"Mortal Kombat" amusingly gnarly and dopey but primarily for fans

 

Mortal Kombat (2021)

The new “Mortal Kombat” deserves this much: it’s probably the closest the fantasy fighting video game from the 1990s will ever get to looking like a legitimate, hyper-violent movie where characters realistically bleed. Call that a flawless victory if you must. Following Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 original adaptation, an ultra-silly fusion of techno, kung fu, camp, and overcooked Velveeta (and its hilariously incompetent 1997 sequel), gamers can unite over this deservedly R-rated, comparably self-serious reboot. Of course, nobody—not even the uninitiated or those with exceptional, discriminating taste—is going into this dopey video game movie and expecting Akira Kurosawa. But where this new “Mortal Kombat” easily surpasses its dated predecessors with slicker effects and more impressive kombat set-pieces, it only sometimes delivers the "fun" in being dumb fun. It's mostly just dumb.

Before the silliness really begins, “Mortal Kombat” actually gets off to a compelling start with the prologue set in 17th-century Japan. There’s tension and emotional stakes, and the martial arts choreography is exciting and fluidly staged before ninja master Hanzo Hashashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is murdered by ice-making Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) and banished to Hell. Hashashi’s lineage lives on in the film’s “original” character, bland Earthrealm hero Cole Young (Lewis Tan), an MMA cage fighter with a family to protect. Unbeknownst to him, Cole’s birthmark—in the shape of a dragon—makes him one of the chosen champions to compete in a deathmatch tournament between the two realms. When he and his family are attacked by Cryomancer warrior Bi-Han (who now goes by kooler villain name Sub-Zero), Cole must heed the advice of Special Forces soldier Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), who bears the same dragon mark, and find Sonya (Jessica McNamee). Together, Cole and Sonya must reach the Outworld realm and the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) to train amidst other champions, including foul-mouthed mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), fireball-throwing Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), and Kung Lao (Max Huang), whose conical edge hat doubles as a frisbee buzzsaw to most crowd-pleasingly gruesome effect. Let ‘em fight!

Simon McQuoid makes his feature directorial debut with this straight-through-the-eyeballs, check-your-brain-at-the-door fan service. He shows more finesse in the set-pieces where the characters are kombatting (despite some being over-edited when we have to follow more than one concurrent fight) and less so when they have to actually talk and explain themselves. The script by first-timer Greg Russo and Dave Callaham (2020’s “Wonder Woman 1984”) is all forward-looking setup and hardly a guide on “How to Prioritize Turning a Video Game into a Good First Movie," as it assumes everyone watching has played the game more than once since 1992. Having characters introduce themselves apparently equates to adequate character development, but it's not nearly enough to make these people worth latching onto or make them as interesting as their powers (or, excuse me, "arcana"). Any time the movie takes a leap in its own world-building rules—or a reptilian assassin shows up, only to have its heart ripped out—one can simply chalk it up to, “Oh, it must have been in the game!” 

In step with a more grounded approach, the performances are mostly wooden, but nearly everyone else around Lewis Tan, as conduit Cole, is more charismatic. Jessica McNamee (2018's "The Meg") is, to be frank, more convincingly tough than Bridgette Wilson ever was as Sonya Blade and gets all of the ponderous lore exposition, while Mehcad Brooks (2018's "Nobody's Fool") gets to look buff, even when his arms go missing, as Jax. Chin Han is no ham-tastic Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Outworld ruler Shang Tsung, but martial artist Joe Taslim (2011's "The Raid: Redemption") is plenty menacing as the ruthless Sub-Zero, even as half of his face is covered throughout. It’s Josh Lawson (2019's "Bombshell") who all but steals the whole movie as abrasive Aussie loose-cannon Kano; the wisecracks he gets to spout may often land with an unintended thud, but at least Kano has a personality.

If we all went to see our favorite scaly and furry titans play Sock’em Boppers and got stuck with more human stuff in “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Mortal Kombat” does give primarily what the fans want since it's all for them. Character walk-ons and catchphrases ("Finish him!") will cue applause. Violent skirmishes end in Fatalities (read: finishing moves) that get as squishy and gory in presentation as those in the game. Finally, it would be a nonnegotiable to not include half-human/half-dragon monster Goro in all his four-armed, ponytailed glory, and it’s glorious when his guts fall out. In spite of ticking off every box for fan recognition, there is no actual Mortal Kombat, just a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. 

“Mortal Kombat” is amusing during its gnarliest gore moments, but it mostly comes down to assembling dour people we don’t really know and leading up to a stakes-free tournament that will just have to wait. When Shang Tsung says, “Death is only another portal” and mentions a “next time,” one begins to wonder why we should care about any of this if characters can die and constantly be resurrected (and don’t even make the same argument for Michael Myers). Getting slightly ahead of itself by promising the round-up of new champions and baiting audiences with plans for the next ten movies to come feels more like a Fatality on all of us.

Grade: C

Warner Bros. Pictures is releasing “Mortal Kombat” (110 min.) in theaters and on HBO Max on April 23, 2021.