Mortal Kombat 2021

[CharlesPhipps]

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogsp ... eview.html

I am a huge MORTAL KOMBAT nerd. I played the first three arcade games in movie theaters and have kept abreast of the series in various formats across multiple consoles since. I can tell you who Nitara is and what elements of the original movie were incorporated in the greater canon. The fact I know there is a canon is something of a feat in itself but Mortal Kombat has always had more of a story than most fighting games. I even watched the cheesy television show but I'll be honest that was 90% for Kristanna Loken.

When I heard there was a new movie, I was skeptical but that's because the original is one of the few examples of video game tie-ins that didn't completely suck. It managed to find a decent balance between cheese, humor, and martial arts action. The new movie promised to treat the material more "seriously" and I wasn't exactly sure that was a good thing. So what did I think of the film? Eh, it's okay.

Don't get me wrong, whoever wrote this movie is clearly an enormous Mortal Kombat nerd too. We get Sub-Zero referred to by his real name, the origins of Scorpion, and Kabal voiced by the actual video game actor due to his mask covering his face. However, there's also a very large number of flaws that keep this from being as enjoyable as the original film but much better than the godawful Annihilation.

Part of the biggest problem is the introduction of an entirely new character in Cole (Lewis Tan), who is a down-on-his-luck MMA fighter who discovers he has a great destiny due to being one of Scorpion's descendants. I don't want to sound like one of those fans but there's like 200 Mortal Kombat characters and a good sixty of them are ones that would make good introduction characters to the weirdness of the setting.

It gets worse because Lewis Tan would have been able to play a good chunk of them. Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero II, Scorpion (via possession!), Kenshi, Takahashi Takeda, and so on. Cole is an okay character but his role as the everyman isn't something we really needed to create a new character for. It's like doing a Street Fighter: The Movie remake except the protagonist is a blond red-gi wearing American karate champion named Bill. Worse, maybe get him played by someone too good for the part like Chris Evans or Ryan Reynolds.

If I'm being overly harsh on Cole, it's also because the other Kombatants (see what I did there?) are all undercooked. The movie has Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Raiden, Sonya Blade, Jax, Scorpion, Nitara, Goro, Shang Tsung, Kabal, Mileena, Sub-Zero, and Kano. Now if you told me that I was going to have this cast of characters and the most entertaining of them would be Kano then I would have called you a liar. Except Kano is, by far, the best part of this movie and the sole source of badly needed comic relief. No, let me correct that, Kabal also provides some and I'm now down for a Black Dragon movie.

Really, the movie is too packed to be able to properly develop anyone beyond being exposition machines with three or four characters filling the role of the Obi-Wan to Cole. The first movie made the correct choice that we had multiple people serving as the everyman and able to develop relationships with each other.

Cole doesn't get to know any of his fellow Kombatants and is primarily worried about his wife and daughter that play no role other than to give him emotional support while being endangered. I mean, reveal the wife is Jade or Frost or something. For a franchise that has a huge chunk of ass-kicking women, this film has a lot of them murdered to motivate our heroes.

Another small complaint is this feels more like the first few episodes of a Mortal Kombat HBO series than it does the actual Mortal Kombat movie. Which is a pretty poor complaint because it would have been a pretty good miniseries, I think. It probably would have been better than this film because with ten episodes we could have gotten to fill out the backstories of the bloated cast of mooks and supporting protagonists. Bi-Han Sub Zero feels like he should be a more developed character than the randomly evil chief henchman he is. It's also hard to take him seriously as Shang Tsung's chief henchman when Goro is RIGHT THERE. Hell, Kabal solves the primary problem of our villains in like five minutes while Bi-Han can't kill our protagonist before he gets powers.

If I sound like I hate the movie, I don't. Not by a long shot. What the movie lacks in plot or character, it more than makes up in hilarious video game violence. I mean, I'm not 100% sure if there's actually a Mortal Kombat tournament or what the rules are but I don't care. I mean, Shang Tsung cheating is fine but is double-teaming Sub-Zero with your ghost ancestor allowed? I feel like our heroes should be sticking to the rules since you know Shao Khan is going to rules-lawyer that shit. Plus the violence goes from cartoonish PG to ripping hearts out and bisecting people with magical hats pretty quickly. Which is as it should be.

In conclusion, this is definitely a movie to watch if you have HBO Max as its fun and utterly brainless. Unfortunately, it seems to think it is a lot smarter and more serious movie than it is. There's like a 15 minute opening of Scorpion's family being massacred that feels like it belongs in a different and better movie. Normally, you don't open the film up with the origin story of someone other than your protagonist. Watch it for Kano making fun of everyone, the over-the-top action, and goofy faux-seriousness. Just, next time, we need someone other than the scummy bad guys as comic relief.

6.5/10

[CmdrKing]

The more I hear about this movie, the more it sounds like they were making a lot of decisions based on the assumption of a trilogy if not a Universe.

Like, why make Sub-Zero the final boss? Because he can come back as Noob Saibot and they can save Shang Tsung and Shao Khan for movies 2 and 3.

Granted this is just absorbing things from the internet. Maybe it’s less overt in the movie proper

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Granted this is just absorbing things from the internet. Maybe it’s less overt in the movie proper

Same boat. With superhero protagonist epics you often have the first movie hero face an "opposite" instead of having a diversified matchup. I think it spoon feeds the semblance of prime antagonist.

And it's so easy to predict where the story will try to go when they try to infuse the same protagonist drama, with maybe a bit of gray area to keep it grounded. I look forward to the 20 second closeup face-dropped shot before he finds the courage out of nowhere to prevail.

[McAvoy]

I watched it last night.

I am not well versed in MK. I only know from what I can remember playing 20+ years.

Kano was the only interesting one out of Sonya, Cole and the others. Scorpion's backstory and resurrection is the most interesting.

Nitpicking here since this part is fresh in my head. Cole could easily not know how to speak Chinese. He was an orphan but in the end we got Scorpion speaking Chinese to him. Just amusing to me. That and Scorpion's introduction with 'COME OVER HERE' was in English while the rest of the time he speaks Chinese.

I kinda agree that Goro was a bit underwhelming, treated as a run of the mill henchman versus Sub Zero.

[Beastro]

This was a superhero movie, not Mortal Kombat.

It's silly what they did replacing Johnny Cage. Such a character is badly needed in a setting as the fish out of water self-absorbed egotist. At least Kano kinda filled that role.

The replacement was bland, the reason for a replacement was typical modern bullshit and it undercut the Bruce Lee movie vibes that inspired the games.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do wish adaptations would stop making new main characters, a side character fine but it shouldn't be the main character it never turn out well.

[Megabob452]

I do wish adaptations would stop making new main characters, a side character fine but it shouldn't be the main character it never turn out well.

Could be worse. They could have pulled a MK: Deception and given the new main kharacter a name that translates literally into "protagonist".

[Thebestoftherest]

I do wish adaptations would stop making new main characters, a side character fine but it shouldn't be the main character it never turn out well.

Could be worse. They could have pulled a MK: Deception and given the new main kharacter a name that translates literally into "protagonist".

If this have a sequel Cole needs to go, we don't need something like Alice which ruins resident evil

[McAvoy]

Nah. See what they plan on doing with him. Does seem like they are planning many more movies so hopefully they got a game plan for Cole.

Or they pull Star Wars Sequel move and just make random movies they kinda connect with each other.

[Thebestoftherest]

I just think it be annoying to the fans to constantly put the characters they care for to the sideline for the writer oc.