Bucky

This film left me so perplexed that I needed a whole day to think about it. In comparison to the first film, this feels like more of a faithful adaptation of the MK story. BUT the layout, structure, and even smaller things like introducing characters into scenes, or scene establishments are pretty much non existent (eg. when Kitana meets Johnny Cage, she doesn’t teleport in front of him but instead just walks into the scene, so we don’t even get an *out of water* reaction from Johnny for when he meets her). I can see why they rushed a lot of things, considering we already went through the “*I shouldn’t even be here*” story with Cole Young in the first movie, but in hindsight it feels like this should’ve been the first movie of this franchise. There’s even a moment where Sonya just lore dumps to Johnny, so it feels so inauthentic and clunky. Oddly, I think there are less plot holes here than the first film. Like there’s some stupid stuff like they brought back Kano because he has Shinnok’s amulet (and they don’t even bother explaining what that item is to casual viewers), even though they could’ve looked through his dead body to find it, but they needed to bring him back because the fans loved him (annoying that they didn’t give him his cyber eye and he just gets his powers back anyway). But also they brought back Kano and Bi-Han, but no Goro or Kabal?? Also Earthrealm definitely lost in the end, and Kitana switching sides shouldn’t mean anything (but then again, is it a Mortal Kombat tournament if the rules don’t make sense?) The acting was just okay. The dialogue sort of let the film down by basically not trying to add anything too complex to the narrative, and this also makes it hard for me to judge Karl Urban as Johnny Cage. This variant of the character is pretty unique compared to his other media counterparts, by not only making him an out of work actor, but also making him slightly older and depressed. And comparing his character from *Mortal Kombat 1*, he just feels super less charismatic and quippy (and I’d imagine it didn’t help that they brought back Kano, and he was a fan favourite from the previous movie), and I feel like Urban couldn’t quite do his Hollywood accent, so I can’t see why they couldn’t get a younger actor and just say that he’s struggling to find work (just say that his filmography is based on nonsensical projects like *Sharknado*). You’d think that Johnny would’ve been the main character going into this film, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually Kitana. Although her story is a basic revenge narrative, it’s honestly the most compelling one out of all the characters. I’m glad that the film was willing to kill off some characters, but it also didn’t feel like their deaths had an effect on the story. For example, I thought that Jax’s death would’ve been witnessed by Jade, and this would’ve been the cause of her *face turn*.  Also no one brought up to Scorpion that Shao Kahn killed his defendants that helped him avenge his family? There’s definitely more attention with the action, and it’s amplified by the set design (the latter being a huge improvement from the previous). Liu Kang vs. Kung Lao could be my favourite out of the whole bunch, just by lingering on that long shot while the crew had to pretend that they’re shooting fireballs and a razer blade hat is chasing after them. Even that first fight was great, and it’s awesome that we finally get to see how King Jerrod fought to protect his world. Right now I’ll rank this film above the first one, but I love this franchise so much that I really wish that I was in the writers room just to give my own thoughts on the story.

I’ll admit that the jumpscares really got me. You put a giant face covering screen, with really loud sound effects, and yeah you got that* Scary Maze Game* effect. Story wise, I thought it was decent at times, really reminding me of *Silent Hill *(and what the *Return to Silent Hill* movie could’ve been). But admittedly, I didn’t see how the witches stuff deepened the story, like the main character’s relationship with his dead parents, etc.

I feel like becoming that “*Way to go Squidward” *meme whenever they try to call Anne Hathaway ugly. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first film, but now it’s either I can’t vibe with this franchise or I just hate how snobbish the fashion industry is. There’s even a character who’s meant to be a tech bro pro-AI businessman, but the film hardly boosts the artistic integrity of the fashion industry for me to not consider that they’re not as bad as them. Also, I feel like they regressed Anne Hathaway’s character. I was under the impression through that first teaser that she’ll become her own *girl boss* and be on the same league as Streep’s character. Instead she goes back to working for Meryl Streep, and is basically begging for her approval?? They even slightly teeter on her writing an exposé on her, but it’s so obvious where that leads. What annoys me is that we don’t get told what exactly she’s written as a journalist for the company, only that she miraculously saved the business from online cancellation because… she’s that good of a reporter, I guess?? And she even stays in the company full time, but what happened to her wanting to be a serious journalist from the first film? Is being a fashion journalist enough to satisfy her? Usually a lot of films have passable editing for me, but there were a few moments where I felt like I had to nitpick badly. Like there was this zoom-out shot of Anne Hathaway running outside of a church so she can quickly find Emily Blunt’s character, so my 2 problems with it are that it lingered for too long, and I think it should’ve been a zoom-in shot instead. I’m guessing the idea was that she’s making the effort to run when it’s clearly a long journey ahead, but I think that doing it the other way really drives home that effect.

Regardless of how you feel about the secret, we can all agree that Rachel was the real villain of the story (like each of their stories had them mention hurting someone, while Emma’s was about almost doing something). I’ve been eyeing this film for so long, especially when it’s the first A24 film with a marketing budget, and I’m so glad to be back in the UK to watch it.  I really enjoyed how droll it was, but the scenes were consistently serious. Which could link back to how this couple used to make each other laugh to get out nerve racking situations, but Emma’s secret changed that dynamic. The photography scene was definitely the peak moment for that lol. In terms of stuff that did sort of bug me was how Charlie just couldn’t accept that Emma had changed since the time placement of her story. I get that he wanted to know the full details, but at the same time I think she did a good job of explaining things, so I wasn’t sure what questions he wanted to be answered. Like I was hoping the film would have him challenge himself in figuring out the worst thing he had done, and whether it was as bad as Emma’s story. Or maybe there was a plot twist where he was in the other end of a similar story that Emma told, so that’s where his issues stem from. Well anyway, I had a fun time. I just hope A24 can pump up their release schedule.