Film review: Mortal kombat (2021)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy 

Cert: R-rated

Director:  Simon McQuoid

Screenwriter: (screenplay by) Greg Russo, Dave Callaham, (story by) Oren Uziel, Greg Russo,(based on the videogame created by) Ed Boon, John Tobias

Starring: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Matilda Kimber, Laura Brent, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Chin Han, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Sisi Stringer, Mel Jarnson, Nathan Jones, Daniel Nelson, Ian Streetz, Yukiko Shinohara, Ren Miyagawa, Mia Hall, David Field, Kris McQuade, Angus Sampson, Alice Nassery, Damon Herriman

Running time: 1h 50min

Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scenes may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: Occasional crude sexual humor. Frequent references to sex.

Violence & Gore: The film features frequent strong fight scenes that feature large blood sprays, dismemberment, and disembowelment.

Many depictions of high impact injury detail including bone, muscles, and organ detail visible.

Kung Lao throws his hat into the sand and while it's spinning he grabs them and swings the person inside the spinning hat and it slices the person in half, sort of brief but extremely gory.

Jax uses his arms to smash his head. No remainings left, Gory but quickly over.

Someone gets sliced in half by Kung Lao's hat. This scene is onscreen and is very gory.

The violence in the film is very brutal at times.

 

Profanity: The film features frequent use of the word "f**k".

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: one character drinking beer

Frightening/Intense Scenes: A few of the fight scenes are intense and bloody, which might make you feel sick.

Story: MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage-or why Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family's safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang), and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), as he prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana-the immense power from within his soul-in time to save?

Likes: Finally we get to see the new mortal kombat film, but is it any good? I can honestly say yes it's good, but there is room for improvement for a sequel. The characterizations are insanely good (from costumes to personalities), BUT !!!!! this film is 100% fan service for those that know the lure of the mortal kombat world you probably enjoy it, but you might not like the movie that much as a fan would.

That said the movie does offer great fights as especial with a lot of them not using CGI and using excellent chorographs martial ats from some well known martial artist in their own right, Especial with Subzero (Joe Taslim) and scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) offer some of the best Martial artists moves in samurai sword fighting and kung fu giving the audience entertainment that they will love. 

(Jessica McNamee) playing Sonia blade really holds her own in this film, gives some amazing military combat skills that show on screen, pulling the character off quite well. (Mehcad Brooks) surprisingly pulls off Command Jax pretty well in this film which from the trailers we know that in his first encounter with subzero he loses his arms which is actually lore accurate. While that fight with subzero was good, I found his second fight was a little short and a little mediocre which I think could've been improved in the film. 

As for Shang Tsung's character which got a lot of screen time played brilliantly by (Chin Han)gave a much young middle age Shang Tsung who pulled off the ruthless disregard from tournament rules defy the gods of outworld trying to cheat which comes off pretty well. With a few throw-away characters and brutal fatality that are just sick and bloody as hell, I give probs to the FX team for the Special effects which really make this film true to the Mortal Kombat lore. 

With Cole turner and washed out MMA (mix martial arts) who played pretty well in the film by Lewis Tan, the backstory to who cole is actually added a new character to the Franchise of mortal kombat instead of just have a character added that make no sense, here his character is giving a brief back story which actually makes sense that fans of the franchise might come to love and route for. 

 
VFX in the film is outstanding special when they gave Subzero this ghostly walk-out-of-sight movement making his character really creepy, along with the ice effects in a real-world really stands out and look natural.  

The fight training scene was well choreographed with Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) training the team to home their skills, which I'm glad they went with the not giving them the powers, they had to unlock them through chi which was good writing for this type of film. There was one funny moment with Liu Kang and Kano, which I won't spoil I 'l just saying it was very game-related to players and very funny. 

Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) actually pretty good as the lord of thunder and protector of the earth, he does have one brief funny moment, that not over cheesy but was pretty funny.  Kano (Josh Lawson) pulled off that assusy accent  OMG!!!!! That fact Lewis tan was meant to be the main star of the film John stole the limelight with his portrayal as kano truly one of the most entertaining and funny as hell moments through this film playing the typical run of the mill dog, just trash-talking everything and being a mouthy w****r truly give the best Kano portrayal yet. 

While I would say that this film is good, it's not without its flaws and issues, but don't expect this to be a tournament fight as this is just an origin story to set up more films which yes I would say it deserves and its a far better film than the Sequel of the original mortal kombat the abomination Mortal kombat annihilation.

Dislikes: The biggest issue with this film is it trying to be an origin story while cramming characters in for a tournament film universe movies, which does in areas work where in other areas doesn't.
It does come across if Kano's character wasn't in the film, it would have been a very bland and mediocre film just borderline in entertainment value. 

Two characters that felt like pointless characters, could've been left for a sequel as they only seemed to be in the film to give the blood and gore moments.  Mileena (Sisi Stringer) and Reiko (Nathan Jones) felt like wasted character moments when these characters could've been left for a sequel. 

the story was a little messy in places with expedition parts which I understand they didn't want to bring the tournament in the first film, I feel the film could've been a little longer with more fights. 

      

Overall: great adaption of the mortal kombat lore, bloody and gore in places. 100% fan service film

Rating:  5 out of 5 for Entertainment / 8 out of 10 for adaption, there room for improvement.