Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

Mortal Kombat is a martial arts fantasy action film based on the video game series of the same name and serves as a reboot to the Mortal Kombat film series. The movie is produced by New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster Productions, and Broken Road Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Mortal Kombat is written by Greg Russo, Oren Uziel, and David Callaham and directed by Simon McQuoid.

The story is a young mixed marital artist named Cole Young is being hunted down by Sub-Zero. At first he doesn't understand why but soon finds out he comes from a long hidden lineage, after this discovering him and a group of fighters have been summon to part take in the tournament called Mortal Kombat.

Initial Reaction

I've been looking forward to this movie when it was first announced. Although around that time I was worried that much like the 1995 movie they'd trim down the violence and much like the 1997 sequel I was worried it was going to be garbage. But thankfully I heard the news that it was going to be rated R and I got even more pumped when that trailer was released in all of it's bloody glory.

Cons

My only real problem I had with the movie was our main character Cole Young. Dude was totally uninteresting. In matter of fact if you were to do a slight rewrite of the movie without anything to do with Cole you'd probably wind up with the same film if not one similar to the one we got.

Middle Ground

Now let's talk about the rest of the characters starting from weakest to strongest. Sadly there's not much to say about Liu Kang and Kung Lao. They were pushed to side characters, hopefully if/when there's a sequel one of them will be given more to do. Then we got Sonya Blade and Jax. They were alright characters, Sonya more so because they did give her somewhat of story arc sadly that got pushed because we had to make room for our boring protagonist. Then there was Kano.........I ABSOLUTELY LOVED HIM. I mean that, Kano was definitely a scene stealer in this and I just couldn't get enough of him. The other gray area with Mortal Kombat is the script. What I mean there were some changes done to the lore but nothing that I think will really piss people off. What also made the story a mix bag was it really didn't feel like we were introduced to a whole big world despite being in different realms. Again, hopefully if we get a sequel they'll do much better.

Pros

Okay, let's tell you about the things I liked, one of those being the R-rating. Yes, we've finally been given our bloody MK movie and yes, it was awesome. The fatalities in this film are just like what you seen in the games. Another aspect of Mortal Kombat I liked were the fight scenes. That may not be balls to the walls insane but I still enjoyed them for what they were. The last thing I'll give the movie credit for were the special effects. They were very well done and they really shine when a fatality was done.

Mortal Kombat is flawed but I think there's still something to enjoy from it. The R-rating is what fans of been waiting for, the fights were fun, and the special effects were good. The characters (expect Kano) could've used more work along with the script. My only issue was our main hero Cole Young. Really didn't care for him.

My final rating is Okay.

Hell of a lot better than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation I'll say that. So, that's going to do it for me. Come back on Tuesday, Apr 27th for a special post about a classic Cartoon Network show. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.