Movie Review: Mortal Kombat

Has there ever been a lower bar for a movie reboot to clear than the one Mortal Kombat was presented with? Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is widely considered to be an unwatchable embarrassment to the brand and despite developing somewhat of a semi-ironic cult following over the years, the OG 1995 movie is completely sanitized in the fighting department and too self-aware with its cheesiness for its own good. The 2021 Mortal Kombat was able to take advantage of the non-existent quality floor brought on by the sins of its predecessors and delivered a cinematic product that should feel familiar to anyone that's played even a little bit of MK over the course of its nearly 30-year existence.

Underneath all of the spin kicks and over-the-top viscera, the Mortal Kombat series is really just a tribute to classic martial arts movies. The respect and understanding of the underrecognized driving force behind the franchise is why this Mortal Kombat movie soars where the others faltered. This project recreates the shameless cheesiness of a Bruce Lee, Jet Li or Tony Jaa project to such a faithful degree that I'd dare to say it's kind of heartwarming. The story spins an utterly ridiculous web that is delivered in the most serious way imaginable, a comically excessive electronic score bursts into every training montage and lethal throwdown with the force of a wrecking ball through a glass window and the centerpiece fight scenes that the target audience came for are graceful enough to appreciate the intricacies of the choreography yet chaotic enough to remind the audience that its based on a game where calculated manic button smashing is crucial to achieving success. Martial arts movies have played such a crucial, underappreciated role in shaping the global action movie marketplace and it was cool to see that classic essence infused into a movie adaptation of the video game series that has unwittingly helped popularize the artform outside of Asia over the past few generations.

The other distinct advantage of this Mortal Kombat is having an R-rating to work with, which means we get to see the series' signature fatalities in their full gory glory for the first time ever. Clearly there are some limits present in the movie medium that prevents them from going as far as the game does in the violence/gore department (Sub-Zero's signature spine rip is omitted for this very reason), but what made it to the screen is pretty great. The filmmakers do a good job of spacing them out so every character gets their own epic spotlight moment and the terrific visual effects helped bring these iconic finishing moves to life in faithful, dazzlingly badass fashion (Jax's Head Smash, Kung Lao's Hat Slice and Liu Kang's Fire Dragon were the best of the bunch). Mortal Kombat fans have been waiting a very long time to see the fatalities portrayed in a live action film and thankfully the team behind this film recognized the importance of getting them right.

Even though this is a clear origin story with the massive titular tournament and signature characters like Johnny Cage and Smoke yet to arrive, it's hard to imagine a Mortal Kombat movie being much better than this. Everything from the look/feel down to the casting and obligatory moments of fan service worked and there's really no way for a video game movie that captures the spirit and entertainment value of the property that it's based on to make any significant improvements moving forward. Despite the limitations that can be applied to the franchise's future forecast, director Simon McQuoid and co-writers Dave Callaham and Greg Russo deserve a lot of props for finally bringing a faithful and satisfying Mortal Kombat movie into the world.          

Grade: B