Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my movie review.
From last year, i've covered Sonic the hedgehog on the big screen where it went from ugly to good one, which i enjoyed it for the most part, from Sonic's journey on Earth to Jim Carrey's fun performance of Dr. Robotnik. Aside from other movie based on video game that wouldn't able to touch at like Monster Hunter movie (because i never heard of it), there is one that i love it in a fighting genre next to Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat. You know the drill, a fighting tournament between Earth, NetherRealm and others with finishing move to kill your opponents, and it also brought us our familiar characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Lui Kang, Sonya Blade, Raiden and Johnny Cage. But of course, like any games, its no secret it will be adapted from theaters and streaming service.
"Mortal Kombat" is 2021 martial arts, fantasy and video game adaptation produced and directed by Simon McQuoid, co-produced by James Wan, Todd Garner and E. Bennett Walsh, then written by Greg Russo Dave Callaham (for screenplay) and Oren Uziel (for story).
Before we have one, we used to have the 1995 version with the same name. Though the film itself is pretty average, it has some nice actions, some good characters, but some other characters aren't as good, the writing is messy, the presentation is ok, but the violence is pretty much missing which i considered a film with missing identity. Despite how average the film it was, it was succeeded the box-office to having a sequel "Mortal Kombat Annihilation" and its one the worst film ever made with the budget went lower and worse, the writing is even worse and the presentation with the CG are disgusting to look at, leaving the series being halted with the third film attempt being cancelled due to negative impact and commercial failure.
Thankfully for decades later, Warner Bros bought the rights of Mortal Kombat (even though they have their video game publishers, "Warner Bros Entertainment") in order to not only make the third MK film, but also a full-on reboot of the series with one missing content what Mortal Kombat needs, the violence to be Rated R, which is exactly what we wanted for MK series.
So, with all that said, will this bring us back to the fighting tournament with more brutal and violence than the 1995 version, or is this film that we'd rather die in NetherRealm?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
Since Mortal Kombat has plenty of characters, you think its gonna be of one character or group of good guys or anti hero story with Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sonya Blade, Jax, Raiden, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage and many others, right? Well, its kinda like a group of good guys story, but rather thrown out of window for the writing.
It started on the 17th Century where we meet Hanzo Hasashi, who's being targeted by an assassin of Lin Kuei named Bi-Han (aka Sub-Zero), they both fighting each other, but Bi-Han murdered Hanzo to put an end of Shirai Ryu ninja clan. However, after Hanzo's family are both killed (minus the baby), the baby was rescued by the thunder god named Raiden. Fast forward to present time, a deadly tournament called "Mortal Kombat" is brought for a battle between Earthrealm and Outworld, but Outworld was out-beaten Earthrealm nine times out of ten in Mortal Kombat. We introduce our main hero named "Cole Young", an MMA fighter from Chicago, after losing one match, he was introduced by a Special Forces member named Jax Briggs, who tells Cole that he's the chosen one, but they got attacked by Bi-Han as Sub-Zero, as Jax lost the battle against the ice ninja by disarming him, Cole goes on his own to finding Sonya Blade from Jax's order, which Cole, Sonya and a captured Australian A-Hole named Kano are traveled out of nowhere until they found a temple from Raiden with his champions, Liu Kang and Kung Lao, but Raiden told our hero that the evil threat of Outworld with an evil warlock named Shang Tsung, its up to Cole to not only trained to be stronger in order to deal with Outworld.
For the story, its rather good as we can tell, its another underdog story who's been chosen to be part of Mortal Kombat, but i felt the writing is just comes off as either mixed-bag to questionable. Because while the story is good, but it just comes off as pretty cliché with some elements that has been done before, like being the chosen one for tournament without mercy. But one thing im disappointed is that the movie is more focused on Cole than some familiar characters in Mortal Kombat, which it disappoints me so much that i just wish it could've focus on either Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sonya or even Kitana, but all we have a bland protagonist, but il will explaining the characters later on. Not to mention, the movie also has a plot element from the dragon mark tattoo called "Arcana", which is meant from being chosen from Mortal Kombat with special power, but how does it came from in this movie? Well, they never explain about it what-so-ever...!
While the story is good for say the least, but the writing really ruined it for poor execution.
The Presentation
As far as i can tell, the budget is more on film's presentation than the writing. But i have to admitted, it looks pretty damn good.
For the filming location, it looks pretty cool looking from MMA arena, to street then to temple, since they're filmed in Australia (since the production is done in Adelaide Studios) and in the desert, i though its from USA, but its actually the Outback in Australia. Not to mention, they uses two cameras (ARRI ALEXA LF and Mini LF) with the use of Panavision Anamorphic lenses, which i gotta say, they did a pretty good work for their filming.
