Mortal Kombat Is Big, Bloody, and Boring

The new Mortal Kombat is soul-sucking. Nearly every aspect of the film is bungled. The script is atrocious, the casting is poor, the acting is terrible, and the humor oscillates between flat and forced. The most positive thing I can say about this iteration of MK is that some of the action is mildly entertaining. 

The stakes in this iteration should be familiar to anyone who’s played the video games. Outworld and Earthrealm are locked in a deadly battle. Once a generation, Outworld and Earth's champions compete in a deadly martial arts tournament called Mortal Kombat. Should Earth lose 10 straight tournaments, Outworld can conquer Earth. At the start of the film, Earth has lost 9 straight tournaments. To assure victory, evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han), plans to kill Earth’s champions before the tournament starts. His chosen assassin is Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim).

Thus we are introduced to our protagonist, washed-up MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) — a character created explicitly for the movie. After being attacked by Sub-Zero, Cole discovers that he’s one of Earth’s aforementioned champions and must unlock his “arcana” (special power) to stand even a slim chance in the tournament. His compatriots include fan favorites Kano, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Jax. Sadly, Johnny Cage doesn’t make an appearance. 

The most significant problem with Mortal Kombat is Cole. The character is lifeless on screen, lacking personality, style, and memorable powers. The decision to focus on Cole, instead of any of the other MK characters, boggles my mind. I can only assume that the film’s creators thought that viewers needed to be eased into the MK world through an audience surrogate. This might have worked if Cole had a smaller role or if he had a single defining characteristic. Instead, he’s a pallet swap of every generic everyman-hero you’ve seen before. (I’d also argue that audiences have advanced beyond the need to be eased into complex movie worlds.)

While the Cole character is the movie’s No. 1 flaw, the script is a close second. Mortal Kombat offers the barest wisp of character motivation. I recognize that fighting is the essence of Mortal Kombat, but it’s pointless without drama. Who cares if a bunch of characters die if they aren’t interesting? 

I suppose the movie’s main draw is its gory fatalities. They’re here, and several are even fun (Sub-Zero and Jax), I just wish this movie was stitched together better. As is, Mortal Kombat feels like watching a bunch of video game cutscenes. If I wanted to see that, I could just play the game again. — David (@itsmedavidcross)