Mortal Kombat (2021)

Mortal Kombat (2021)

 6/10

 Starring

Lewis Tan

Jessica McNamee

Josh Lawson

Tadanobu Asano

Mehcad Brooks

 

Directed by Simon McQuoid

 

The story is not at all any good, anyone who is not a fan of the franchise will lose interest easy. The weak plot drops this to a form of B-movie setting, even though this is supposed to be top class. This movie is to set the ball rolling for potential sequels, I just hope the plots in those ones are better. Since I am a fan of the franchise and know of the plot, it was easy for me to follow – plus easy for me to like. The comedy is only for the fans who have played the game, which I felt should have been done to encompass everyone. But the movie kept he gory aspect of the game, with its brutality.

It failed to entertain in most of the hand-to-hand combats with some becoming boring because of the too much effects involved. The only fight that really caught my eye and had my attention is the fight between Sonya Blade and Kano. There Sonya fought with some form of urgency and smartness to stop a killer.

The movie is based on a fictional fighting game first released in 1992 and since then has had numerous releases, with the latest now being Mortal Kombat 11 done in 2019. The first film (Mortal Kombat) done based on this fighting game was released in 1995 and it was a hit. Since then, plans to make a three-film series had hit many obstacles. The main one was the follow up to the 1995 hit, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation which was a dud both critically and commercially. This movie is more of a reboot of the film franchise with the Mortal Kombat main plot still holding. You can of course except new subplots and twists in the old tales.

So, let us dive into the main plot, in this fictional universe there are numerous realms which are under the control of Elder Gods. These Gods are bound by the rule of Mortal Kombat not to interfere in the fight of realm domination by its occupants. This fight is between the chosen warriors of Earthrealm and that of the other realms for control. This movie shows us three realms, the Netherrealm, Earthrealm and Outworld.

The movie then sets one of the main rivalries of the game’s universe Sub Zero and Scorpion. We see Sub Zero kill Scorpion and his family and Scorpion vowing to return for revenge.

Shang Tsung one of the leaders of Outworld has decided that instead of waiting for Mortal Kombat to happen, he will send his warriors to kill all the chosen one of Earthrealm and seize control of it.

The warriors of Earthrealm, known by the mark of a dragon on their body. This mark can be transferred if you kill anyone bearing that mark. Jax and Sonya were searching for these people, as they have come to figure out what the mark meant, even though they don’t know much about Mortal Kombat. It was their search that led them to meet Cole, as Jax saved Cole from being killed by Sub Zero. Cole finds Sonya, who had in her custody Kano. Sonya knows that the answers to everything is in Raiden’s temple, a place only Kano knows. Kano leads them there and where we see, Kung Lao and Liu Kang, who leads them to Raiden. Raiden fills them in on everything about Mortal Kombat and the realms before asking Lao and Kang to train the four to be able to save Earth and stop Shang Tsung. But Shang Tsung was not willing to wait for them to be trained and pulled all he can to disrupt their training and to be able to kill them.

The movie is not one of those superb things that you can tell anyone to go watch. The movie is done for the fans who already know the characters and are willing to sit through and watch them step up.

Speaking of stepping up, the movie had one of the most stupid step up to your warrior status scenes I have seen. These characters have had their ass handed to them, then they all had something to lose and stepped up their game. The fights in the step up were not cool, except that of Sonya and Kano, now that is a fight I will not mind seeing again.

If the movie makes enough money and brings in enough new subscribers to HBO Max, there will be a sequel. Until then I guess we can only hope that if one is done a better script will be done with it.