Mortal Kombat (2021) - A Review

 

Mortal Kombat (2021) ushers in a new era in the MK movie franchise.

Mortal Kombat is a fantasy martial arts movie released in the United States in 2021 and stars Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Max Huang, Chin Han, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Tadanobu Asano. This reboot of the Mortal Kombat movie franchise was directed by Simon McQuoid, with fight choreography by Chan Griffin.

Ludi Lin (as Liu Kang) and Lewis Tan (as Cole Young). Cole is the main character in this one.

In Mortal Kombat, Lewis Tan plays Cole Young, a former champion mixed martial arts fighter who has seemingly lost his fighting spirit. After losing an MMA fight, Cole is visited by Jackson Briggs ("Jax", played by Mehcad Brooks). Jax is interested in Cole's birthmark (the Mortal Kombat logo) and reveals he has the marking as well. While Cole is out with his wife and daughter, Sub-Zero appears and tries to kill Cole and his family (seemingly). Jax saves them, and tells Cole to find Sonya Blade (played by Jessica McNamee). Cole puts his family into hiding while he searches for Sonya.

Cole does find Sonya, who has Kano (played by Josh Lawson) held captive in her home. There, Cole finds out that the birthmark means he is one of the chosen warriors to defend Earth against Outworld's fighters in the Mortal Kombat fighting tournament. One thing leads to another, and Cole, Sonya, and Kano are on their way to Raiden's temple.

At Raiden's temple, Cole and the others meet the Earth Realm's champions and Raiden (played by Tadanobu Asano) himself. Cole and the other new recruits must train to unlock their 'arcana', their personal super technique, in order to stand a chance against the Outworld's fighters and their leader, Shang Tsung (played by Chin Han). Can Cole and his fellow Earth Realm warriors unlock their arcana, defeat the Outworld warriors, and survive Sub-Zero's onslaught?

Some of the Outworld fighters. Yes, that's Nathan Jones on the left.

I must admit, I am not a fan of the Mortal Kombat video games. I am, however, a fan of the first Mortal Kombat movie, the animated series (Mortal Kombat: Defenders Of The Realm, 1996), and the TV show (Mortal Kombat: Conquest, 1998-1999). The whole story and the backstories of the characters are interesting to me, but the actual video game is just not fun to me. So, when I heard a new Mortal Kombat movie was coming out, I was intrigued, but also worried it wouldn't be as good as the first one. I finally watched it on Tubi (a free, ad-based streaming site), and I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie starts out with a battle between Bi-Han (played by Joe Taslim) and Hanzo Hasashi (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), and the choreography was good, and it got pretty violent (much more violent than the 1995 movie). This fight is important and integral to the plot. The movie is all about these two characters, though they actually aren't in it that much. This is not a bad thing, but if you were hoping Liu Kang would get his moment in the spotlight again, you'll have to settle for him being a side character in the spotlight. Then we meet Cole Young, and unfortunately, he is not a very interesting character. The writing totally failed Lewis Tan, as he has very little lines (compared to, well, everyone else), and what he says is very cliched and basic. The character with the most character in this movie is Kano. He is an a-hole, and he never shuts up. Ludi Lin is great as Liu Kang (and I wish the movie focused on him a lot more). Sonya (she gets her own moment to overcome and shine) and Jax are cool, Kung Lao is awesome, and Shang Tsung is a schemer. Overall, the cast is pretty good. The plot is interesting, and I feel like this was a reintroduction to the Mortal Kombat universe, and this was just part one of a huge story. The places the sequels could go are intriguing! Hope everything turns out well on that front.

The fight scenes in Mortal Kombat are violent and bloody.

The action is good in Mortal Kombat. For those that complained that there wasn't blood or fatalities in the 1995 movie, there is plenty of that in this one! There are quite a few actors skilled in martial arts in this movie, and they all performed well. It was great to see Hiroyuki Sanada in a martial arts fight scene again, and he's still got it. Ludi Lin as Liu Kang is awesome, and he does some of Liu's patented moves. Same with Max Huang as Kung Lao; he is probably the most bad a** fighter in Mortal Kombat. Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero is incredibly skilled and cruel as a fighter. He is pretty scary, too! As for the actors who do not seem to have martial arts skills, you can tell by how the fight goes (it is more of a brawl than a martial arts battle). Even so, there are a lot of fight scenes, and they're all entertaining. Not meaning to compare the two Mortal Kombat movies, but there isn't a fight in this one that even compares to the Liu Kang vs. Reptile or the Johnny Cage vs. Scorpion fights in the 1995 movie.

So, should you watch Mortal Kombat? I would say yes; especially if you are a fan of the games. There are a lot of Easter eggs in the movie referencing things from the games, so watch out for those. This movie is grounded, yet highly fantastical. There is a lot of CGI in this, some things looking better than others (a certain character is full CGI; the design is good, but it doesn't move realistically. It moves too smoothly, and it looks like a cartoon... I say this as someone who does not like CGI, for the most part). You root for the main characters and hope the villains get their butts kicked. It does have humor, but it's not quip city. Plus, there's lots of blood and fatalities. This movie is a good introduction to this version of Mortal Kombat, but I think the sequel could be even better. Check it out, it's a pretty good time!

Reviewed by David Williams