PIC OF THE WEEK!
Movie Review – Mortal Kombat
Review by Ray Schillaci
Warner Brothers unleashes the fury of Mortal Kombat simultaneously theatrically and on HBO Max. Sometimes we’re in the mood for junk food. It may not be nourishing, but it sure is enjoyable. That’s exactly what I was looking forward to when I viewed the newest iteration of the popular video game donning the screen with its chop-socky moves and outrageous fatalities.
Do not go into this movie expecting the lyrical beauty of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After all, the story does not come from a book or graphic novel, the basic premise comes from a video game. Many of such adaptations do not bode well with critics or public (i.e. House of the Dead, Assassin’s Creed and Super Mario Bros.). There are the occasional exceptions that appear to play out to the fans (i.e. the Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Tomb Raider series).
The first Mortal Kombat movie came very close to hitting all the marks for gamers and a wide audience coming in with a world-wide total of $124M+. The original film was a silly foray into Chinese mythology and martial arts that sought approval from the fanbase of the video game. This reboot has bigger ambitions attempting to grapple with building a new universe of characters to sustain a franchise. Director Simon McQuoid and his team of writers miss that mark, but manage to deliver the joy of watching a bad movie unfold. It’s so bad that it’s fun.
Looking back, anybody into the MK games would be pretty much be thrilled with the 1995 version. It had humor, some very cool staged fight sequences, great CGI fantasy backgrounds (in its day), and memorable performances from Robin Shau as Liu Kang to Christopher Lambert’s sly performance as Raiden, god of thunder and lightening. Although, nowadays Lambert would never have been cast as a Chinese mythological figure no matter how good he was.
The new Mortal Kombat attempts to take a more serious tone. The costume and effects are fun for any fan of the game. Better casting decisions have been made. Josh Lawson as Kano practically steals the movie with his rabble-rousing version of Captain Quint (Jaws), and Jessica McNamee is far more believable as Sonya Blade. She comes across as a fighter rather than a poser like her predecessor from the first movie.
But, even with better casting over-all and gruesome fatalities, director McQuoid and his writers falter in their world-building and any suspense as to who shall live or die. McQuoid’s background is in Australian commercials and it shows. This is his first feature and as slick as the production looks, the weakness is in stringing all the scenes and characters together along with a very weak lead in Lewis Tan playing Cole Young, a former MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) champion.
Why did they go with a character unfamiliar with the MK universe? Perhaps the producers were looking to capture the MMA crowd. Cole is suppose to be the descendant of Hanzo Hasashi, now an undead ninja. Even sillier, McQuoid and his writers have the mortals of Mortal Kombat gain powers once they awaken their “arcana.”
But, we can overlook the stupidity of it all every time our favorite characters go into combat. They do not disappoint in that arena. I only wish we could have had Liu Kang as our main character rather than the minor role he plays. Also, missing very much from all the antics is the character of Johnny Cage, a stuck-up, martial arts actor and the lovely Princess Kitana and her deadly fans.
Back for more is our favorite four-armed monster, Goro, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Lord Raiden and Shang-Tsung the Soul Eater. Sadly, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden is given very little to work with other than the electric gleam in his eyes. Stepping out for the first time are other well known characters from the video game: Kabal (known for his speed), the winged creature known as Nitara, Mileena the woman with extra long vamp-like teeth, Kung-Lao known for his razor bladed hat and Reiko the man with the mighty kick and swinger of one hell of a giant hammer.
Mix the good and the bad altogether and you get an uneven martial arts fantasy that does not measure up to Stephen Chow’s imagination (Kung-Fu Hustle, Journey to the West, Mei ren yu), but will do for a good time waster. Just the thrill of seeing some of our favorite characters reimagined and having them utter the iconic lines from the video games is just enough for geeks of “B” action cinema to be overjoyed.
One can only hope that Warner Brothers learns a valuable lesson from this newest film if they want to continue with the franchise. There’s already a hint that Johnny Cage will show up and that the actor who plays Sub-Zero has signed on for four more films. They need to give Sonya Blade and Liu Kang the lead roles, add a bit more humor and ditch the superhuman powers of the mortals. Once ordinary people like Kano and Sonya have special powers the fight is nowhere near as interesting as to when they had to outwit their opponent.
For the time being, Mortal Kombat lives or dies by its intentions, having a silly time and delivering the kind of hard “R” rating the film has always deserved. Fatalities are bloody flawless. Battles are epic. And, the music pumps away as opponents pummel one another and we cheer on our heroes and villains alike. This is why the film has such a high audience score on RT. Some call it pandering to the masses, I call it a guilty pleasure.
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Directed by: Simon McQuoid
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Rated: R
Country: USA/Australia
Distributor: Warner Brothers
