Video Game based movies have generally been a wasteland. The original Mortal Kombat(1995) is one of the rare darlings of the genre. This was short lived by the universally panned follow up Mortal Kombat Annihilation(1997). It’s been awhile, but Mortal Kombat finally makes it way back to the big screen. So does it stick the landing? ehhhhhh…. I’d say it lands on two feet, lets talk about it.

The Recap

For those unfamiliar, let me tell you what Mortal Kombat is suppose to be. In this universe, there are multiple realms or dimensions. The Elder Gods of this universe will allow realms the right to invade one another if they participate in Mortal Kombat. This is a special tournament where each realm can select a number of their best champions to fight in a tournament( usually to the death ). If a realm wins 10 Mortal Kombats in a row, it can without impunity invade the losing realm. This film picks up as “Earth Realm” is set to participate in it’s 10th Mortal Kombat. It has lost the previous 9 contest, so this is Earth’s final stand.

Those are the bones of the story, and its’ the films job to transform that to a compelling and/or entertaining narrative. Let’s just jump to the end here, it does not. If what I outlined in the previous paragraph sounded interesting, and you wanted to see it. Join the club because I did too. There is no tournament in this film, it occupies an awkward space before the tournament starts. The champions of the invading realm decide to cheat. They start picking off Earth champions before the tournament begins. In this sense, the movie is very much a prequel.

There are only a handful of Earth champions. Half of them have no clue what Mortal Kombat is. More importantly they don’t even know they are champions in the first place. The end result here is ALOT of narrative exposition dumps. Just constantly explaining what should be the basic rules of the universe. Frankly.. there is more talking in this movie than fighting. Also, the sound track sucks. This usually isn’t a big deal for me, but the 1995 MK soundtrack is tremendous. They should have hit copy/paste on that one.

Some things work

With all that said.. it’s not all bad. I promise you the film plays boring, but it absolutely LOOKS THE PART. Securing the R-Rating so they could bring some of that iconic Mortal Kombat brutality is really great. Hearing a lot of the familiar one-liners and some pretty cool adaptations of special moves is on the money. The fight scenes mostly deliver, they really only tend to falter at how short some of them are.

Sub-Zero is fantastic, point-blank period. Sub-Zero is fantastic, point-blank period. That wasn’t a typo, I just felt the need to say it twice. Most of the characters look and sound the part. Kano is an absolute scene stealer. Veteran fans of the series will be giddy to watch some of these things play out. Newbies to the series should find the spectacle entertaining.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, I think what went wrong here feels a bit like a Justice League scenario at play ( Warner Bros showing a pattern? ). The movie is way more interested in being a setup for the franchise instead of a solid standalone film. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a Part 2 and Part 3 are already well underway. Trying to jump start an entire franchise in one film puts you in a bad situation. You need to be long in the tooth explaining everything and intentionally vague on any kind of ending.

Bonus Round

How would I have fixed this movie – I generally don’t do this because I am neither a film director or screenwriter but…… If this is what they wanted to deliver. The first thing I would have done is change the name and not told a single soul this was Mortal Kombat prequel until it released.

Some of that legwork is done already. They have an original character not in the game. Have some fancy shadowy type invite him to a special tournament. Show some cool fight set pieces without focusing too hard on any particular character. Then at the end of the trailer… show an ice shard get stuck in a wall, scorpion kunai, something….. CUT TO BLACK. Then let the social media machine take over once folks start watching it. If you cut 30 mins of the boring stuff out this movie. I think it would be fine and forgiven if some stuff isn’t explained. You fully commit to the prequel idea. Take a bunch of the pressure off the narrative, learn from any mistakes and make the actual Mortal Kombat movie later. If only…..