I’m including the official HBO age-restricted trailer for Mortal Kombat, but also the regular one if you don’t feel like redirecting to YouTube. Because somehow that redirect will stop under-agers from watching? I guess? Right?
Synopsis:
MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe.
Directed by: Simon McQuoid
Screenplay by: Greg Russo, Dave Callaham
Story by: Oren Uziel, Greg Russo
Based on the Videogame Created by: Ed Boon, John Tobias
My Edition:
Streaming (HBO Max)
My Thoughts:
Finally. This is why I paid for a month of HBO Max. The one and only reason. Because it’s fucking expensive. But totally worth it to see the movie of my dreams. And now, over a month later, because I’m so backed up on review content, you have to hear ALL. ABOUT. IT.
So, for starters I’m a MK fan going all the way back. I grew up playing the console/arcade games (at least up until 3 – nothing after that was quite the same, so I vote it doesn’t really matter that I got spotty after that). And I saw both original movies in theater. I still get fucking weird-hyped every time I hear the original movie theme by The Immortals.
I love that like half the song is just listing character names/ending moves. And the rest is kinda just crazy-screaming MORTAL KOMBAT! Brilliant.
If you’ve seen the original Mortal Kombat (1995) and/or Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, you know that they left…something to be desired. I’m trying really hard to be polite. The first one was pretty alright, although the CG certainly hasn’t held up well. But we all know the 90’s was a CGI hellscape. It was all uniformly terrible. It had stellar casting (kasting?) with standouts like Christopher Lambert as Lord Raiden, Robin Shou as Liu Kang, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung. But also Talisa Soto belly flopping her way through the film as Kitana. The story was pretty much what you’d expect from a movie based on the MK video games. The fight choreography was pretty great, but the violence was barely there.
But Annihilation – I don’t even know where to start. Very little of the original cast came back (although Ed Boon, one of the game’s developers appeared as Scorpion, which is kind of fun. This one should have been AMAZING – it had Sindel, Jade, Nightwolf, Mileena, Rain, Noob Saibot, Smoke, Sheeva, and Baraka. Brian Thompson was even in it! But it wasn’t amazing. It’s borderline terrible.
“The word “combat” isn’t even spelled right.”
But the 2021 entry?
Beautiful. All the good things about the original are still here, but without the totally nerfed violence. We get even better choreography (seriously, it’s wonderful), a bunch of big name actors, tons of violence, and…a blood dagger. I repeat: a blood dagger.
“Take whatever trophies you desire, but their souls are mine.”
The core cast is Shatterstar (sorry, ahem…Lewis Tan) as Cole Young; Lori from The Meg as Sonya Blade, Joe Taslim (from The Raid: Redemption, which if you haven’t seen please remedy immediately) as Sub-Zero, Tadanobu Asano (from Takashi Miike’s fucked up masterpiece Ichi: the Killer), the alarmingly attractive Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Chin Han (of basically everything) as Shang Tsung, and Captain Murk from Aquaman (Ludi Lin) as Liu Kang.
Here we get some backstory on the Scorpion/Sub-Zero beef shot and told gorgeously. That bit was probably my favorite storyline in the movie (on that note, a warning: this movie is kind of like the 1995 film in that large swaths of it are character intros – but they actually slot together in this one in a pleasing manner).
I mean, really, just look through this Instagram photobook:
Do you see how no matter what they would have done story-wise, this was still going to be far superior to what came before it? The whole movie is beautifully done. The CG is there, obviously, but it doesn’t feel overly intrusive. There was still some practical blood too, which I deeply appreciate.
There have been some serious character glow-ups here. I suggest this Game Spot Universe video which does some great side-by-side comparisons set to some truly upsetting noise.
Rating:
I don’t even care. This movie was everything I wanted it to be. I’m going to own it in the most ridiculously tricked-out version that comes out. That is my promise to the universe. And I’m already geared up for future sequels.
Mortal Kombat Directed by: Simon McQuoid Release Date: April 23, 2021 New Line Cinema Rated R 110 Minutes Official Website
