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Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

by Joe Joe September 10, 2021

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Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

Everything just felt wasted.

Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

Everything just felt wasted.

Mortal Kombat, the fighting tournament that determines the fate of the world now has that Marvel Studios paint job. It’s painfully clear they want a franchise since this is just the build-up to the tournament. There is no goddamned tournament. At least in the 1995 movie version, we got it. This movie is R-rated which is the first right thing to do, but it fails after that.

If you have played the games or watched the previous movies, then you already know the story. This one tries to be different by showing what happens before the tournament. We get the usual characters such as Scorpion, Sonya Blade, Lui Kang, Sub Zero “Now!!…Plain Zero!!!”, Shang Tsung, etc. No Johnny Cage, which is rather pathetic. Imagine watching a Rocky movie with all the build-up but no final fight. There is fighting in this, but it’s soulless and lacks tension. Not shot or edited well. Not exciting at all.

Instead of having Lui Kang as the lead, we get a new movie-specific character named Cole. I’m pretty sure he will be killed off pretty quickly in the sequel if they even make one since no one seems to like him.

They could’ve had so many other characters lead this movie, but instead, we get Cole. I’m assuming the studio wanted an audience character so it would be easy for them to follow the plot, but the ’95 version accomplished that with Lui, Sonya, and Johnny. Cole sucks. FINISH HIM for the sequel.

The overall look isn’t too bad. The character design is fine for the most part. Goro and Reptile are all CGI, and some of it’s convincing. Scorpion and Plain Zero look good, and they’re the characters with the most depth. Shang Tsung and Mileena are barely there. Jax is your stereotypical black fighter. Kabal looks cool but gets ruined by an accent owned by no one.

Kano is funny sometimes, and they were doing something new and interesting with his relationship with Sonya Blade. You can tell when the script remembered that he’s a bad guy in the games, so he unconvincingly switches sides on a dime. They’re also trying to make these combatants into superheroes since everything has to be Marvel these days.

I haven’t mentioned the actors, director, or writers because I don’t care. No one is good in front of or behind the camera in this. Everything about it feels cheap. It’s just your usual bad videogame movie. It even has an actor from the first Raid movie, which I love, but this movie’s fighting doesn’t come close to that. Don’t listen to me since I do enjoy the resident evil films and Silent Hill, but I feel this version of Mortal Kombat is right there with a lot of the other crappy videogame movies. It’s not as bad as Mortal Kombat Annihilation, but that’s not saying much.

I’ve always enjoyed the Mortal Kombat license, and I enjoy the ’95 movie version by Paul WS Anderson. The only step in the right direction for this version is that it’s R-rated. They need to reboot it again and make it a fighting tournament movie. Just take Bloodsport and use the Mortal Kombat characters. It would work because it would keep things simple, which is what this franchise needs to be. Focus on the fighting. Don’t overcomplicate such a straightforward premise, and don’t follow the newer games since they involve time travel now.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. If I like the trailer for the second movie that may or may not get made, then I’m sure I’ll check this out again. It’s just so bland and boring. Everything just felt wasted. This is the kind of movie in a franchise that is not meant to be seen by an audience. It’s the movie in between the movies. It’s filler.