Mortal Kombat is the latest in a long line of video game adaptations that fail to break the fabled ‘video game movie curse’, which is a shame considering the campy appeal of the original movie. It’s too focused on appealing to fans of the game and setting up the franchise to make a good film.
The film starts off in 17th century Japan, where Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) murders Hanzo Hasahi (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his family. In present day, Cole (Lewis Tan), a MMA fighter, discovers he has been chosen to fight in an ancient tournament to defend Earth against fighters from the deadly Outworld realm. He finds allies in Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) as well as other familiar characters from the games, before starting his training to discover his powers (or arcana, as they are called in the film) and get ready for the upcoming tournament. Only thing is, Shang Tsung (Chin Han) isn’t willing to wait that long.
The best thing about Mortal Kombat is, unsurprisingly, the fight scenes.
While they aren’t always spectacular, they are usually competent and the movie doesn’t shy away from gore or fatalities. Of course, there are moments where characters proclaim ‘fatality’ or ‘flawless victory’ after winning their fights, but they can be overlooked as being the kind of cheesiness you saw in the original movie. Most of the characters are rather bland, other than Kano (Josh Lawson), who’s one of the few actors truly having fun and injects a lot of personality into his scenes. His character arc however is handled poorly as he makes a decision that seems in line with his character but falls apart under closer inspection.
Mortal Kombat also suffers because it often starts fights without enough stakes. Instead of building tension and character dynamics between a core cast of characters, the film introduces new Outworld fighters in the second half who all promptly lose to the Earthrealm fighters. Of course, there’s a token death to end the second act on a somber note, but even that is quickly forgotten. The final fight is satisfying from a fandom perspective, but perhaps in terms of narrative it would have been better if Cole had to struggle by himself as he tried to save his family.
Perhaps, the film would have been better if it either embraced the ridiculousness of the franchise or made more of an effort in crafting a competent story. Even the fight scenes aren’t as visceral as they could be. There are far too many cuts, leaving little room to breathe. Helmed by debuting director Simon McQuoid, the film feels oddly lifeless. Cole is also frustratingly bland, which becomes very apparent when compared to Kano’s liveliness.
There’s been such a dearth of classic action films that even a lackluster film like Mortal Kombat may feel like a boon. But make no mistake, this is a soulless reboot that’s already been primed for five sequels. Just because it isn’t completely dreadful doesn’t mean it’s any less soulless.
