Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II is the best-reviewed live-action entry the franchise has ever had, which says more about the bar than the movie — 68 percent from critics against 90 percent from over 500 audience ratings tells you where its real fanbase sits. Simon McQuoid brings back nearly the whole cast (Hiroyuki Sanada, Joe Taslim, Jessica McNamee, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han) and adds Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, a casting choice that alone drove record views on the red-band trailer. Critics single out sharper action choreography while still knocking the story for going nowhere. It opened to $40 million domestic and $63 million worldwide — solid for an R-rated property that was never going to out-earn the PG-13 crowd around it.