Ah...Mortal Kombat. One of my favorite fighting games. I've owned or played pretty much every version of the game officially released and available...I'm just a *slight* fan. I've read the comics, watched the cartoons, watched the live-action series and web shows.
Then...there's the movies.
In 1995, Mortal Kombat was released. While it wasn't exactly the greatest movie ever released it was certainly one of the better video game movies released at the time...but it needed to be better. The sequel was horrible and then it seemed to fade away. No more movies it seemed.
Until now. We have a new Mortal Kombat movie, a new vision. Let's check it out.
Cole Young, an MMA fighter who is a human punching bag and takes beatings in the ring for money. Unbeknownst to Young, he's a man with a special heritage.
Being hunted by mystical ninja Sub-zero and in fear for the safety of his family, Cole looks for Sonya Blade and they head to the temple of Elder God Raiden. Raiden grants them and others that have a special mark sanctuary as they train for the highest stakes tournament of their lives.
Will Young be able to unlock his powers and not only save his family but Earthrealm as well?
The hype train for this movie has been running for a while, there have been fans clamoring for this, for a better movie than the ones released in the 90s (although I have to confess I actually like the first one a lot!). Does this movie live up to the hype? Is this the flawless victory that fans have been waiting for, or is it a fatality for the franchise?
Well....kinda both really.
The games themselves have their own lore that really needs to be followed, and it's kind of been skirted around here (I'm not going into details here, I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers for people who have not seen this movie and want to), and there are things that are just not right. Sure they have the blood feud between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, they have Goro being a thug, and Shang Tsung taking souls. But you had characters getting items in ways that are not in line with game lore, and also the way characters get their abilities seemed a little off.
This movie was also the first thing to make me DISLIKE Sub-Zero. I've always been a fan of the chilled-out Kombatant in blue, but this incarnation is...well, just wrong. It does not feel right the kind of character he is in the movie.
This aside, I actually did like the movie. The fights were great, there was some great humor and despite its flaws, it was better than its predecessors....the problem is that there was way too much CGI in this movie (ironically making it feel TOO MUCH like a video game) whereas using more practical effects in this movie would have given this the potential to be mind-blowing.
Throughout the movie, there are plenty of easter eggs for the fans to check out, and the soundtrack does a rather nice nod back to The Immortals theme to the 1995 movie, which is cool. When this comes out on Blu-Ray, I'll have to go through all the easter eggs and references in the movie...it should be fun!
So...the new Mortal Kombat movie....a fun watch, a nice bit of gore...but don't expect pure awesome. Here's to a sequel though, I do genuinely think it deserves one.
Mortal Kombat (2021) is rated 15 and in cinemas now (if you can find one open) or available as premium VOD such as Amazon Prime.