For the costumes, they're not bad, especially with the outfits of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, they look pretty good as in the game, for the new suits of other characters like Raiden, Shang Tsung, Mileena, Kabal and others, they're mixed bag, some are fitting nicely (especially with Kabal, he looks pretty damn cool, even though at first, i though its Smoke, but close), while some others, not so much (Yes, im looking at you, Mileena, like where your hot-pink color on your outfit?).
And of course, since this is Mortal Kombat, there's always gotta be a fighting scenes and i have to say, they're pretty cool and thankfully, pretty violent with blood and gore much like in the game (Take that, 1995 version!), and its no wonder why this film's rating is R for... Obvious reason. And their fighting and some elements are referenced in the game (if some of you are familiar with MK) like Liu Kang's bicycle kicks, Jax's Head Clap, Sub-Zero's ice blast, Scorpion's chain spear (aka "Get over here!!"), Kung Lao's buzzsaw hat (aka Razor's Edge) and Shang Tsung's stealing soul (along with "Your soul is MINE!"). So nice touch, guys.
The presentation of this movie is pretty good, especially with fighting scenes, the violence and the faithfulness of MK series, for the most part.
The Characters
As i said before, i just wish some characters in MK should've been the main focus than the main protagonist.
Lets easily start off with Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan), who's an MMA fighter from Chicago. I can honestly said that he's just forgettable in the movie, mainly for being an underdeveloped protagonist for being chosen fighter. Sure he can fight, but not good fighter enough for his personality, he's just boring as Tavern in Mortal Kombat Armageddon. Cause again, it should've been either Liu Kang, Scorpion or anybody than Cole Young...!
So what about the familiar faces in MK? Well they're not bad.
There's Sonya Blade (played by Jessica McNamee) who's a badass member of Special Forces that we all know and love, Jax Briggs (played by Mehcad Brooks), who's the muscle member of Special Forces as MotherF***er, even though i can't help but he looks like if he's played by Terry Crews (even though its always my dream), Kano (played by Josh Lawson) who's an Australian Douchebag that he's probably likable for being a Dick to anybody around (like he easily made me chuckle that way he delivered), Raiden (played Tadanobu Asano), the thunder god who's more like giving us a plot device for our heroes (though i will say this, he's probably better than Christopher Lambert's role), Lui Kang (played by Ludi Lin), a Shaolin Monk champion who's almost act like a sensei for our heroes, Kung Lao (played by Max Huang) who's more like Liu Kang's sidekick, but also likable, Bi-Han/Sub-Zero (played by Joe Taslim) who's a ninja assassin of Lin Kuei and probably served as the main antagonist from his boss of Outworld, Shang Tsung (played by Chin Han) who's a warlock for souls and shapeshifting, but served as a big boss who cannot fight (well this sucks) and Hanzo Hasashi, aka Scorpion (played by Hiroyuki Sanada) a ninja clan of Shirai Ryu who got killed off early, but coming back, but only in final act (talk about a waste of time that i;ve been begging to see him coming back from the dead).
Although there's some other MK characters, but they're more like a after though ones, like Mileena (played by Sisi Stringer) who looks like she has rashes on her cheeks as loosely looking like in the game, Kabal (played by Daniel Nelson and voiced by Damon Herriman) who like i said, i thought its Smoke, but its Kabal all along, but no longer as good guy, but he's also likable, Reptile who's more like a first henchman, but he looks pretty cool, but not acting like a human ninja in disguise (Aw well), Goro (voiced by Angus Sampson) the prince of Shokan who's more like a sub-boss (much like in the game) at our main hero, Nitara (played by Mel Jarnson) who's a flying vampire for obstacle fight for Kung Lao and Reiko (played by former pro-wrestler Nathan Jones, though his wrestling performance was pretty embarrassment) who's a next gen of Shao Kahn (Too bad Shao Kahn isn't in the movie).
While the characters from MK are nice to see in the movie (some are faithful, while others didn't doing well), but its safe to say that Cole's appearance is unlikable.
And now for my final opinion of this movie.
Overall, the 2021 Mortal Kombat isn't as flawless victory as we expected. The story is ok, the actions are pretty good, the blood and gore is there for good reason and the characters are also ok. Its mainly the writing is pretty dreadful for its execution and Cole Young purpose has zero reason to being forgetable main role. Even though its not the worst movie based on video game, but they're still out there.
For my recommendation, i'd say its only for die-hard fans of Mortal Kombat who really want to see the bloody and gory version what we wanted.
And does this film is better than 1995 version? Well, i'd say yeah, since the first one is the most PG-iest film ever for the lack of blood and gore, but more of typical martial arts film with some fun and silly moments.
For my rating, its a tough one, since as a fan of Mortal Kombat, i wanted to go higher, but due to some execution that ruined the film in somewhat disappointing result, i gotta give this film a 6/10.
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
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