Insert coin to continue? That’s exactly what New Line Cinema did to produce a sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot, based on the video game franchise of the same name.

This time around sees a new addition to the fighting roster with Karl Urban playing the one and only Johnny Cage.

Just about to take place on Outworld is the decisive tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, that can have a realm tumble to the dark side.

This finds Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) keen to put together the ultimate fighting team, so that they can try and prevent Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) get his evil way once again.

One of his decisions is a curious choice, as he visits the Earthrealm to meet with washed-up Hollywood action star Johnny Cage (Urban) in a bid to recruit him, but he’s not interested.

He does come around to the idea however, and soon finds himself fighting not only to save himself, but Earth too.

Due to the fact this fighting franchise doesn’t exactly have a solid backbone of a narrative – it’s a 2D fighting game after all, these screenplays for these two films have to cobble enough gobbledygook together to give the fighting a reason to exist. And just like the first, this one does that – just.

Does it make sense? Not really, but it really doesn’t have to, as long as there are number of set piece fighting sequences to keep it entertaining, that get very physical indeed.

It seems an odd choice for Urban, who despite all his good work to date, by playing McCoy in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, and his outstanding contribution as Billy Butcher in the visceral Amazon Prime show The Boys, still hasn’t been able to establish himself as a Hollywood A-lister. And this doesn’t change that. What it does is add someone with acting chops into a fighting frenzy of a film, with a supporting cast known more for the their physical prowess rather than acting skills, so it gives some necessary balance.

Simon McQuoid shows his commitment to the material – that, or not being able to helm another feature – as he returns to the director’s chair for this one. So essentially it is more of the same.

It’s good that Urban is in this one, as it needs his light touch, especially in the CGI-heavy world that they all exist in. It’s the kind of thing that could easily have all been shot on the Volume 360-degree stage in California (where most of The Mandalorian was shot) as actual location shooting is very rare.

With it pretty much breaking even on the box office front, it’s teased third entry isn’t a sure thing as yet, so New Line Cinema will be probably be holding onto their coins before pumping it into another sequel.

It’s safe to say that if you did enjoy the first film, there’s a fighting chance that this one will be for you too.