E.T.’s return home must have been a catastrophe. The lovable alien won over audiences on the big screen in 1982. He became the highest grossing movie of the year. Unfortunately, even his cinematic debut couldn’t save him from destruction. The film’s Atari 2600 counterpart nearly caused the destruction of the then-blossoming industry of video games. The plot came down to an alien trying to return home, but low quality graphics and confusing gameplay spelled its doom. Side note, there is a terrific documentary on the game and its effect on home consoles called Atari: Game Over. Highly recommend checking it out; it’s a fascinating story. Anyways, fast forward a few years and the arcade circuit had really begun to blossom. With such a bloom, we also welcomed in a brand new type of video game genre: the fighting game.
In 1987, Capcom introduced the world to Street Fighter. With the success of the game came obvious sequels and, of course, competitors. The other two iconic fighting games would go onto be Mortal Kombat in 1992, from Midway, and Tekken in 1994, from Namco. The latter games also spawned franchises and sequels. Tekken and Street Fighter both went onto do their own animated movies. However, it was Mortal Kombat that capitalized on its success with two films in the mid-90s. Love them or hate them, 1995’s Mortal Kombat and its far-less superior sequel, Annihilation in 1997, gave the world our first glimpse at the mythos beyond just the games. As the sequels kept coming out the mythology of the franchise kept expanding.
At this point, Mortal Kombat has spawned over 11 games, various comics, television shows, and animated features, but James Wan has just given birth to what could set a new precedent for the franchise moving forward. Wan is merely a producer and enlists Simon McQuoid in his directorial debut to give us a brilliant and bloody vision of the iconic game series. This updated take on Mortal Kombat brings together the champions of Earth realm in Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), and Kung Lao (Max Huang) to defend their planet in an attempt to stop an intergalactic take-over from Shang Tsung (Chin Han). Mortal Kombat sets up a good deal of stuff within its 110 minute run time. McQuoid proves himself to be a director with vision, balancing his time from decent storytelling and impressive world building.
The film feels grounded in a mature tone reflective of fans of the games. For some reason up to this point it feels like filmmakers can never quite match the tone, or spirit, of their source material. In recent years we’ve seen exceptions to this rule in Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog. Mortal Kombat now joins their ranks. The film is brutally gory and a wonderfully fun time. More than paying homage to the source material the movie presents a marvelous narrative that is exceptionally paced, terrifically acted and choreographed extremely well. The fighting within this movie is remarkable. Drawing inspiration from various Kung Fu films, Mortal Kombat is an excellent love letter to the arcade days of the brand. As I previously mentioned, as the games continued to add new installments, the mythology kept expanding. With this latest cinematic outing, fans are treated to much of that lore. Primarily with the relationship between Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada).
Perhaps this is where the messiness of the film begins to take root. This film is made for fans of the franchise - while I don’t think casual viewers will hate this movie, it’s not without its problems. Take the rivalry that comes between the aforementioned Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Both are fan favorites of the franchise and the movie does book end the final product with their story. It is a consistent plotline but it feels incredibly forced to be just that. Mortal Kombat is an origin story for multiple things. The film opens up on this rivalry between Taslim and Sanada’s characters. There’s nothing wrong with that, except the film never addresses it again until the climax nearly 90 minutes later. It almost feels like the filmmakers focused so much on the blood and gore that they neglected some of the basic story elements throughout the story. The film does address what Mortal Kombat actually is but, unlike its 1995 predecessor, it’s never definitely defined. The definition of tournament fits whatever the narrative needs it to be.
It’s a frustrating fact of this movie - it falls very much down the middle. It attempts to tell a good story but engages more in the fight choreography. To be clear, there is not a terrible performance among the actors. Every actor in the cast does a fantastic job. There are no real standouts though. The exception to that could be Josh Lawson’s Kano, but I only make that statement because he is the film’s comic relief. He genuinely has some of the movie’s best moments and one liners. The film also struggles with its CGI. Lord Raiden’s eyes never look finished. For some reason they opted to go digital instead of practical, whereas his antagonist in Han looks terrific. There are other examples of that attention to detail littered throughout the film. The final form of Brooks looks incredible, whereas Goro looks like he walked out of the CGI nightmare that is Warcraft.
Overall, Mortal Kombat’s updated film sets a new bar for the franchise’s cinematic division. It is an elegant love letter to the franchise with its gory foundation and breathtaking fight choreography. However, it leaves so much potential behind in its wake, resulting in a sloppy narrative that nearly sets itself up for a knockout. The acting and pacing are good but falter in step with its writing. No characters ever seem to be developed. Worse than that, there are random storylines that get picked up and dropped at the convenience of the narrative. Mortal Kombat is filled with satisfying moments but trudges through a messy narrative and barely stays in between “Fatality” and “Flawless Victory”, but it does stay far from “Brutality”.
RORSCHACH RATING:
Mental Health Moment: As I stated earlier this is an origin story on multiple fronts. One of those is Brooks’ Jax. Early on in the film, he faces off against Taslim’s Sub-Zero, only to be left near death. It isn’t until he is rescued and restored that he finds a second chance at life. During his battle he loses his arms and the replacements for him are literally just metal bone. When he awakes to see himself all he can say is “I’m useless.”
Notice how he says this primarily about his appearance and how he didn’t end up like he thought he would. He went to go fight for what should have made him a champion of earth. Instead, he wound up with no arms. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own head that we fail to see the little things in life. The fact that you woke up today means something. The fact that you left your home means something. The fact that you have breath in your lungs or full mobility of your limbs is a blessing. You are far from useless. You are far from disappointing or ugly. Your life means something. Please never think otherwise.
If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message, or tweet at us. Go to victimsandvillains.net/hope for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!
Victims and Villains is written (and produced) by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey and others, and edited by Cam Smith. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. Mortal Kombat is property of Warner Brothers Pictures. We do not own nor claim any rights.
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