Review: Mortal Kombat

We begin with a prologue set in 1617 Japan, where we see the characters of Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Sub-Zero squaring off violently. Cut to modern day, and we learn through text that there are two realms – Outworld and Earthrealm (i.e. Earth), and the former has defeated the latter in nine of the ten tournaments of death fights known as “Mortal Kombat”. One more victory and Earthrealm will be conquered, humans enslaved. In order to make sure of this, evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) sends assassins to Earthrealm to wipe out the competition early. We then meet Cole Young (Lewis Tan), who fights for money in mixed martial arts fights in order to feed his young family. One night he is attacked by the super-powered Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim, of “The Raid”), and is told by former soldier Jax (Mehcad Brooks) to find a woman named Sonya Blade. Blade (played by Aussie actress Jess McNamee) reveals to Cole that she and Jax have been trying to find out all they can about “Mortal Kombat”, and they travel to the temple of the god of lightning, Lord Raiden (played by Tadanobu Asano) where they meet Earthrealm “Mortal Kombat” fighters Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang). Raiden reluctantly agrees to train the newbies for the upcoming tournament, but Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung arrive to wipe them out. Josh Lawson plays uncouth, untrustworthy Aussie mercenary Kano, an that’s fellow Aussie actor David Field early on as a referee.

 

There seemed to be some interest in this 2021 film adaptation of the popular video game franchise, especially when we learned it was getting a ‘hard-R’ rating in America. It also got a rare R-rating here in Australia, too. Having watched this film from Aussie debut director Simon McQuoid (a commercials guy) and screenwriters Greg Russo (who is a debutant) and Dave Callaham (“Doom”, “Horsemen”) it’s certainly got some violence. It just doesn’t have much of anything else I was interested in. To be honest, the 1995 film version, for all of its many flaws, seemed much more “Mortal Kombat” than this film, much as neither is the better film. Perhaps the problem is that the original source is a fairly simple tournament-style fighting game – and that’s largely what the 1995 film version gave us from my hazy recollection of its mediocrity. This one gives us an actual plot, just not an especially interesting or terribly original one. In fact, it’s really quite a mess.

 

It starts well, though the copious blood-letting is so obviously CGI that the R-rating (that is, the Australian R in particular) seems rather silly. Still, I was set for a fun, silly time with Hiroyuki Sanada a bad arse in the Toshiro Mifune mould. Yes, I was surely going to have a bloody good time here. Then the text crawl comes in and it’s basically all downhill from there. This felt like an even worse version of 1987’s “Masters of the Universe”, taking something that should be very simple and going in all the wrong directions. Apparently somewhat of an origin story, the film focusses way too much on the fantasy plot and character origins instead of the tournament-style action, which sounds like a ridiculous criticism until you actually watch the film. The approach might offer ‘fan service’ in some respects but results in a film with disastrous pacing, the training sequences should’ve started far earlier for one thing. There is also no damn tournament at all, saving that for the sequel I suppose. Some may find that refreshing, I found it rather useless. Sub-Zero is awesome, the film is dull and Josh Lawson’s craven Mick Dundee meets Wolverine character is a constant source of irritation (and overacting). I’m all for profanity when it’s used appropriately and judiciously, Lawson just swears because he can and it’s not funny or interesting. Lead actor Lewis Tan may as well have emerged from a YA fiction film adaptation and is forgettable playing a character who isn’t even in any of the games. Aussie actress Jess McNamee is a bit better but plays a very stock role. The characters and plot actually seemed more Marvel-inspired than “Mortal Kombat” to me (the 1995 film version was basically a fantasy version of “Enter the Dragon”), with the explanation for the characters’ powers being very Midichlorean, which will divide people. I just get the feeling that there’s a wannabe franchise of films/some world-building going on here, but it’s just not terribly exciting or very original in my view.

 

Poorly paced, generally uninteresting fantasy flick has a good opener but seems to do everything wrong after that. Not my cup of tea, but if you’re a Marvel fan (and I guess that’s a lot of people) who also likes “Mortal Kombat” you may feel wildly different. I wanted the damn tournament.

 

Rating: C