This is a review that I’m going to handle a little bit differently than I usually do, as I try to solely give my opinion on something and not let outside forces sway it one way or another, but here I’m going to knock up my score just a tad with the caveat that this is a movie that’s more for fans of the game that have been starving for any sort of cinematic content to do with Mortal Kombat, and in turn may be a bit more forgiving. I’ve been a fan of Mortal Kombat since I was a kid. I remember going to the arcade and playing the original, even though I was terrible. I remember there being a code I had to punch in on the Sega Genesis to turn the sweat a red colour because the blood had been disabled, and I was a big fan of the 1995 Mortal Kombat flick by Paul W.S. Anderson.
So when it was announced that we’d be getting a new Mortal Kombat film in 2021, and that it’d be rated R, I was excited. With films like The Raid, John Wick, 13 Assassins, Atomic Blonde, Upgrade and countless others, where the action is so crazy and over-the-top, and the fight choreography is so fluid and mesmerizing, how absolutely insane will an updated Mortal Kombat film be?! It turns out, not so much.
One of the biggest issues that Mortal Kombat faces is that it’s more worried about setting the stage for potential sequels than it is about making a solid first film. This has been an issue for a long while now, ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe really took off. Every studio wants to have their own universe to build a franchise off of; however, it’s not that easy. Universal proved that by taking the hugely popular Universal Monsters and trying to set up a Monster-verse by cramming loads of exposition into The Mummy instead of simply trying to make a good movie to build off of in the future.
If the first Iron Man film had Samuel L. Jackson show up in the middle of it and go on a giant rant about the Avengers, huge threats to the planet, and how important Tony was to it all the film would’ve suffered because of it. Instead, Marvel focused on making a strong first film and while small seeds would be planted that the potential MCU could grow from, it didn’t hinder the story being told and a sequel didn’t have to happen to make sense of it all because the movie stood on its own as should always be the case when introducing a potential franchise.
Unfortunately, Mortal Kombat follows the same route of just assuming that there will be sequels, as co-writer Greg Russo said he viewed this reboot as a trilogy, and this film was made to set up the inevitable tournament that would come in the second film. Well, that’s just a ridiculous way to approach a series unless you’ve somehow figured out a way to properly make this film work without the main thing that people expect from anything Mortal Kombat. It turns out they didn’t.
The movie starts off nicely, back in 17th-century Japan, where a group of Lin Kuei assassins attack their rivals in the Shirai Ryu ninja clan. The leader of the Lin Kuei clan, Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) wants to end the bloodline of his nemesis, Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), and actually succeeds in doing so in an incredibly bloody and gory battle. Well, almost succeeds, as we learn that Hasashi’s baby daughter was hidden away just in time and lives on. Then we flash-forward to the present day and the film never really recovers.
We’re introduced to MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan,) who is down on his luck but has a loving wife and daughter, so life isn’t all bad. Oh, except he has odd visions of a mysterious ninja who fans will instantly recognize as Scorpion (aka Hanzo Hasashi from earlier in the film.) Cole also has a dragon mark on his chest, which he’s always just viewed as a birthmark; however, it turns out this is actually a marker that decides who is a champion in an upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament that occurs once every generation.
I won’t go through everything, as there’s just a lot of bloated story that’s crammed in without actual information that helps make sense of it. I mean, luckily Cole is an MMA fighter, but what if he was just a guy who works in an office like me? I’d be like, “Oh, this is a crazy birthmark. I mean, a dragon? That’s just lucky as far as birthmarks go!” But really I’m destined to have to defend the earth realm in Mortal Kombat? I instantly collapse to the floor in my apartment upon walking in the door if the elevator is down and I have to walk up the eight flights of stairs, so I don’t think I’d fair to well against the champions of multiple realms in battles to the death.
Like these marks are things you’re born with, or you take on if you kill the person who has one, which is pretty illogical seeing as accidents happen all the time. That means there’s pretty much no rhyme or reason to who ends up fighting in these tournaments by the time they roll around, which is beyond silly. Then there’s the fact that Cole is just an incredibly lame character, and instead of taking on the role of Scorpion like it seems he’s destined to do, he instead just gains the power of a golden sweater that absorbs punches really well. It’s so anticlimactic and makes the character that much more meaningless.
Yes, these chosen champions must come together and train for the upcoming tournament because if the Earthrealm loses this 10th tournament in a row, then Outworld (the evil realm) will take it over. So Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) brings everyone to a temple to train and unlock their arcana. You see, in the Mortal Kombat video games the characters do crazy things, like Kano can shoot a laser out of his eye, and Sonya Blade can fire off and manipulate projectiles made out of pink energy; however, that’d be silly for them to just be able to do, so instead they have to unlock it via training. I actually don’t mind the idea of arcana being some mystical thing that unlocks these powers for our heroes so that they can actually do crazy moves, or fire off magical projectiles or fireballs, as that fits into the world we know and gives a logical reason behind these humans being able to do these things.
