It has been a hot minute since I saw the original Mortal Kombat movie from 1995, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starred Christopher Lambert as Raiden and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawas as Shang Tsung among others. Let me just say that movie lived on in my head a lot different than it actually was, I decided to re-watch the original before seeing the new version and there is some stuff that holds up and a lot that does not hold up. We are not here to talk about that movie though we are here to talk about about the new adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name into a movie format, this time directed by first time director Simon McQuoid and starring Joe Taslim, Lewis Tan and Jessica McNamee to name a few of the faces I have seen else where that I did not know their names cast. The movie opens with a little back story of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, I have not played the games since like the 4th or 5th installment, but, even back then the rivalry between those two has always been a prominent center point. Then we learn that there is a tournament that takes place every so often between the Earth and Out World where who ever wins 10 out of 10 gets control of Earth, well 9 out of 10 wins has gone to the Out World which is ruled by Shang Tsung (Chin Han) who is cheating a bit by trying to find Earth’s champions for the final round of the tournament and kill them off before they can actually fight in the tournament. That is the basis of this movie is Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) is a god like character that sees what is occurring with Shang Tsung and decides to help Earth out a little bit and gather the fights then assist them discovering their powers. How do we know who is a fighter worthy of being in Mortal Kombat, super easy there are birthmarks in the shape of the Mortal Kombat dragon that get passed down through bloodlines or are won by defeating another fighter, that birthmark then give you superpowers that manifest when the time is right. See this is where I bring up two names Oren Uziel and Greg Russo, who are these people you may be wondering...or maybe not...either way, they are the writers behind this screenplay which I blame for half of what is wrong with this movie is the story just is so-so, you have Oren who has penned things like 22 Jump Street, The Cloverfield Paradox and an episode of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy television show, grant it not all masterpieces, but, at least has some experience in the screenplay realm. Then you have Greg who has written nothing before this, there is a story to be told though its surface deep and many times feels made up as they went along to make sure we get this person to this place to fight this person and then to make sure we have that thing the fans will know pop up there and there. The other half of the problems falls onto the shoulders of Simon McQuoid where it is very obvious his first directing job as there are some questionable choices of shot locations and what I can only think were choices forced by budgetary constraints that were not the right choices or lack of experience did not allow creativity within the confines of the budget. As I have said, I do not bring much knowledge of the video games to the table outside of knowing some of the characters, terminology and lines, I did recognize several nods to the source material there are sure more that I missed just because of not being aware they existed in the first place. To me it felt like they wanted this movie to reach a certain level and they just didn’t have that experience to get the movie up and over the hurdle to where they wanted it to go, of course you know they are trying to get a franchise going with it leave off for an obvious sequel, if Warner Bros brings together a more seasoned team for the sequel and they are able to tie up some issues with this one they could have an Aliens or T2 level sequel in their books. I almost feel like they should have expanded the franchise, maybe not to a cinematic universe level, but, do a couple smaller movies leading up the Mortal Kombat tournament name sake. That’s the way G.I. Joe with the new Snake Eyes movie coming out seems to be going focusing on one character, to me the opening sequence with Sub-Zero and Scorpion was the best part of the movie, do like a stand alone bout those two characters and then maybe one with Jaxx and Sonya then do another with a couple more then bring them all together to fight. The characters we don’t get much backstory on them or its brief and for me with a fighting movie I want to know who they are where they come from why am I rooting for them not to die. In the end those that are fans of the video games will find enough fan service to keep them entertained, those that are not will be left wanting more.
In theaters now
&
Streaming on HBOMax through May 23
