Mortal Kombat II just released its first trailer, and while it has generated quite a bit of excitement for the long-awaited sequel, one major complaint is the fact that a lot of the visual effects and CGI sH๏τs look pretty underwhelming, while some of them look entirely unfinished.

While bad effects are never make-or-break for a movie, Mortal Kombat II‘s trailer showed that a lot of the movie is going to rely on these visual effects, especially the bigger action scenes. This seems to be following along with modern trends of existing in nearly entirely computer-generated environments.

However, this issue didn’t just extend to the fight scenes. Even some of the basic green-screen effects present during some of the dialogue exchanges looked unnatural. Considering how much of the movie is going to take place in these kinds of environments, that does not bode very well for its full release.

There’s Still Time For Mortal Kombat 2’s CGI To Improve

The Movie Still Has Plenty Of Time Before Its Release

The movie still isn’t going to be out until October, which means that the visual effects artists and designers still have plenty of time to make changes to the final product. This means potentially fixing or just touching up some of the less believable effects.

Mortal Kombat II wrapped filming in January of this year, so by the time it hits theaters, it will have had ten or so months of post-production, which is a pretty solid amount of time for a movie like this. With only a few months left, they don’t have time for any mᴀssive changes, but can still make a lot of small adjustments.

If the film isn’t able to solve this issue, then it will likely fall pretty flat, as the fights in Mortal Kombat are obviously the biggest draw. If every other sH๏τ is destroying the immersion of a fight scene due to bad effects, then the movie will be dragged down pretty significantly.

While the first Mortal Kombat reboot movie in 2021 wasn’t incredibly well-received by critics, audiences were pretty happy with it. It managed to succeed at creating interesting and engaging fight scenes, alongside some very fun performances, which made up for the lackluster writing.

While the sequel seems like it may have similar problems in the writing and storytelling department, introducing Karl Urban as Johnny Cage into this universe already makes this movie very exciting. If the creative team can touch up the film’s visuals, then Mortal Kombat II could prove to be an even bigger success than the first.

Mortal Kombat II is set to release in theaters worldwide on October 24, 2025.