But with that said, the way that arcana is used in the film is just so inconsistent and boring that it becomes frustrating. So much time is spent with these characters trying to unlock their powers that we don’t really care about anything that’s happening. I mean, that’s basically the movie: a group of heroes chosen to defend the earth get together to try and learn powers so they can do so. It’s the classic trope of heroes being beaten down repeatedly until the movie is almost over so now they have to turn it around just because. How did they all of a sudden get good enough to do something they couldn’t do twenty minutes earlier? Because the third act is underway, that’s how!
While it was cheesy in its own right, the 1995 version at least happened during the tournament. Our heroes Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Liu Kang were all brought to the tournament by Raiden to fight for earth and they learned about what Mortal Kombat was and why they were chosen as they went along. By no means does that mean that it couldn’t have been improved upon, but they introduced the audience to these characters all while having the tournament taking place and learning about the backstory of Mortal Kombat at the same time.
In this reboot, however, Cole is around just so the audience has someone “learning alongside them” about how things work in this universe. It’s a baffling decision as there are countless established and admired characters in the franchise and they could have chosen any one of them to take on this hero role in the same fashion. That alone would’ve already made the movie better and gotten fans behind the protagonist. Yet the main goal here was to set things up for a sequel that was never guaranteed instead of making the best stand-alone Mortal Kombat film (that automatically has built-in sequel potential!!!) that they could.
As mentioned at the start, I’ll say that this is an average action movie that will mainly appeal to fans of Mortal Kombat who just want to see the characters they love on the screen in any fashion. The fight scenes leave a lot to be desired, which is surprising since Director Simon McQuoid actually said he wanted these fights to be “the best fights that have ever been on film.” Story and characters aside, when you can’t even get the fight scenes right in a Mortal Kombat film, you’re doing something very wrong. There’s plenty of blood, guts and quite a few graphic fatalities, but this reboot just could have been – and should have been – so much more.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
The movie looks really good, taking advantage of the 4K source material that the Blu-ray was taken from. There’s a lot going on, but it looks clean and clear throughout. There’s a darker tone to the entire film, and the picture reflects that well. There’s nothing that’s hard to see, even in the darkest of scenes, and when the powers are firing off and the battles are taking place, the colours pop – often in blood red.
The audio side of things sound equally good, with the disc delivering a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 experience. The dialogue can be tough to make out at times, depending on how your sound system is set up. It’s not the worst, but it’s something that would’ve been nice if it was handled when transferring the film to a home viewing setup. That said, it’s also not the worst, and it may not bother some at all, but it’s worth mentioning.
Special Features:
From Game to Screen – This is the big feature for fans to delve into that comes in at just under 22-minutes. Here we get to take a look at the history of the franchise and how it’s made its way to the big screen before, we hear from the cast and crew who share stories from filming and their own experiences playing the Mortal Kombat video games. It’s a fun little piece that makes you wish that the film had been stronger and the future brighter.
Mortal Kombat: Fan Favourite Characters – This feature comes in at just under 17-minutes in length and is actually 11 mini-featurettes that focus on various characters in the movie, including Cole, who has no right to be called a fan favourite ever. I feel bad that this seems like an attack on Tan, but it’s not! Just the character of Cole. Each of these pieces is about 90-seconds total, so they’re quick and easy to view.
Fight Koreography – Here’s a 9-minute feature that touches on the fight scenes and stunts in the film. We hear from stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner, Director McQuoid, and fight choreography Chan Griffin here. Always fun to see behind-the-scenes, it’s just unfortunate that these ones don’t have memorable moments to cover.
Anatomy of a Scene – This 12-minute feature is also broken down into multiple parts. There are 7 featurettes here that are quick breakdowns of the making of various scenes from development all the way to the finished product. While I wasn’t a fan of the fights, it’s still interesting to see how certain parts came together.
Deleted Scenes – There are four deleted/extended scenes here for those who want some more.
Intro to the Krypt: Easter Eggs of Mortal Kombat – McQuoid takes fans through each of the many Easter eggs placed throughout the film. Honestly, at times I think they built parts of the story just so they could force in some of these instead of having them flow in naturally.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Mortal Kombat. Directed by: Simon McQuoid. Written by: Greg Russo, Dave Callaham. Starring: Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Chin Han. Running time: 110 Minutes. Rating: R. Released on 4K Blu-ray: July. 13, 2021.
