Get Over Here!

Twenty six years since the first film hit screens. Mortal Kombat was back on the big screen with a fresh new reboot. The highly anticipated video game adaptation became available on HBO Max and in select theatres in the U.S. The question is, was it worth the watch?

The following review contains major spoilers throughout.

On the whole, I found this film very "middle of the road" with its execution. It's full of funny lines (mainly from Kano) and some great references and easter eggs to the original video games but something just felt a little off. The film has a strong opening with Hanzo Hasashi (A.K.A Scorpion) against Bi Han (Sub-Zero) and it was great to see a glimpse of the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei rivalry.

Characters (just a few)

Joe Taslim plays Sub-Zero brilliantly in this film and he's as cold in his deeds as he is in character. While he's clear in wanting to end the Hasashi bloodline, I would like to have seen a bit more character motivation on his part.

I would have liked to have seen more of Scorpion in this film, much like the rebooted game from 2011, I think it would have been interesting to see him hone his powers in the Netherrealm and build the character development to capture the vengeful, ruthless Scorpion we all know.

Jax proved to have interesting potential in this film. Mehcad Brooks was a great choice, but I wasn't keen on how he came to have his bionic arms. Due to his arcana, he's somehow able to grow and enhance these bionic arms. I didn't feel like this made sense for the character and one example as to why the arcana concept doesn't work well in my opinion.

I really enjoyed Kano in this, he was as sly as he was funny. Constantly taking matters in to his own hands and didn't give a shit about anybody else. It was funny to see him perform his fatality and actually say "Kano wins". A massive improvement to the character from the 1995 version.

I have to take a minute to talk about Cole Young specifically. While I can see that they were trying to introduce an original character, I felt as though his story arc was a little weak and I found making him a descendant of Scorpion predictable and bleak. I think it could have worked better if they'd have made him related to Bi Han purely to provide some inner conflict.

Plot

I think this film has taken a LOT of influence from the tradition of bigger blockbusters such as Star Wars and Avengers. One of the overarching plots of this film, relates to the Mortal Kombat emblem which acts as a mark on kombatants and is used as a symbol of worth. It also provides an arcana to each fighter. I found this very disatisfying for several reasons. Firstly, it instantly transforms these characters in to super heroes with powers and serves only to try to justify the outlandish powers they come to possess. Secondly, it contradicts the source material, where the characters had their abilities through other means. Even after attempting to accept this idea, I found Cole and Jax's powers particularly underwhelming.

Pros

Now just to be clear, this film wasn't all bad, there were a lot of enjoyable aspects to it. I really liked the special effects they used, particularly Liu Kang's powers along with Sub-Zero and Scorpion. The elemental aspects were accurate and looked so natural especially during the fight scenes.

The hidden easter eggs were a nice nod to the fans. I especially liked Jax telling Cole he remembers him beating "Ed Tobias" which was a clever nod to Ed Boon and John Tobias.

I also noticed some visual easter eggs such as Kitana's fans and Shinnok's amulet (which I hope will introduce the respective characters in the sequel).

I couldn't help but laugh at the creators giving us the scene where Liu Kang sweeps Kano's leg and then spams the same move. A nice nod to the gamers who've either done this themselves or been on the receiving end of it.

And finally, it wouldn't be a Mortal Kombat movie without Scorpion's classic line, which was delivered with precise timing in the final battle.

Cons

I felt that there were a lot of areas this film could have scored really high, but fell a bit short. There was a lot of wasted opportunities throughout.

One scene showed Jax fighting Reiko on the bridge. Fans will recognise this level as "The Pit", notoriously known for having a pit beneath full of spikes where players can perform a stage fatality. However, when the moment came for Jax to "finish" Reiko, he crushes his head instead of plunging him to the bottom of the pit.

The fight between Goro and Cole was strange to watch. Knowing how threatening a Shokan can be, I was disappointed we didn't get to see Goro make an example of anybody before facing his demise. The idea of Cole using his arcana and actually defeating Goro felt a little underwhelming and in that regard, I felt like they wasted Goro's potential to be a genuine threat.

Nitara and Mileena were equally underwhelming. I personally think they should have switched Nitara out for Baraka, but that would mean more or less two Tarkatans in one film if you count Mileena.

Conclusion

For a video game movie, it's good. There are a lot of things that stick out for me, such as the idea of not getting to the tournament stage and poor character development. I think this film works great as a set-up but as a standalone, it does nothing. They should have retitled the film Mortal Kombat the Beginning to make it a bit clearer that this is just the first chapter in a potentially bigger saga. I have no doubt that the sequel will be even better as it has all the potential it needs. I went in to this film with low expectations and I still feel it didn't deliver the way I thought it would. I'd argue that I probably enjoyed the 1995 film more, maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's just more entertaining as a film. Either way, I hope that this reboot generates enough feedback to justify a sequel and hopefully we'll get to see a better story, refined characters and more amazing easter eggs. I hope they leave the arcana angle alone for future films and focus more on the tournament itself. Overall, not a bad film, but not great.