origins in that way. So I'm glad they didn't go deeper into that. They just basically say washed up actor, here's Johnny Cage, let's go. And I'm fine with that. Steven, I think you're right in terms of the parts of it that seem like they're wink, wink to the audience, kind of like tongue in cheek. Or I said, uh, that was Sharknado-y.

• 12:12Stephen Thompson?

  Right.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  Sharknado is in on the bit. Sharknado was 100% in on the bit. There was a few times with this movie where I was thinking, I don't think that you're actually in on the bit. Just a few, like, like you said, shaggy elements of dialogue, strange story beats. If you're gonna be fun and ridiculous, I'm totally good with that. But if you're also trying to give me an emotional story, then I always would be like, all right, guys, come on, man. I don't need any emotion from Katana.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  You could be using this real estate to chop off more heads.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  Perfect, Jordan. Yes, exactly that.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Yes, we don't need to hear about Katana's daddy issues. She could be chopping off people's heads.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Correct. Why aren't you chopping off more heads?

• 12:50Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah. Right. Spare me the emotional beats. A film like this is never going to get the emotional beats right. But I think it is very, very smart that they leaven this film with a certain amount of silliness. And that they leaven this film with a few jokes. And I think the jokes are a little, I don't know if it was punched up at some point. But I think the jokes surrounding Johnny Cage generally work so much better than the extremely serious kind of stentorian dialogue about the fate of the universe. And so like, if anything, they could have gone a little silliness. But when you talk about who's the star of this story, the star of the story honestly is the like little scorecard in the sky.

• 13:28Speaker 03

  Rocka.

• 13:30Stephen Thompson?

  You know, the star of the story is there is fighting.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. It is so great to have Carl Urban here because he is a star. He is a good actor. He can deliver a joke. He is funny. I would say that most of the cast has been cast because of their martial arts skills and hotness.

• 13:46Stephen Thompson?

  Sure.

• 13:47Speaker 02

  And that is a fine reason to cast somebody in a movie like this. I'm not, it is very fun to watch them fight and be hot.

• 13:54Stephen Thompson?

  Yes, agreed.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  But it is nice to have a Carl Urban there who can kind of, you know, deliver some of that expository dialogue, who can nail some of these jokes pretty hard.

• 14:03Stephen Thompson?

  And serve as an audience surrogate.

• 14:05Speaker 02

  Of course. Yeah, totally.

• 14:06Stephen Thompson?

  Cause like, really, he's like just a guy.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  He's just a guy.

• 14:08Stephen Thompson?

  You know, he has martial arts training, but he doesn't have powers. He doesn't shoot flame from his fists. I had one more question that I wanted to ask y'all as like, you both have played Mortal Kombat, right?

• 14:19Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Yesterday, in fact.

• 14:23Stephen Thompson?

  Jordan's like, I'm playing right now, actually.

• 14:25Speaker 02

  I have another screen open in our Zoom and I am currently.

• 14:29Stephen Thompson?

  Because I feel like there is, this is a useful litmus test, right? Like, choose your fighter. Who is your Mortal Kombat fighter? And what do you think that says about you?

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 14:41Stephen Thompson?

  Or maybe you tell me your fighter and I'll try to tell you what it says about you.

• 14:45Speaker 03

  I like both versions.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  I like this. Honestly, I do use Johnny Cage whenever he is available in these games. I like him. And, you know, in addition to being an everyman, he also has a lot of, you know, fireball moves which help keep distance between you and the opponent, Stephen, that's so important. These games are about distance.

• 15:02Speaker 03

  Hmm, that's key.

• 15:03Speaker 02

  But yeah, I will say I am a, I am a Johnny Cage guy. Baraka in Mortal Kombat 2, obviously. You know, maybe she doesn't get a ton to do in this. Always good to see Sonya blade. Always good to see Sonya blade.

• 15:14Stephen Thompson?

  How about you, Ronald?

• 15:15Speaker 03

  I'll keep it short. Scorpion, get over here all day. I remember the, I fell in love with Scorpion because one of my neighbors, I watched him play through the entire game and he mastered the get over here. Started doing it to one with four arms, whose name I never remember.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  About Goro?

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Yes, Goro. I remember he's get over here in Goro and beating the game. It was amazing to watch. So Scorpion all day for me.

• 15:37Stephen Thompson?

  Nice. As I said, I have not. Really played the Mortal Kombat games. My trick in fighting games typically is to pick the kind of tankiest brute smart and then just like get in close and whale on people. That is kind of your button mashiest approach. And that is what has typically worked for me, unless I'm playing Super Smash Bros., in which case my tendency is to pick the most obscure character and then fall off of things. So.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  Good strategy. I like both strategies. That's why you fight on the ground.

• 16:08Speaker 02

  Always keep them guessing.

• 16:10Stephen Thompson?

  The three of us at some point in our lives, we live on separate coasts, but at some point, the three of us are going to get together and whale on each other in Mortal Kombat.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  Heck, yeah. We're OK. We're going to meet at Lamp Post Pizza, where I where I went after all my T-ball games.

• 16:24Stephen Thompson?

