I was really into season 1, so I was expecting to enjoy season 2 a lot. But I didn't. In fact, though no, it's not quite as bad as Annihilation, or some other MK products, it was pretty bad!
These were some of my issues with it:
Is the Stryker from this season supposed to be the Stryker from the last? Is it just me, or is there, like, zero correlation between the two? They seem to be one foot in and one foot out in how much they're re-imagining the characters. It'd be easier to be stoked about this relatively accurate depiction of Stryker and Scorpion if some of the others weren't SO different. I don't mind re-imagined characters, but you gotta go all the way with it. I'm all about bad ass bar-fightin' Liu Kang, but when he's getting tasererd by this retconned Stryker, I can't get invested, because I don't know the guy. I know the other guy: The Dollhouse/Battlestar Galactica guy who bosses Jax around and wears a nice tan suit. That guy and tasers and pep talks to Johnny Cage don't jive right. It's a completely new character, and I won't feel anything when he's dead.
The realism in this one is totally ed. There is a slow transition occuring with every iteration of this product from this very gritty, realistic, Se7en-esque re-imagining to the cheesy effects-driven, unnecessarily flipping, arbitrarily magical thing that was MK Annihilation. I feel like with the first season they hit a near-perfect balance. With the exception of the Mileena/Kitana episodes, everything seemed grounded, and somewhat plausible. We see that Rayden inhabits human bodies to be corporeal. We see that Sub-Zero's ice and Scorpion's spear can exist in this reality without looking cheesy or offensive. We see the cyborgs and cybernetic devices from the game implemented realistically and believably. But then this thing? Everyone teleports to the island in a cool-guy pose. How did they get there? If we believe the previous scene, they got there through some kind of weird meditation. Meditation that lifts dumpsters for some reason. Meditation that changes your clothes, and makes sure you land in a cool fighting pose with all your weapons out. In literally every other incarnation they get there by boat. There is nothing wrong with boats. Boats are awesome. In season 2 we immediately learn that everybody has powers. EVERYBODY. So, cryomancy? Not a thing. Same with the Mediterranean cult origin to Johnny's abilities: Not a thing. Everybody has supernatural powers, and the island brings it out. Stryker only needs that taser 'cause he's yet to discover his secret laser shooting powers or whatever. Sure, Scorpion's a specter, but it doesn't matter! He probably would have discovered his teleporting ability even if he wasn't dead!
The effects, compared to season 1 especially, are unforgivably bad. Liu Kang throws fireballs that look like stock fire against a greenscreen compossited in with no camera tracking. There's 3D vomit at one point that was particularly offensive. Compare that to the amazingly impressive, convincing and very-much grounded cyborg fight from season 1, and the signs point to the sorry truth, and the reason behind most of these issues: The budget was axed, clearly. One of the exceptions to this was the effect of aforementioned floating dumpsters and teleporting, which made no sense anyway, so who cares? (Also, to be fair, all the gore looked pretty cool too)
Ermac tentacles: Whhyyyyyyyy??
How old are some of these characters? In legacy 1, the events never collide, so we never really have to believe that there's a cohesive story going on. I'm sure eventually I'll know why characters who expressly exist in different eras of Japanese history are all in the same present, but it's not explained here, so clearly, much like Kung Lao changing clothes after teleporting to the island, I'm just supposed to take it at face value.
Mortal Kombat is a tournament. They keep calling it a tournament. I couldn't believe how many times I heard the word "tournament". But because of the way this thing was formatted, I get to hear the word and know it's wrong simultaneously. In no sense of the word is what is presented on the island a 'tournament'. It is Battle Royale. The characters run around this island, engaging at random, with seemingly whatever resources or weapons they might have wanted to bring with them. Let's not even question why Johnny wouldn't bring a weapon at all. Let's instead question why, if there's two teams, each group fighting on the same side, why would they ever split up or engage seperately?? They're clearly allowed to engage simultaneously, so why wouldn't they? They could have solved this easily by doing a single-elimination tournament, like in literally every other iteration. But nope. It's the Hunger Games.
I didn't hate everything mind you. A lot of the episodes had great moments! But I felt like the crappy bits from the first season were the exception, and not the rule. I loved all the Liu Kang and Shang Tsung stuff, more or less. All the episodes had a good moment or two. The relationship between Scorpion and Sub-Zero was neat. The fights were neat. Johnny saying "You got Caged, " was neat. But they seemed like good moments in a sea of bad ideas.
There's somewhat of a consensus that the story mode of MK9 is probably the best representation we're ever going to get of this story. I believe that's true. But man, it would have been great to have gotten a really awesome live action version of that story. Oh well.
I was very excited about KTanch's new MK movie before I watched this. Now, not so much.
Coherency and continuity are non-existent things for the guys behind this.
