Mortal Kombat Movie Review

Today is the day, Mortal Kombat is releasing in theaters and on HBO Max. This is a movie many fans of the video-games has been waiting for since 1995.

This is a movie which is taking a huge risk with the movie adding fatalities and an insane amount of blood, but does it pay off?

Spoilers below!!!!

Short Review

The movie begins in 1617 at the Hanzo Hasashi compound where the Shirai Ryu ninja clan and Hanzo’s family reside. The compound is attacked by a rival clan, Lin Kuei assassins led by Bi-Han, they killed everyone including Hanzo’s wife and young son. After Hanzo sees this he goes into a rage, killing many assassins, and eventually engages with Bi-Han, after a fierce battle, Bi-Han comes out on top and leaves while Hanzo crawls back to his family before dying. and taken to the Neatherealm. Lord Raiden arrives and takes a young baby away to safety.

Cut to the present day where we are introduced to the new character of the franchise, Cole Young, a pretty much down and out MMA fighter who’s taken fights for $200, he has a fight in which he taps out and this is when we are introduced to Jax who’s interested in Coles dragon birthmark. Cole goes with his family to get food when it starts to snow and the area is attacked by Bi-Han now going by the name Sub-Zero, skip forward a few scenes, and get our first Mortal Kombat fatality with Jax “dying” to Sub-Zero and losing his arms in the process.

Skipping forward a little bit, we get to see Reptile, another character from the video games, he attacks Cole, Sonya, and Kano, and after a battle, Kano manages to rip Reptiles heart out, they then head to Raiden’s temple where they meet Lord Raiden, Liu Kang, and an injured Jax.

Later on, after some rough first training sessions, the temple is attacked by Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero, Mileena, Reiko, Kabal, and Nitara, this is where Kano turns on the champions of Earthrealm, Kung Lao uses a fatality on Nitara when he literally slices her in half, as Lord Raiden is teleporting the champions away, Kung Lao falls victim to Shang Tsung’s soul-sucking ability in front of an enraged Liu Kang.

Later on, the champions come up with a plan to separate the villains, each takes a villain and defeats them in Kombat, this is where Cole gets his powers from when he and his family are attacked by Goro. Each champion manages to kill their respective enemy.

Sub-Zero manages to use Coles family as bait to lure Cole back to the fighting cage where he was in the beginning, after a small fight, Hanzo is brought back and we get an epic to the death rematch between Hanzo and Bi-Han, it’s back and forth until Cole joins Scorpion in the battle against Sub-Zero, they both manage to kill Bi-Han.

The movie then ends but not without setting up a potential sequel movie, especially after teasing Johnny Cage. This makes sense since the Sub-Zero actor, Joe Taslim has stated he’s signed on for four more Mortal Kombat movies in the future with this one does well.

Top 7 Moments

1. HBO Max released the first 7 minutes of the movie a few days ago, they teased an epic showdown between the two characters, Hanzo and Bi-Han, this fight was absolutely brutal, so much better than I expect, it was raw, bloody, and brutal. This is a fight taken straight from the video games.

2. My next moment is something we got teased within the trailers, Jax Briggs losing his arms to Sub-Zero, again they teased and delivered with this scene. Mehcad Brooks is the perfect Jax. His fight scene with Sub-Zero was great, both showed power, both showcased their force with Sub-Zero being brutal as ever and freezing Jax’s arms off.

3. Ludi Lin’s introduction in the movie as Liu Kang, immediately throwing a fireball into Kano in the desert, and coming in with his Shaolin Monk ways and becomes a leader and teacher for the group of future Earthrealm champions.

4. My next point is basically another introduction to a character, this time it’s Kung Lao’s introduction. When the temple is being attacked by Shang Tsung’s forces, we get teased with a potential showdown between Liu Kang and Sub-Zero until Kung Lao makes the save. Max Huang is such a great talent, I could see no one portraying Kung Lao better.

5. Liu Kang vs Kabal, Kung Lao vs Nitara, both of these fights were great, especially with Kabal using his speed against Liu Kang, whereas Kung Lao uses his patience to finish Nitara off by using his hat to slice her in half and saying the famous saying “Flawless Victory”.

6. The pain in Liu Kang when Shang Tsung kills Kung Lao, this is what pushes the champions together is Kung Lao’s death, this is what set something alight inside of Liu Kang, this was such an important death scene. I hope we see more of Kung Lao and Liu Kang’s friendship in future movies.

7. Scorpion’s return with the phrase “GET OVER HERE” was absolutely perfect, this instantly took me back to playing the video games. Then the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero rematch was absolutely great, you could feel the tension and the throwbacks to the original fight in which Hanzo sliced Bi-Hans face.

Standout Characters

Everyone. I’ll follow up in a future article about this.

Recommendation

1000% Definitely. Fans of the franchise will love this from the characters to story to action, and to fatalities, casual fans will like this movie for the action and story as well as the entertainment.

Overall Verdict

The movie opened with action and didn’t stop until the credits started to roll. The story was a simple story from the video games, about the Mortal Kombat tournament but for this movie, they slightly changed it with Shang Tsung trying to conquer Earthrealm without winning the 10th tournament.

The characters that we got introduced to throughout the movie were hands down some of the best casting choices a movie has made. The action was some of the goriest, brutal, bloody, and downright awful (in a good way) fight scenes.

The movie took some huge risks like introducing the fatalities and finishing moves from the video games. They took this risk and they paid off in full. While the movie did have some of the bloodiest fight scenes, it fit the movie perfectly, it felt true to Mortal Kombat and any fan will tell you it did as well.

The acting from the cast was special, you could absolutely tell that this movie was directed by a fan, the actors were fans of the franchise, this movie was made for the fans, by fans which make this movie even more special.

Another risk the movie took was adding Lewis Tan’s Character, Cole Young into the movie and not only that but also the movie’s main character. The character fit into this universe without a doubt, I personally think this was because of Lewis Tan himself, He had a huge job of making this character likable and he did just that, this franchise has a long history so bringing in a new character and making him feel right at home is no small job at all, Lewis did this perfectly. You can feel that he wanted to make this character grounded and vulnerable throughout the movie. This character was developed greatly throughout the movie.

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Rating: 9.6/10

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Photo: Ludi Lin and Max Huang in Mortal Kombat