  In 1993.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Can't wait. I'm there.

• 16:27Stephen Thompson?

  All right, well, one day y'all will beat the hell out of me in this game. Up next, what is making us happy this week?

• 16:34Speaker 04

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• 16:38Speaker 00

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• 17:48Stephen Thompson?

  Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What is making us happy this week? Jordan Morris, hit me.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I am going to talk about a new comic book series that you can pick up at your local comic shop. This is Royals. It is a really, really cool kind of supernatural heist comic from two great creators. Derek Kirk Kim is the writer and Jacob Perez does the art. It is the story of two kind of mismatched brothers. You have a kind of a more introverted one and then you have a, you know, cool handsome, popular guy. And they have a psychic connection and they use that psychic connection to cheat at poker. So they enter all these high stakes poker games and use the psychic connection to cheat. And this, as you might imagine, gets them wrapped up in some mafia stuff. It is so funny. It is so fun to look at.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  It has these kind of beautiful, cartoony, expressive characters. It is set in Seoul, South Korea, so it has this like great setting. And yeah, I'm just having a blast with it. I think if you are someone who doesn't read a ton of comics, this is a great one to jump into. Yeah, but I think also if you are a regular comics reader, this is a blast. This is a very fun flavor. Yeah, it's fun, it's funny. And also the brother relationship at the center does have some like real emotional weight. So it is like, it's just been a home run so far. I think two issues are out now. So yeah, check out Royals at your local comic book shop.

• 19:14Stephen Thompson?

  Wonderful. Thank you, Jordan Morris. Ronald Young Jr., what's making you happy this week, buddy?

• 19:19Speaker 03

  Oh, man, it's your friends and neighbors, season two on Apple TV, which I know for some people is probably going to be a surprising take because I don't know how much buzz this show is getting, even though it got renewed for a third season ahead of its second season. I remember watching the first season and I believe I had to review it. And I remember thinking this show was okay, but then for some reason I couldn't stop watching it. I finished the whole first season. Season two comes and I'm thinking, oh, I gotta see what's happening to Jon Hamm's Andrew Cooper, who's a wealthy guy who loses his job that starts robbing houses. That's the entry point to the whole series. You think that being the premise that it's Going to end up just more closely following Coop most of the show, but because the show is kind

• 20:03Speaker 03

  of expanded to include everyone that lives in the neighborhood, everyone that's in his social circle. Most of them are getting these kind of cool arcs and and a lot more fleshed out character development. And I started to think, I was like, what is the show pinging for me? And I realized it's pinging Desperate Housewives. It's Desperate Housewives, but almost like a modern retelling of from the perspective of the dudes or including more perspective from the dudes, because there's a lot of perspective from the of the women in the show as well. So I'm really enjoying it and I enjoy watching it, not binging it, one episode at a time. I look forward to watching it that hour a week, every week. So your friends and neighbors available on Apple TV. Just give it a chance.

• 20:44Stephen Thompson?

  Nice. Thank you, Ronald. I'll have to check that out. Once I'm done watching 50 seasons of Survivor.

• 20:50Speaker 03

  You chose that path.

• 20:52Stephen Thompson?

  I did. I have no one to blame but myself. All right. So for the past few weeks, I have been absolutely super served with new music by artists I love. Huge records by Noah Khan and Kacey Musgraves have been refilling the tank where I keep my most tortured feelings. But now I've also got a brand new record full of big, bright, summery joy and a few sharp edges along the way to keep things interesting. It's the first album in four years from one of my favorite bands, Muna. It's out today. It's called Dancing on the Wall, and this is the title track.

• 21:46Stephen Thompson?

  That song has been stuck in my head for the entirety of spring. Every once in a while, a piece of music just straight up dictates the mindset that I take into summertime. Muna's self titled record from four years ago did that for me. And I'm setting an intention right now that Dancing on the Wall is going to do the same. This is going to be the summer I finally step outside.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  Let's go. I'll see you out.

• 22:08Stephen Thompson?

  I have been hearing great things about the outdoors. I'm gonna rock this record at barbecues, at pride parties, at sweaty summer hangs, at my friends' houses. I'm already loving it so much. That is Muna. Their new album is called Dancing on the Wall. That is what is making me happy this week. And that brings us to the end of our show. Jordan Morris, Ronald Young Jr. Thanks so much for being here.

• 22:31Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh. Thanks for having us. Stephen, when you finally get outside, you're gonna love the breeze. Check out the breeze. That's my little tip to you.

• 22:40Stephen Thompson?

  Thanks for having me, Stephen. This episode was produced by Hafsa Fathama and Mike Katsof and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reed. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. If you're not already following the show, do that right now. I'm Stephen Thompson. We will see you all next week.

• 23:02Speaker 00

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Rosetta Stone, offering an alternative approach to language learning. The app guides users to intuitively think in a second language using images and contextual audio, mimicking how people acquire speech as children. The platform also includes advanced speech recognition technology that compares a learner's pronunciation directly with native speakers to refine accent precision. Learn more about their immersion method and the new Rosetta Stone Sapphire app at rosettastone.com.

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