MOVIE REVIEW: Mortal Kombat

 (Hot Like Dimes - Pretty Lights)

Whole reams of paper could be written about Mortal Kombat and the impact that it's had on pop culture, video gaming, and even the cinema.

At the height of its popularity, the original Mortal Kombat movie was released in 1995.  It was suspect in a variety of ways but generally well-received by its target audience because of how beloved the IP was.  When its sequel, 'Annihilation' was released two years later, fans were eager to see just how much better the film would be than the original. Alas, they were in for a staggering disappointment.  The movie was so bad that it torpedo'd any hope of future films for years to come.  24 years, to be precise.

In that time, Mortal Kombat continued to live in in the form of video games that, unlike their film cousins, increased in quality by leaps and bounds.  Characters were given meaningful backstories, friends, enemies, and motivations seldom seen in fighting games.

Then the rumors started up in 2019 that someone was planning on trying to bring Mortal Kombat back to the screen, but with more attention paid to the now rich source material, higher quality fight scenes, and a more diverse cast.

2021 is here, and Kombat is upon us.  Is it flawless, or fatality?

THE SHORT VERSION:

Let's just say it's very good for what it is.  Frustrating as hell, but very good.

THE LONG VERSION:

Making a good Mortal Kombat movie seems like an innocent no-brainer of a proposition when you look at it at arm's length. You need bonkers fight scenes with classic characters, plenty of blood in the form of fatalities, fan service, and it needs to not look like shit.

The film's director, Simon McQuoid, acknowledged this all up front and took several steps to try and get his new Mortal Kombat in fighting shape.  First and foremost, McQuoid went out and found actual martial artists to play martial artists.  Chief among them was the excellent Hiroyuki Sanada, a face from things like 'The Last Samurai', 'Westworld Season 2 and 3', 'The Wolverine', and 'Avengers: Endgame'.  Sanada is one of those faces that you know when you see it.  He lends instant influence to a film.  We'll get back to this one in a moment.

McQuoid also made a big deal out of hiring a 'diverse' cast.  I'll be honest, I'm not sure what the difference between 'diverse' and 'hired a Japanese man to play a Japanese man, hired a black man to play a black man.'  While this is a wholly appropriate step to take, nothing about the film's casting makes it look like McQuoid did anything out of the ordinary.  He just cast the characters properly, which...yay, I guess?  

Finally, McQuoid made sure his film was Rated R, something that's quite necessary for proper Kombat.  Admittedly, it was also quite necessary because of one of the film's villains, but we'll get to that in a moment too.

Shortly before the movie came out, the first seven minutes of the film were aired online.  They were, to be perfectly honest, phenomenal.  The scenery was gorgeous, the character development was efficient and effective, and the fight scenes were absolutely off the hook.  If people were excited about the film before, they were going bonkers waiting for it to come out.  That was a strong move on the part of Warner Brothers, and Mortal Kombat saw some pretty big sales on its opening day as a result.

Having now watched the film, a few things stand out pretty firmly about it.  The biggest is this:

As a Mortal Kombat movie, it was pretty darn good, and they need to get the sequel on the ground like...YESTERDAY. 

Was the movie perfect? No.  Not even close. For every great moment that the film had, it was book-ended by frustrating ones.  It's also a marked improvement over what we got in '95 and it's hopefully more than enough to bring us a sequel. 

I've got some other thoughts but they're sort of spoilery, so...yeah.

Still here? Okay then.

- Sanada and his chilly co-star Joe Taslim are hands down the best part of the film.  Period.  They bring massive amounts of credibility to whatever scene they're in, fighting or otherwise.  Their fight scenes are easily the best in the film and THE best scene in the whole film is...the first seven minutes.  This is a masterpiece.  A huge part of this is because Sanada and Taslim both ooze charisma and capability.  Sanada's 'Hanzo Hasashi' is noble and lethal.  Taslim's 'Bi-Han' is chilly and lethal.  You can see it written all over their performances and through their faces as they act.  The film's biggest crime, then, is underusing both of them.  After the film's opening, they're both criminally underused and even more criminally obscured behind armor that hides the best thing about them.

- I honestly do not know why film makers continue to try and work Jax into films.  He's a flat, one-dimensional character whose arms always end up looking like garbage.  He was a throwaway in the first film, a blunt force thug in the second film, and little more than that in this movie.  His arms represent some of the worst CG in the film and only his last fight scene is worth anything.

- Sonya Blade FINALLY gets something to do other than have boobs and be generally helpless.  Some of her fight scenes are excellent.  Some are throw-away worthless.

- Liu Kang and Kung Lao are used primarily as talking heads. They do this well, but they're wasted almost completely in the realm of martial arts.

- Can we please get Cary Tagawa back to play Shang Tsung?  They got Chin Han to do it for this movie and there's nothing about him that commands any kind of respect whatsoever.  Don't know who he is?  He's the whiny Chinese businessman Mr. Lao from The Dark Knight.

- Goro and Kung Lao both go out like bitches.

- The cast of characters in this movie was needlessly huge.  I know Mortal Kombat pretty well and even I didn't know who some of the villains were.  Ultimately, that wasn't a huge issue because of how disposable they were but still...

- Some of the CG in this film was REALLY bad.  Jax's arms and pretty much everything about Goro and Reiko for starters...

- I know they had to explain people's powers somehow and the whole 'arcana' thing sort of...does that.  It almost creates more questions than it answers though.  How do you learn to use it?  How long does it take to become proficient?

- Kano is both the best part of this film and the worst part of it.

- Bring on Noob Saibot.  Thank you, and good night.