Mortal Kombat

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Mortal Kombat is an adaptation of the video game series of the same name, in which a number of champions from different 'realms' or dimensions dule it out in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Within this film we follow MMA fighter, Cole Young, who is sought out to join the champions of Earthrealm in their struggle against the dark forces of Outworld. The strength of the feature is centred within that which you would expect: the stunts and fight sequences. Whenever there was a fight scene that did not depend on visual effects, but rather streamlined choreography and lethal action; there was certainly something worth watching. The cinematography throughout the feature often brought out a degree of appeal in the setting and especially worked hard to enhance the fights with gripping, well-framed shots.

 

Joe Taslim, who played Sub-Zero, is one of the subtle stand outs in the film; Taslim's quiet vindictiveness towards Sanada's Scorpion and Tan's Cole Young makes him the strongest and most interesting antagonist to watch. Mehcad Brooks, who played Jax, is a stern guardian who throws himself selflessly into combat for the sake of others; Brooks contrasts his role's bravado in combat with the pain of losing his limbs for robotic appendages really well.

However, the best performance came from Josh Lawson, who played Kano. This role lives in a very moral grey area initially, which made him a lot of fun to watch. Kano is a reluctant champion of Earthrealm, full of himself and with little inclination to help the heroes of the story. Watching Lawson belt curse after curse at our heroes, all the while grandstanding and lauding his own ability makes for a fun dynamic the feature otherwise lacks. Kano is so much fun to watch because he has a really unpleasant sense of humour, this hard yet likeable edge that allows you to laugh with him even if you don't really like the man. Lawson presents Kano as a volatile figure, prone to bursts of rage in one moment while simultaneously switching to a more lazy and careless persona in the next. I often felt like Kano raised the film up because he wasn't tethered to the confusing mystical realms duking it out, rather he was this crude, funny character who performed within said mystical setting.

Mortal Kombat is swift in joining the long line of films that have attempted to adapt video games into film format and failed terribly. This is a feature with an often confusing setting; we spend half the feature in a fantastical setting in which our heroes portal through different realms in order to duke it out with one another. Meanwhile, we have our main protagonist, struggling MMA fighter Cole Young, who lives in a very ordinary city and is constantly trying to ground aspects of this outlandish story in a familiar setting. The problem is that neither type of world want to gel nicely together; meeting Cole for the first time is jarring and his subplot with his family is quite a small blip in an overly ambitious plot. The larger story of the heroes getting ready for Mortal Kombat leads to a lot of dull training scenes, watching our heroes slowly get superhuman powers or have personal asides about feeling 'totally' unprepared' over and over. The inevitable confrontation between the heroes and the villains is a messy slugfest that holds little meaning to the audience because the nature of the worldbuilding is so vast and confusing while the characters have each barely had much time on camera that you don't really care who wins or loses. Every moment the film introduces a new ability, character or key moment within the film it is often with little foreshadowing; instead hoping that there are plenty of video game fans watching who'll have prior knowledge of what's being discussed. The editing within the film cuts poorly multiple times and sets a poor flow even within fight sequences. The visual effects used throughout are this decade's Avatar: The Last Airbender; with multiple visuals failing to blend in with the scene and many looking so crudely fake that you have to wonder how thin the budget was stretched. The score for the film often fell into the background and any moment it tried to draw inspiration from the games we received a track that was really jarring in tone compared to what was taking place onscreen,

Lewis Tan, who played Cole Young, is probably one of the more disappointing aspects of the film; as a protagonist Tan really struggles to hold his own and feel like a leading man in his own story. Jessica McNamee, who played Sonya Blade, comes across as nothing like a military figure; this leaves her only defining trait as an exposition deliverer which comes across as more than a little dull. Matilda Kimber and Laura Brent, who played Emily and Allison respectively, come across as pieces that don't really fit in the film they are in; this 'modern day family' element seems like it is more there for the audience than because it belongs in the story. Tadanobu Asano, who played Lord Raiden, doesn't feel imposing nor very powerful even though he is playing what is described as an 'Elder God'; Asano enters a scene with little regality and gently mutter lines under his breath consistently. Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Scorpion, is in this movie to be a counter to Taslim and not really to play his character; even the big grief scene Sanada really does a pretty generic job of things. Ludi Lin, who played Liu Kang, is quite a small presence in the film often dwarfed by the other mediocre talent in a scene; Lin's character is another geared more towards exposition making him as boring to watch as McNamee. Chin Han, who played Shang Tsung, seems rather comfortable giving one of the most stereotypical big bad performances I've seen; his excessive posturing and loud proclamations of his own evil plan wear pretty thing pretty fast. Max Huang, who played Kung Lao, is about one character too many for the protagonists' team; Huang's role never really serves any purpose when he isn't actively in a fight or special effects sequence. 

A decent martial arts film on one hand but one of the worst video game adaptations we've had in recent years on the other. I would give Mortal Kombat a 3/10.