‘Mortal Kombat’ Review

Video game film adaptations typically range from ok to awful. More and more video games are getting adaptations either on the big screen or on television. There have been some decent entries recently such as Sonic the Hedgehog, however, there are also recent movies like Assassin’s Creed that set video game movies back. The latest adaptation of Mortal Kombat doesn’t break any barriers in terms of video game movies, but it does give viewers enough of what they would want to see in a Mortal Kombat movie. 

Premise

Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is a struggling MMA fighter who finds himself in a battle for the fate of our world. He and many others have been chosen as defenders of Earthrealm to fight in an ultimate tournament known as Mortal Kombat. 

The fights are done well

While the plot is thin, nobody is going to see a Mortal Kombat movie for its plot. You go to see some bloody, epic duels between a crazy roster of characters. For the most part, that’s what you get. Many of the fights are great and feature each character showcasing their unique powers in creative ways. 

It features some awesome fatalities that are sure to satisfy fans of the game with characters even quoting famous dialogue from the series. The best fights typically involve Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), who are both standout characters. The opening fight gives us the background behind their rivalry and it’s a great scene that sets the tone for the film nicely. 

There are a few fights that don’t deliver. A couple of fights involve too much editing that makes it hard to tell exactly what’s going on. Some fights involve too much CGI that doesn’t always look completely finished. Director Simon McQuoid does create cool fights, but the hand-to-hand combat isn’t as good as many other recent action films. 

The story features odd decisions

While the fights & effects are much better than the 1995 version, the 1995 version had a much simpler plot, making the film easier to follow. Here, this film changes around the main story from the games. One odd choice is the tournament itself is not featured in this movie. We see the characters training for the tournament, but the fights themselves don’t take place within the rules of Mortal Kombat. 

The rules are more confusing here because the villains aren’t following them, but they experience zero consequences. This is obviously setting up for a sequel, which I would like to see, but it makes the fights themselves have little stakes. In the 1995 version, each fight had important stakes because our heroes needed to win the whole tournament. Here, we’re just watching the characters fight for the sake of it. Even the characters who die probably aren’t going to stay dead in the next movie.

Characters are hit and miss

Just like the games, this movie has a lot of characters and some are great while others are forgettable. Cole Young is the lead character who is the outsider. We gain information on this world at the same time he does. Unfortunately, Cole is rather bland. There isn’t much to distinguish himself from any other lead character in an action movie. Tan’s delivery is rather flat, but he isn’t given a great script to work with. 

Cole is an original character, but his character isn’t great enough to justify why they made him for this movie. The outsider character could’ve been either Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) or Johnny Cage (who isn’t in this movie) and it would’ve felt no different. Liu Kang is in this movie and I liked him, but he’s mostly sidelined for Young and his journey. 

In addition, characters like Shang Tsung (Chin Han) and Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) don’t feel as epic as they should. This can be said about many other characters including Goro, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), and Jax (Mehcad Brooks). 

Easily the best characters are Kung Lao (Max Huang) and Kano (Josh Lawson). Lao is given the best fatality and has some cool fight scenes. Kano is the comic relief and steals every scene he is in. His lines are very funny and that has a lot to do with Lawson’s performance, who’s clearly having a blast. 

Final verdict

Mortal Kombat is a perfectly entertaining 90 minutes. Is it great? No. If you wanted to, you could tear this movie to pieces. However, if you just want to watch a Mortal Kombat movie with some bloody fight scenes and cheesy dialogue, then that’s what you’ll get. I hope a sequel does come as I would like to see this new reboot get to the actual tournament. 

Final score: 6/10