Fatality! Mortal Kombat Delivers

Mortal Kombat has always been known for brutal finishes and intense fight sequences. A modern R Rated take on that was sure to be one thing. Violent.

On that front the film sure did deliver. Almost immediately we are shown an epic fight scene between Hanzo and Bi-Han better known to long-term fans of the game as Scorpion and Sub Zero. However the film chooses to leave the Legacy of Scorpion until later in the film.

Soon after we are introduced to Cole Young, a young and ambitious MMA Fighter who has an unknown mark of the dragon. Soon after Cole is being sought by Sub Zero before he can ever enter a tournament called Mortal Kombat which pits the best fighters of every realm against one another.

Lewis Tan stars as Cole and while he's likable he doesn't really stand out. There are so many characters to introduce and flesh out that almost all of them get lost among the action sequences. Only the violence really stands out and with the amount of it in this movie there is little room to add depth to the plot. It transitions from mediocre scenes about honor and bravery to badass action.

It's fun because it's new age visuals and it's R Rated. Beyond that it's very simple on all accounts. No dialogue is really important aside from the tournament explanations. It's what hurts the film the most to be honest. While it laid plenty of sequel ideas including a very blunt poster at the end it should have tried to set itself apart from other action films by focusing more on the lore itself. It essentially glosses over its own key elements moving forward to propel itself to the smaller scale conclusion while deliberately dropping the clues as to what comes next. Bigger and badder threats like every other film.

It would have been a better cinematic experience with surround sound and the in your face action but Covid unfortunately changed the game on that and forced this film into HBO Max. It's fairly easy to process if you are coming without much knowledge of the games or previous films. It's just not loaded with depth or world building to capture those new audience members. It's chalked full of what I believe fans would enjoy and remains serviceable to those looking for artistic violence. There are people who will pass it up because of that and it's understandable. It's not a masterpiece from a narrative standpoint so if violence isn't something you are okay with this film may be a pass. It's not one of those middle ground films where you can convince casual friends to watch it.

It seems cut up to get from action set to action set and reminds me very much of how a video game would play out. Skipable cinematics with very sleek action with well timed moves that keep you guessing about the final fight. The big boss as video games call it. The final unlockable character after all that progress comes out for the final fight. It's epic even if you aren't the biggest fan of the game to see those moves unfold and the choreography it would take to create them.

It's not hard to like this film because it does do a lot right in terms of creating a story that can make sense to almost everyone who watches it. It's packed with notable characters and still leaves a lot of wiggle room for the rest of the story to play out down the line as well. It's almost guaranteed that this is will lead to a franchise, it will be fun to see in what capacity and how deep they take it. I hope when considering the potential for a series of films they consider adding a little more depth to the plot just so that violence feels a little more earned and can resonate a little deeper when feeling the sting of a beloved character's loss down the line. All in good fun but not for the faint of heart or for a family film night. Watch this when the kiddos have gone to bed and be absolutely certain they aren't sneaking any peeks because this film could be traumatizing to a young child.