1995’s Mortal Kombat was the arguably first success for films based on video games. It made $124 million at the box office and held the highest critical rating for the movies of that genre for 23 years. That was quite an accomplishment with much of what made the video game infamous removed in favor of being more kid-friendly.
Those kids are now old enough to have kids of their own and crave more of the dark entertainment the original film and its sequel missed so a reboot feels right. However, does an updated take on Mortal Kombat result in a good or better film?
Mortal Kombat is the cinematic embodiment of the good, bad, and ugly. The good starts with James Wan adding his touch to the franchise. While he isn’t serving in his usual director or writer role in this film, Wan’s fingerprints are all over it.
Because it’s half hyperviolent and half supernatural, Mortal Kombat provides the perfect platform for Wan’s mastery of visual and sound effects to shine. The fights get just as gory and bloody as those in the source material. Every bone break and body slash/stab sounds so crisp and clear that you can almost feel it.
The tight fight choreography is also a plus. From the film’s first fight alone, you realize the technical aspects of this Mortal Kombat are a vast improvement over the 1995 version. The Scorpion and Sub Zero scenes are where the advances dazzle.
The bad comes in the form of the film’s script. No one watches a movie like Mortal Kombat and expects award-winning storytelling because you’re not there to laugh or cry – you’re there for fights and fatalities. However, the writing in this film is dull for something with that level of low expectations.
It lacks anything that would endear an audience beyond the fighting. It’s light on humor, except for Kano’s occasional wisecracks, and there’s nothing that gives the audience a reason to root for any of the characters.
A script devoid of such things would be fine if it had minute-by-minute brawls, which should have been a given due to everything being center around the tournament bearing the film’s name, but guess what? The script doesn’t include the tournament beyond numerous mentions and the characters’ preparation for it, magnifying the bad writing issue.
On a brighter note, the script remains pretty faithful to the Mortal Kombat video games storywise and includes a slew of the games’ best characters. That is the only that keeps it from being ugly.
Speaking of ugly, the worst part of Mortal Kombat is the Cole Young character. Tan’s portrayal of the character isn’t earthshattering but it’s not bad at all. The problem is the character itself.
Cole Young presents a problem because he is the worst character in the film. He’s arguably the weakest from an attribute standpoint. His special abilities and attacks are boring and do not belong in the same film as Sub Zero and Scorpion
He’s built more for a Street Fighter film than a Mortal Kombat one. His awkward placement is reminiscent of the Tripp character showing up in the last season of Living Single – who thought this was ok and when are they firing the person who made the pick?
Mortal Kombat is a film that gets a lot right and equally as much wrong. The right is solely due to the special effects and upgraded fight scenes. The wrong comes from a misplaced character and a shoddy script that lacks everything, including the fights it needs and promises.
If you’re a fan of the original Mortal Kombat games and films, this iteration should be enough to satisfy you because of the upgrades. If you’re new to the Mortal Kombat universe, it’s probably best you pass on this one until you have exposure to the older games and films.