{"id":65913,"date":"2026-05-18T16:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65913"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:59:43","slug":"movie-review-mortal-kombat-ii-and-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/18\/movie-review-mortal-kombat-ii-and-obsession\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Mortal Kombat II and Obsession"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            With \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d and \u201cMichael\u201d still ruling the domestic box office, I thought I\u2019d give this week\u2019s review spot to a couple of also-rans from the past two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMortal Kombat II\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            The 2021 \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d movie was a disaster that left fans disappointed for many reasons, not least of which was that it didn\u2019t feature any fights from the much-hyped tournament for universal supremacy. At least in \u201cMortal Kombat II,\u201d we finally get the tournament. Only the first round is done somewhat properly before the thing breaks down into cheating, sneak-attack shenanigans, but it can\u2019t be said that we are denied the tournament entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A new character, outstanding-fighter-turned-action-movie-star-turned-washout-at-both Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), is the audience surrogate into the five-on-five fighting series on a distant planet that will determine the fate of our world. Cage fights alongside Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Cole Young, (Leweis Tan), and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) under the mentorship of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) against the forces of the evil Shao Khan (Martyn Ford), such as his queen Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen), stepdaughter Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), her bodyguard Jade (Tati Gabrielle), and resurrected minions Kung Lao (Max Huang) and Kano (Josh Lawson). The first movie made another mistake killing off humoristic highlight Kano, fortunately this movie brings him back so he can steal the movie all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cMortal Kombat II\u201d is good at the things that fans want most from a \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d movie: it\u2019s creative with its fighting sequences and the jokes usually hit. But it\u2019s bad at the things that audiences want from movies of any genre: it\u2019s hard to care about many of these characters and the story is an overcomplicated mess that can\u2019t even stick to its own ridiculous rules. Like \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2,\u201d I admire the way this sequel steps up its game from an original that I didn\u2019t enjoy, but unlike that film, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m now \u201cwon over\u201d by this franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMortal Kombat II\u201d is rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, and language. Its running time is 116 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObsession\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            In 1992\u2019s \u201cAladdin,\u201d one of The Genie\u2019s few rules with wishes was that he couldn\u2019t make people fall in love. \u201cObsession\u201d is a movie about what happens when a wish for love is granted. It\u2019s a horror movie, and a nasty one. The Genie was right to have that rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Awkward dork Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes for the romantic love of his longtime friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) on a novelty willow stick. The wish comes true, Nikki is immediately smitten with him, and Bear reaps the rewards of her vehement affection. The woman Bear loves may not have any agency in the matter, and that\u2019s problematic if he thinks about it, so he decides not to think about it. But of course, things go south for Bear once Nikki starts inserting herself into every corner of his life and finding creepier and creepier ways to express her devotion. Her love becomes\u2026 wait for it\u2026 obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This movie gamely features some of the sickest scenes from a stalker thriller ever put to film, even if they borrow heavily from other stalker thrillers like \u201cFatal Attraction.\u201d And Navarrette puts in a horror performance for the ages, both when her character is and isn\u2019t under the magic spell. But the movie falters when the story has to give us something other than Nikki spinning further and further out of control. The ending (not Navarette\u2019s contribution to the ending, which is excellent, but the ideas that go into the ending) is a lazy letdown and ends what had previously been an engaging horror film on such a down note that I can\u2019t bring myself to recommend it as a whole. \u201cObsession\u201d doesn\u2019t lose my recommendation because of anything it \u201cdoes,\u201d but because of how much potential it leaves on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObsession\u201d is rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, pervasive language, and brief graphic nudity. Its running time is 108 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             With \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d and \u201cMichael\u201d still ruling the domestic box office, I thought I\u2019d give this week\u2019s review spot to a couple of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"13","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDUtMThUMTY1MDQ2LjAzNC1zY2FsZWQud2VicD9maXQ9NjkxJTJDMTAyNCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ik1vdmllIFJldmlldyAmIzgyMTE7IE1vcnRhbCBLb21iYXQgSUkgYW5kIE9ic2Vzc2lvbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.49jUPnrKkfVNTBiAYEaeNKimbkdcrrdrZlFTCYPx-x4MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9pbWFnZS0yMDI2LTA1LTE4VDE2NTA0Ni4wMzQtNjkxeDEwMjQud2VicCIsInR4dCI6Ik1vdmllIFJldmlldyAtIE1vcnRhbCBLb21iYXQgSUkgYW5kIE9ic2Vzc2lvbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.XPdmDnQEPjcCdDDRT9fs_ue_d52Zh8vAld6tAMjfL_wMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[14638],"class_list":["post-65913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review-mortal-kombat-ii-and-obsession"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65917,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65913\/revisions\/65917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}