So recently the 2021 movie, Mortal Kombat released, a new video game adaption turned live-action, the movie was hands down great, it has some of the best cast, action and is the best video game adaption in my opinion.
But while the movie is getting praised, I want to speak purely about the cast. Each cast member was great in their respective roles so much so that in my review I couldn’t even pick a standout character to give props too so I decided to wait and do this article.
Lewis Tan as Cole Young
Lewis Tan without a doubt had the hardest job ever in this movie, by not only having to give a great performance but he had to bring a new character made solely for the movie into this long deep history of the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Lewis had to bring in this character to be likable, a worthy champion, and a straight-up badass, you can feel that he wanted to make this character grounded and vulnerable throughout the movie. Lewis portrayed the hell out of Cole, his character development alone was remarkable.
Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade
Jessica McNamee has been praised since the release of the movie as one of the best actors in this movie to portray a character in this movie, even to the point to be called the best “Sonya Blade ever” and I have to agree, The actor who portrayed Sonya in the old Mortal Kombat movies did absolutely nothing for me, however, Jessica did.
Jessica brought Sonya Blade to the forefront of the movie as someone who didn’t receive the Mortal Kombat mark until near the end of the movie, she held her own throughout the movie with no “powers”. She was a fierce, badass woman who took no BS from anyone including a badass Kano.
Josh Lawson as Kano
Now, where to start with Kano? Firstly, for me, he was the funniest character in the movie, with one-liners and the funniest moments in the movie, especially towards Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang character. As well as the chemistry between him and Sonya Blade.
Josh Lawson absolutely smashed this role. This was my first time seeing Josh in anything and what a start to make me a fan. Josh Lawson deserves praise for his acting throughout this movie, especially the scene with Reptile in the movie, but no scene was better than when he got his powers.
Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs
I’ll admit that when I heard Mehcad was cast in this movie and no less than cast as Jax, I wasn’t sure it would work, then I got to see some of the stuff he went through for this movie by bulking up and putting on muscle. This became better once I watched his interviews in the promotional material that I understood his love for this franchise.
Mehcad’s Jax is a badass, however, in the movie he had one scene where I truly felt insanely bad for him, and that’s when he first got his metal arms. It was this badass character who was basically done with life because of what happened. I only know Mehcad from Supergirl so seeing his passion for this franchise made me a bigger fan of Mehcad and Jax.
Ludi Lin as Liu Kang
Ludi Lin is a phenomenal actor. He’s been in 3 huge franchises now and killed each role he’s had, first was Power Rangers in 2017 which originally made me a fan, then it was Aquaman, and now Mortal Kombat and as one of the best Mortal Kombat characters, Liu Kang. Such an iconic character.
Instantly when we got introduced to Liu Kang in the movie, I said to myself, “wow, Ludi actually suits this role so much”. I still believe that. Ludi absolutely nailed this role physically and mentally. Mentally, Ludi nailed it, being a teacher and trainer to the newer champions, physically he absolutely destroyed the role, in one scene he was topless, he was insanely shredded, it was unbelievable.
Max Huang as Kung Lao
Max Huang was only in the movie a short amount of time but in that time he absolutely killed it, he had some great moments especially the scene with Kano. Another scene that stands out is the scene where Sub-Zero is about to fight Liu Kang and Kung Lao makes his entrance saving Liu Kang.
But hands down, Kung Lao had one of, if not, the best scene in where he did a fatality and absolutely cut someone in half. This was one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie, this move was important straight from the game. Not forgetting that Max Huang is a part of Jackie Chan’s stunt team so his moves and stunts in this movie were top notch.
Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion
The movie opened with Hanzo and the final battle was with Hanzo. Hiroyuki Sanada was the perfect choice for Scorpion in my opinion. We’ve seen Hiroyuki Sanada in many samurai movies in the past so he has had plenty of experience in this field.
In the final battle, he was even better than he was in the beginning. He was more brutal, more in tune with the character of Scorpion. The design of Scorpion was amazing as well and highlighted even more with a great performance by Hiroyuki Sanada.
Sisi Stringer as Mileena
Mileena was straight-up scary in this movie, she was freaky, disgusting, and badass. She wasn’t bothered to fight anyone, she took the fight to anyone Shang Tsung told her to. Sisi Stringer’s performance was great in every scene we saw her.
I hope we see more of Sisi as Mileena as I would love to see her interact with Kitana. This is only fueled more by Sisi asking her fans if they want to see her play Kitana in the sequel, so this gives me hope that she will indeed return to the Mortal Kombat movies if given a sequel.
Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden
Tadanobu Asano truly captured the strict mentality of Lord Raiden in this movie, where Lord Raiden is all about getting what needs to be done done. Tadanobu’s performance of Lord Raiden is for me the closest thing to the video game than previous live-action Lord Raiden’s.
Lord Raiden in the movie doesn’t think twice about standing up to Shang Tsung and protecting what the elder gods have created. His design is great as well and his introduction in the movie was great as well, coming in, saving a baby, and then leaving again.
Chin Han as Shang Tsung
Once again, this performance was great and truly matched that of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in the 1995 Mortal Kombat live-action movie. His design was great and he was truly a menacing villain, however not the best villain in the movie. Chin Han did enough to cement his place in this movie by defying the elder gods.
Throughout the movie Chin Han’s Shang Tsung was a badass, storming Lord Raiden’s temple, killing people, and defying the elder gods as I mentioned previously. I would like to see more of this version of the character.
Joe Taslim as Bi-Han/Sub-Zero
Joe Taslim, what a standout in this movie. He truly made Sub-Zero a menacing, ruthless, and cold (pun intended) villain. He made you hate him from the beginning of the movie right up until the end. Bi-Han was ruthless in this, I couldn’t believe how well Joe portrayed this character.
A great performance was backed up with even better fight scenes and brutality. He stopped at nothing to finish his mission of helping Shang Tsung. Sub-Zero’s design was great in this movie, his armor was impressive, slick, and just insanely detailed. Joe Taslim was a top 3 character for sure in this movie! I NEED MORE OF BI-HAN!
I’ve mentioned throughout this article that the actors were badass in their roles, however, what truly made this cast a great cast was their love and dedication to this movie, this franchise, and delivering the best video game adaption to the Mortal Kombat fans.
It also was a huge plus that the cast were also long-time fans of Mortal Kombat with many actors being cast as their favorite character from the video game world.
For me, this is the best video game adaption that has been made in live-action, this has set the bar for all future video game adapted movies or series in the future.
This was made by fans, for the fans of Mortal Kombat. This is was made the movie that much more special.
