[Review] Mortal Kombat(2021) {5.5/10}

Directed by Simon McQuoid (in his feature directorial debut), from a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, the film stars Lewis Tan (Cole Young), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Josh Lawson (Kano), Tadanobu Asano (Lord Raiden), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Chin Han (Shang Tsung), Joe Taslim (Bi-Han / Sub-Zero), Sisi Stringer (Mileena), Max Huang (Kung Lao) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion). It is based on the video game franchise of the same name created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, serving as a reboot to the Mortal Kombat film series.

The plot follows Cole Young who is being hunted by the fearsome warrior Sub-Zero. He finds sanctuary at the temple of Lord Raiden. Training with experienced fighters Liu Kang, Kung Lao and the rogue mercenary Kano, Cole prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions to take on the enemies from Outworld in a high-stakes battle for the universe.

The movie is a huge let-down (Coming from a hardcore Mortal Kombat fan). I don't know how the Warner Bros. studio gave an approval to this terrible script. They could have done way better with the script since they had 25 years on their hand. Director Simon McQuoid on his directional debut, did his best to make it work. The movie starts strong before it crumbles under the weight of stuffing in too much game detail with little run time. It feels like a lot from the movie has been cut by the studio (reports are already coming in) who marketed it on the basis of actions only to which I am not surprised as the studio has a track record of doing that in the past(Batman v Superman, Sucker Punch, Godzilla vs Kong, Suicide Squad, Justice League, etc). Certain parts of the acting felt off. Both the Outworld and Earth realm characters felt rushed. None of them had any character arcs or backstories except Cole Young. When I heard the run time of the movie is 1 hour 50 minutes, I knew right away that the movie will only have fights and no character developments at all because you cannot introduce these many characters in a run time like that. They could have easily made this a 2.5 to 3 hour long film to bring out its full execution and added more back stories for the characters in the film. The score provided by Benjamin Wallfisch was okay. The original Mortal Kombat theme is missing in the movie (You will hear parts of it during the end credits and that's it) which is why you will not feel the energy and excitement. This film wasn't about a tournament but more of an ambush which is interesting but a lot of it didn't made any sense. The CGI and some of the fight scenes were done well. Josh Lawson's Kano was amazing. The gore and fatalities were awesome to watch. The different type of characters and their costumes were well put together considering the budget of the film. If you are watching this movie only for the fights and gore, then you won't be disappointed but other than that, the film has nothing much to offer. It sure doesn't feel like the cinematic fatality that fans truly deserve after all these years of fighting. I would recommend watching the animated movie that released in 2020 i.e. Mortal Kombat Legends: Revenge of the Scorpion and 1995's Mortal Kombat movie over this mess.

P.S. The ending tease of Johnny Cage made me exuberant.

Mortal Kombat is now available in selected theaters and on HBO Max.