The new 2021 movie of the long running Mortal Kombat video game franchise is a curious mish-mash of a movie.
It wants to be a faithful adaptation of the beloved games but introduces many big changes to this universe. It also seems to insist on seriously treating lore and story that has been built up over the decades, but then gets bored halfway through and never actually follows through on any of it. And finally, it really wanted to earn its R18+ classification through violent action, but that violence is so sporadic it feels as if it can be easily cut for a PG version.
The movie does start fairly strong, with an opening set in 1617 Edo era Japan, introducing fan favourite characters Scorpion and Sub-Zero and establishing their conflict. At this point, the movie feels strong and confident, right up to the title drop (which also introduces another fan favourite, Raiden).
However, once the movie proper starts, all that good will and energy is rapidly lost. Cole Young, as played by Lewis Tan, is a new creation for the movie. A struggling MMA fighter with a mysterious birthmark who is drawn into the strange world of Mortal Kombat, and never appears to be particularly surprised or worried about any of these earth shattering revelations.
Cole Young, ostensibly the audience surrogate and point of view, is quickly overshadowed by Josh Lawson as the criminal mercenary Kano. Josh Lawson has energy and charisma that eclipses most of the cast, and has a quip or reaction for most of the outlandish things that occur in the movie. While a truly terrible person, he is the only one that I actually cared to see more of.
Kano also needs everything to explained to him, so why bother showing more of Cole Young? The movie seems to agree, as Cole Young in his black t-shirt and jeans often fades into the background, while the movie is more than happy to show what Kano is doing in any particular scene.
Josh Lawson is also refreshingly authentic in his portrayal of Kano as an Australian. This character has gone through several changes across different performances, often an American doing a bad Australian accent. Lawson brings actual Aussie ocker charm and personality, which makes him incredibly fun to watch.
With so much to say about Cole Young and Kano, what about the rest of the fairly large cast of fighters?
They’re fine.
Which is rather dismissive, but true. No actor stands out as terrible, but none show anything particularly great either. The movie does try to give them all a moment to shine, but outside of a very bloody and violent finishing move, nothing stands out of any note.
And of Scorpion and Sub-Zero so well established in the beginning? Sub-Zero has one more appearance of any worth, before hovering around to threaten the heroes. And until we get to the fight climatic fight, Scorpion has no other appearances in the entire movie.
All that work from the prologue is wasted, and the movie then must spend a great deal of time explaining other elements that really should have been established with the prologue. The movie also has an opening text screen with an info dump, but then must still periodically stop the movie to go over info again. It is very repetitive and slows down the film.
The movie goes to all this trouble to try and explain everything, while leaving nothing truly satisfied. Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the Mortal Kombat tournament itself. Introducing the concept of a dragon mark that someone must have to enter Mortal Kombat, and you can only get one by killing a champion with one. While it does help cover why such an eclectic group of people would all be chosen, it raises so many more questions that are never addressed.
Once you have one of these dragon marks of a champion, you must then train and unlock your arcana. Another new introduction to the movie, with no equivalent in the game, seemingly to explain why everyone has their video game powers. Good in theory, but not in practice. While it can cover why warrior monks can throw fireballs with their fists, it feels very odd when Kano can now shoot a laser beam just out of his right eye. And it completely falls apart when Jax’s mechanical arms are transformed from piddly little broken arms into large and powerful one.
In the lead up to release, the director boasted of the quality of the fight scenes in the movie, and they were truly one of the parts that I was looking forward to. The cast is filled with actors who can fight, and there is some nice fight choreography. However, it is completely let down by the editing. Most fights are ruined by excessive cuts, in some cases everything time a person connects with someone else. It leads to very jarring fights, where it looks like the editor doesn’t believe in any of the actors and is trying to hide how bad they are. It feels very much like a run of the mill Hollywood action film, trying to hide the stunt doubles doing all the work.
It easily the most disappointing part of the film. For all the clever ideas and skill shown, the editing hides it all.
Mortal Kombat has a long history of being infamous for its violence. Especially in what’s known as a fatality, a particularly gruesome attack that finishes a defeated opponent. Those are here and stand out so much by how graphic and detailed they are in their violence. But they are few and far between. And most of the movie has violence not far past that of your average super hero movie. I couldn’t shake the feeling it was all done so it could be removed altogether and released as a more accessible, lower classification movie.
All of this is to say that I was both entertained and annoyed by this movie. For everything it does right, another two things frustrate me.
1. The movie does a terrible job of establishing Cole Young’s family dynamics. I honestly thought the young girl was his little sister, and the woman was his girlfriend. It was only as the movie went on I realized it was his daughter and wife.
2. Scorpion saying only one line in English, all so it matches a video game catchphrase, stands out terribly. While cool in the moment when it happens, as soon as he starts talking only in Japanese again it just makes you go, “What, wait?”
Oh, and as for the titular Mortal Kombat tournament that the characters mention endlessly? Never happens. The whole movie was a prequel set up for a future film. So this Mortal Kombat film has no Mortal Kombat in it.