![]() ![]() Upon meeting the mustached and beefy U.S. Mortal Kombat is the story of the aforementioned Cole (Tan), a washed-up MMA star with a dragon-shaped birthmark. But they are just two out of many characters who come alive in the latest film adaptation. Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada play the iconic “Sub-Zero” and “Scorpion” respectively in Mortal Kombat. You know what they say about the video game movie curse? Mortal Kombat breaks it, pulls out its spine, and proudly displays it for all to see. At the end of the day, it is simply a great time - and a most welcome return to theaters - that kicks a lot of ass as a superpowered Cobra Kai. ![]() It makes bold and divisive decisions, namely its protagonist being a fresh-faced nobody named Cole Young (Lewis Tan), whose fish-out-of-water journey is both an accessible vehicle for casual audiences and a maddening ride for lore experts.īut in a movie franchise landscape that upholds fans of a nostalgic IP as infallible rather than an indecisive hive mind subject to groupthink, Mortal Kombat is a welcome, possibly even revolutionary, thing. It is boldly not the same story of Mortal Kombat that fans remember - a plot that’s long been a gothic Enter the Dragon for tubular ‘90s kids. On the other hand, Mortal Kombat sucker punches canon. Lacking in the nostalgic 1995 film, there’s a real difference when the IP’s many Asian characters are played by Asian actors. Iconic characters like Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Liu Kang, and more come to life with not only accuracy to the games but live-action authenticity. On one hand, the new R-rated reboot is faithful to the video game franchise in ways hardcore fans will relish for eons. This video game adaptation is rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references and has a running time of 110 minutes.Like an arcade fighting game, two sides are in conflict in director Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat, out now in theaters and on HBO Max. 'Mortal Kombat' opens in theaters and on HBO Max April 23. It's weird to call any 'Mortal Kombat' grounded, but at least this movie's structure just lends itself better to the concept of deadly combat - where the individual fights have more at stake and it actually makes sense these warriors wouldn't just fight to the death - they'd want to completely obliterate their opponent.įinal verdict: 'Kombat' is exactly the movie it needs to be - a worth adaptation of a pretty basic game that joyfully celebrates all the camp and gratuitous violence of the 'Kombat' franchise. well, until the second act training section, which is admittedly where the movie stagnates a bit. This 'Kombat' finds a fun workaround that keeps the story moving. which resulted in the 1995 movie just being a series of one-on-one fights. Remember - the video game is literally just characters fighting in a one-on-one tournament. This 2021 reboot improves over the 1995 original film's slavish devotion to the video game. It's an innocuous and seemingly benign little scene - but anyone who played the original 'Kombat' knows the instant and profound frustration of playing against 'that kid' at the arcade who cheaply won fight after fight by abusing that overpowered leg sweep. ![]() One short moment in the movie has characters training for the tournament - with one character just leg sweeping his opponent to the ground over and over and over. 'Kombat' is so in the weeds of fandom that it borders on completely excluding anyone who didn't play the games. This film isn't merely fan service - it joyfully embraces the game's eccentricities and absurdities that made 'Mortal Kombat' one of the landmark games in video game history. This movie hits every beat any 'Kombat' game fan expects - such as Scorpion harpooning his opponent and yelling 'get over here' or characters whipping out their signature martial arts moves from the video games. Admittedly, if the cheeky video game memes and fan service were surgically removed from 'Kombat,' and it was just a generic movie about 'good' fighters fighting 'evil' fighters - this movie's dated feel and pedestrian plot would torpedo the movie. This reboot is totally a fan's love letter to the nearly three decade old franchise. Actually - this is basically how this 2021 reboot also plays out. The winning player doesn't merely 'win' - they straight up murder their opponent in a variety of gruesome manners. For the uninitiated, 'Mortal Kombat' is a fighting video game wherein players select one of a dozen or so characters, who then punch and kick each other until one player wins. All that said: 'Mortal Kombat' is a lot of fun because it doesn't just lean into the trappings that hinder other video game flicks - it also adapts the source material in a plot that, against all odds, makes perfect sense for a feature film structure. ![]()
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