My love for Mortal Kombat started in my early teenage years, when the only gas station in town (VIP) added a new arcade machine that took all too many of my quarters. This fandom continued with sleepovers with my buddies, spending far too many late night hours attempting to master each fatality as we played the games on the Sega Genesis. My interest in every 90s parent’s worst nightmare still continued as the original PG-13 movie released in 1995.
It’s now been over 25 years since then and we’ve seen 10 game sequels, one atrocious movie sequel, and a handful of web shorts dedicated to the series. We’re now getting a relaunch of the franchise on the big screen as it hits theaters and HBO Max today.
Mortal Kombat acts as a Dawn of Mortal Kombat, of sorts. It follows Cole Young (Lewis Tan) as he finds himself marked and destined to be a warrior in an upcoming fighting tournament that may decide the fate of Earth. Yet, before the tournament, the evil Shang Tsung has sent his minions to kill any would-be (k)ombatants. To stay alive, Cole must align himself with the defenders of Earth including Lui Kang, Sonya Blade, Kung Lao, Jax, Kano, and Raiden.
If that all sounds silly, you may not be ready for a world where four-armed giants and blasting energy bracelets exist.
Let’s take this review in rounds as the game does.
Round 1 – Fight!
Mortal Kombat allows you to check your brain in at the door, and if it sees you hesitate, it may very well do you the favor of forcefully removing it for you. The plot of the franchise has always taken a back seat to the high levels of pixelated blood and violence displayed on screen.
The story here is very simple. It spends most of its time uniting the squad, with seemingly little time for a montage to find their inner powers. The villains are relentless and don’t care much for personal growth. In all honesty, I’m glad they are, because it helps with the pacing. As much fun as it was to see very specific cheap moves from the games shown here, the training battles were a weak appetizer leading to a better feast later on.
The stories leads up to what could be a tournament, but we never get to see the fun mythology that goes into what Mortal Kombat actually is. It’s disappointing because there’s no real through-line that ties the plot together. The tourney typically brings the canon together and, while campy, it expands the purpose of what these characters fight for.
Mortal Kombat rests heavily on its R-rating through language and its unfair share of blood and death. There were times when I was shaking my head at some of the horrible dialogue and delivery, but two seconds later, found myself guiltily giggling at the ridiculously awesome “Fatalies.”
This round is won by a scratch because the movie does pay off with some of its more spectacular fight scenes and the blood the franchise is known for.
Round 2 – Fight!
Mortal Kombat…we really need to talk about your focus on characters. You had all the factors that could have led to a flawless victory, but instead put all the focus on a new character with all the charisma of Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo.
The movie starts off with its best scene – the original tragic battle between the rivals that would come to be known as Scorpion and Sub-Zero. In just a few short minutes, we have more emotion than this kind of movie deserves. Had the movie spent more time on these two characters and their eternal rivalry, it would have been far stronger.
The original installment had Liu Kang as its lead, whereas this version of him felt like nothing more than a side character that gives exposition. Truthfully, there’s a lot of wasted potential here as one-dimensional characters are introduced for little more than fan service. I wish more time was spent on a smaller group of heroes, giving each character more time to be fleshed out.
The movie really, really wants the audience to put names to the faces. There should be a drinking game to match every time a character is introduced with a bombastic score as their name is said. After a dozen introductions, I couldn’t help but laugh whenever I heard something like “Call me… Sub-Zero”, “Oh him, that’s just Kano.”, or “Shang Tsung, you evil wizard, leave now.” Hey screenwriters, we get it and we know who these characters are. That’s why we’re here.
The one character that makes this entire movie is somehow… Kano. This brash Aussie steals every scene he’s in. Sure, he’s wildly inappropriate, but he’s exactly what this movie needed.
Round two is drowning in mediocre character types, but Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Kano somehow eek out a win.
Mortal Kombat is the kind of movie that I wish I could get away with when I was 14 and watching the original. It’s unapologetically rated R and has some fun action. It felt like I was reading a supplementary graphic novel that leads up to where the story should go. I hope that MKII doubles down on the fatalies and provides better characterization, so we can actually be invested if characters die. It’s worth watching for the nostalgia and fun of it all, but not much more. It attempts the quick button combo to perform a winning fatality, but in truth it just barely wins with a slightly disappointing leg sweep. C+
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