Despite some small victories with movies like “Detective Pikachu” and “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Hollywood is still chasing the green light of the good video game film adaptation. Sure, there have been plenty of them, but only a handful have risen above the level of mediocrity and even those could be argued for or against.
First time director Simon McQuoid’s “Mortal Kombat (2021)” is yet another body to add to that pile. If all you’re looking for is flashy fights and quippy one-liners, then you might be satisfied, but there’s hardly anything else going on in the film worth paying attention to.
Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan (“Into the Badlands,” “Wu Assassins”) is recruited by Sonya Blade, played by Jessica McNamee (“CHiPS (2017,” “Battle of the Sexes”), and Jax, played by Mehcad Brooks (“Supergirl,” “Desperate Housewives”), to team up with Lord Raiden, played by Tadanobu Asano (“Electric Dragon 80.000 V,” “Midway (2019)”), Liu Kang, played by Ludi Lin (“Power Rangers (2017),” “Kung Fu”), and Kung Lao, played by Max Huang (“Dragon Blade”), to face off against the evil Shang Tsung, played by Chin Han (“Marco Polo,” “Skyscraper (2018)”), and his fighters in a deadly competition known as Mortal Kombat over the fate of two worlds: Earthrealm and Outerworld.
Screenwriter Dave Callaham (“Wonder Woman 1984,” “Zombieland: Double Tap”) and first time writer Greg Russo have clearly done the best they possibly could when being handed an adaptation like this. Mortal Kombat as a franchise has both incredibly low expectations; give us some fights and drama, and yet the more recent games have incredibly extensive stories involving time travel, resurrections, and decades long peace treaties.
So, its understandable then that Callaham and Russo would try to take things down to a simpler level for both fans and newcomers. However, the way they do that is by introducing Cole Young, an entirely new character to the series. Young stands out like a sore thumb, nothing to do with Tan’s performance, and he takes himself way too seriously compared to the other characters.
In a world populated with a lightning god, a potty mouthed Aussie with a laser eye, and a mystical warrior with a saw blade hat, Cole being just a guy who can fight well feels far too vanilla for everything else going on. He just isn’t as interesting as the rest of the characters. Even if Sonya or Kano or Jax are too over the top for you, they at least have clear personalities, whereas Young’s defining trait is being the son of a Mortal Kombat mainstay and also just being the main character.
Tan’s performance is fine, which can also be said for just about everyone else in the movie. Sure, some like Josh Lawson (“Bombshell,” “House of Lies”) as the potty mouthed Aussie Kano, are memorable, but that’s mostly because they’re louder and brasher than everyone else. Most of the memorable cast members are so purely because they’re representing legendary characters; Lin and Huang have a great brotherly dynamic and Brooks and McNamee have chemistry when they actually get to share the screen, but the two are apart for a majority of the film despite clearly being good friends who work well together.
Really, the film’s biggest issues could be easily smoothed over if focus was shifted from Cole to Sonya. She’s an actual character from the series, she has a much more defined motivation than just “protect my family from unknown threat”, she has some charisma and energy, and she goes through the most semblance of an arc of anyone in the entire movie.
But, that’s not what McQuoid delivered. What is good, undeniably so, is the fight scenes. The movie is pretty shameless at how it sets it all up, but its in a way that doesn’t detract from the film. This is a movie where a guy’s main weapon is a saw blade hat, after all. These moments are choreographed well, and while not as smooth as the fights from films like “John Wick”, they aren’t over edited to hell and back like “Transformers” or “Suicide Squad (2016).”
These fights are clearly the reason to see the film, and everything else comes second. They happen in a gloriously gory fashion, and even the ones that don’t end in death and dismemberment still have the benefit of being choreographed well and are undeniably fun to watch. Its the sort of film that puts up just enough basic storytelling competence to make you sit through the parts in between fights to get to the rest of the fights. Its easy to gloss over how boring Cole is as a character when you’re watching him slice a combatant apart to gleefully bloody abandon.
Like the fights, the film also succeeds on the visual front. Not just in terms of CGI elements either. Each character bridges the gap between being faithful to their game counterpart and being more “realistic.” Sonya Blade is still a military vet, but she wears a bit more clothes now than in the games, Kung Lao’s saw blade hat is unmistakable, and Liu Kang’s bright red bandanna is instantly recognizable. The sets and production design is also top notch, providing some great locations for the fights that pay tribute to their game counterparts.
“Mortal Kombat (2021)” has it where it counts. Its fun to watch these fights take place in a universe where a simple punch to the jaw can result in someone spitting up a mouthful of blood. Its ridiculous but it takes itself just seriously enough to not be a complete eye rolling affair. It would be nice if the writer’s had trusted in these characters who, at least, have preexisting personalities instead of inventing someone who has a bad case of “main character syndrome.” But its not a terrible film either, a perfectly mediocre, decently acted, and violent affair that might be worth half paying attention to if you’re a fan. 2.5/5
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