This’ll be a relatively quick one, since I neither have much to say on the topic, nor is there honestly that much worth dissecting here. I also have no images or screenshots because, well, it’s a movie I watched and not a game. Best I can offer is a trailer. For those who don’t care for anything resembling a wall of text, you’ve been warned.
In short: the new Mortal Kombat movie was garbage and I loved it.
This is a film for a very specific demographic. If you’re familiar with Mortal Kombat games, whether casual or hardcore, then you’ll probably find something to like here. Everyone else? Don’t even bother. It won’t make you a game fan, it won’t introduce a world or characters that you particularly care for, and it probably won’t even impress with strong action scenes and choreography. It’s not a plea to be taken seriously, no matter what the opening scene might have you believe.
Instead, Mortal Kombat is a film of references and nods. It’s about as bare bones a video game movie as it gets. We’re still no closer to seeing any decent attempt at a serious adaptation or really respectful delve into the possibilities of the source material. This isn’t like Warcraft attempted or anything. It’s just schlock and fan service, and it was fun about it. “I clapped when I saw the thing I liked” and all that.
So you’ll get a lightning fast introduction to the concept of the Mortal Kombat tournament and some of the participants. There’s rapid fire exposition dumps about Outworld, Elder Gods, special powers for chosen kombatants and all that. The film is self aware enough to make fun of itself in that regard, but not really concerned with deviating or doing much with it. You’re there to see recognisable characters do stupid moves and get into fights with bloody finishes. And you’ll get a decent chunk of that.
It still commits many of the cardinal sins of lacklustre action movies, though. Mortal Kombat is rife with rapid jump cuts, fights in the dark, multiple encounters happening at once so that you can’t sit and dwell on any individual thing for long etc. The shaky cam is mercifully minimal, but ultimately it’s all just covering up that the choreography and action really isn’t that great. Aside from seeing the recognisable moves or character gimmicks like fireballs, harpoons, sweep kicks and uppercuts? Let’s just say that John Wick or Ong Bak this ain’t.
Now, there’s basically universal praise for the character Kano in this movie which I absolutely share. He’s funny as hell, coming across as 200% Australian in how overexaggerated and abusive his lines were. In fact, he’s so charismatic that it almost feels like he’s draining the personality from the rest of the cast, because nobody can compare or compete. The rest of the characters are functional but flat, largely only serving to spit out a couple of references and cool moves.
That’s especially true if you’re on team Outworld; if you’re not familiar with the character in question because they’re not from the first couple of MK games, don’t worry! They’re basically bait for fatalities. Oh yes, there are fatalities, and they’re as gorey and over the top as you’d expect. I can’t say they’re all that great, but there’s at least one that stood out, so your mileage may vary.
Regardless, it’s largely just a vessel by which the writers can make Mortal Kombat references and lines. They don’t always land well, but they’re there, and they’re handled in a way that makes it clear that they’re familiar with the games enough. It’s all just very “okay” with the occasional laugh (usually from a Kano quip), and doesn’t really attempt to do much more than that.
Curiously though, it almost feels like they wanted to do something more. The opening scene that’s on the internet for free is a lot less goofy and more serious in tone and execution than anything else in the film. It’s still not exactly great, but it set expectations and questions that “oh, are they going to take this somewhat seriously?” That’s almost immediately dashed, so I wonder where and when the line was drawn, if any.
I also question the decision to have the main character of the movie be a movie original. Cole is as bland as the rest of the non-Kano crew, but it felt like they were setting up more for him with his lineage being tied to Scorpion. That ends up resolving in a very… odd way. I won’t spoil details, but I expected (or would have suggested) that that connection would manifest in a very different way than it did. As a result, it kind of feels like he’s still just a random OC. Not bad, just milquetoast and not really suited for a focal character.
The actual Mortal Kombat games have started approaching their story more sincerely in recent entries. From 9 onwards, it’s actually done a pretty solid job of exploring the (still ridiculous) setting, characters, and premise in a much better way than the cheesy tales of old. So if you’ve played those games and like that story, don’t go into this film expecting anything like that. You won’t get it.
What you will get is a generally entertaining movie. What doesn’t land usually doesn’t stick around for long as the run time kinda flies through everything rapidly. And it’s almost worth the price of entry for the Kano banter alone. Still, don’t bother checking this out if you aren’t vaguely familiar with the MK games. Definitely don’t go in with the expectation of doing anything except turning your brain off and watching. It’s dumb, it’s garbage, and I loved it. Simple as that.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Sleep continues to be awful, writing serious articles continues to be slow, and I’m trying to keep things going. But I figured I could write this up in short order without having to stress too much about it, so here I am. Even though I watched the film almost a week ago… whoops. Regardless, more to come soon. Until next time.
Delfeir vs. the Backlog 