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Rating: 3 out of 5
MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!!!!
If you know me, one of my favorite games of all time is Mortal Kombat. I think the first time I ever played it was in a freakin Pizza Hut. That should tell you how awesome the 90s were. I remember when the first film came out. I recorded the commercials on a tape recorder. Yup, I sure did do that. When the first film came out, I thought it was AWESOME! It had my all-time favorite character, Scorpion, and all the others like Lui Kang, Sub Zero, Kano, and Shang Tsung. I really didn’t care that people thought it was okay; to my little mind, it was great. Then Mortal Kombat Annihilation came out, and I thought it was good, but as I got older, I discovered it was one of the stupidest and most awful movies ever created.
Time passed, and there was nothing but video games for Mortal Kombat. Some were great, and some were straight up AWFUL. There was a time when Mortal Kombat Legacy dropped on the world back in 2011, or maybe before that. I remember the first one with Jax, Sonya, and Scorpion. It starred Michael Jai White, Jerri Ryan, and Ian Anthony Dale. I was hyped when that came out because the stories were real, such as a doctor going insane or other characters. Then, it became a web series, and it was awesome. I knew there was talk about a movie series, but nothing came out.
Then, dreams came true in 2021 when a reboot of the Mortal Kombat series came out. The company dropped the first 6 minutes on the world of YouTube. You have no idea how excited I was to watch this film. I didn’t care if it was going to be great or bad; I wanted to see a Mortal Kombat film. With video game films, you know they are notoriously known to be bad. My expectations were low. Yet, when I finally watched it, I thought it was a decent first film.
The third installment of the film series that served as a reboot for the franchises is directed by newcomer Simon McQuoid from a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham. Mortal Kombat begins in 17th-century Japan when Bi-Han, aka Sub Zero (Taslim), rolls up on Hanzo Hasashi, aka Scorpion (Sanada) village, and massacres everyone, including Hanzo’s son and wife. As Hanzo’s soul departs to the Netherrealm, Raiden (Asano), God of Thunder, finds and takes Hanzo’s surviving infant daughter to safety. Centuries later, in the year 2021, the realm of Outworld has won nine straight tournaments known as Mortal Kombat against Earthrealm and only needs one more victory to claim the realm. MMA fighter Cole Young (Tan) is a struggling fighter with all the skills but lacks the confidence to be a great fighter. He usually throws his fight to get those funds. Cole is unaware of his heritage, and when Outworld’s Emperor sends his loyal sorcerer Shang Tsung (Han) to hunt down Earth’s mightiest warriors, Tsung sends Sub-Zero to hunt down and kill Cole. As Sub Zero begins his attack, Cole is saved by Jax (Brooks) and Sonya Blade (McNamee). Jax shows Cole that he has the same dragon marking as him. Cole, Sonya, and Jax are transported to the temple of Lord Raiden, who grants sanctuary and training. Cole soon trains with Raiden’s most experienced warriors, Liu Kang (Lin), Kung Lao (Huang), and rogue mercenary Kano (Lawson), for the upcoming tournament. Cole must soon decide if he wants to protect his family and stop the forces of Outworld or continue to give up and fight in the shadows.
This film is a toss-up between meh and okay. It is not the greatest video game film, but it sure as hell isn’t awful. The film has two storylines going on at the same time that are interconnected. First, rather than focusing on the tournament, this Mortal Kombat showed Shang Tsung trying to cheat his way to the tenth victory by ensuring Earth’s mightiest warriors are killed. Hey, any way you can win and rule another realm, you gotta do what you gotta do. Shang Tsung sends out some of his top fighters to ensure the Earth Realm has no fighters.
The other and primary storyline revolves around Cole. Cole is a good fighter but seems to lose confidence when fighting. He is recruited by the Earth Realm because he has the Mortal Kombat symbol. While training with Lui Kang, Kung Lao, and the rest to find their “Arcana,” a power unique to all dragon mark bearers, Raiden seems skeptical of Cole because he doesn’t seem to have that dog in him. That person that makes no excuses and whips ass. The reason Cole is so important is that he comes from the bloodline of Hanzo Hasashi. It was prophesied that whoever had the blood of Hanzo would untie the Earthrealm’s champions and push back Outworld. This is where Sub Zero comes in. Sub Zero is like the main villain in this film because centuries before, he straight up massacred Hanzo’s village and killed Hanzo. Now, he is back to make sure his side wins.
Those two stories bring together the film Mortal Kombat. I would rather have had the tournament like in the first film, but you get what you get. I like this film because one side is trying to get the upper hand and getting straight-up dominated. Now that I think about it, it does have that tournament feel, but I feel like many of the popular characters are gone as they died and won’t be coming back for the sequel.
I will say that when people fought, it was to the death and straight-up violent and gory. I freakin love it. That is what Mortal Kombat is all about, the freakin brutality. For example, when Kung Lao fought against the flying woman. I can’t remember her name for the life of me. He straight up used his hat as a saw and sawed her ass in half. How about when Cole fought against Goro? Cole was getting his ass handed to him. When Cole finally awakened his Arcana, he straight-up brutalized Goro. Straight up nasty! The best was when Hanzo came back from the underworld to take his revenge on Sub Zero. It was not the whole skull look, but it was worth it.
For the music, it was missing that ICONIC Mortal Kombat theme song. This time, the composers went with a more techno beat, like I’m in the club. The first one had the characters called out, and it made you hyped. I think I said in the other review that the song in the first film made you want to take out glowsticks. This one really made you want to take out some glowsticks. Never mind, I listened to the song, and it does name people, but it is so soft that you can barely hear it. The original was better.
As far as the acting goes, it was decent and video game-type acting. Lewis Tan as Cole Young was okay. He wasn’t the greatest part of the film, and since he isn’t a character in the actual Mortal Kombat franchise, the only reason you are invested in him is because he has the blood of Hanzo running through his veins. Josh Lawson as Kano was by far one of the funniest characters in the whole film. He made many of the jokes and was the entertaining part of the film.
Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion was the coolest, although he didn’t speak much. Those first seven minutes and last fight with him were AWESOME. He didn’t have the iconic Scorpion “Get Over Here” voice, but Sanada was still awesome. I also want to give it up to Joe Taslim as Bi-Han/Sub-Zero. He outshined all the other villains as his character was the main antagonist. He was brutal, ruthless, and who wouldn’t like a character like Sub Zero.
Mortal Kombat is a worthy reboot film. Even if it doesn’t have the tournament and killed off many popular characters, it still got the ball rolling. It is a video game movie, and expectations should be low. I will tell you this: it is far better than Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Hopefully, there will be a sequel, and we will get more characters and a crazy tournament.
