Mortal Kombat (2021)

[zelmo73]

I had high hopes that they weren't going to screw this up after the superior animated Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020) from last year, but there was so much that the cartoon got right that this one never did, that it's just a damned shame that this was turned into such a wasted opportunity. It's really bad when one of the best bad movies of all time, Mortal Kombat (1995), is a better movie for all the wrong reasons; the main reason being that the 1995 film feels more like the video game than any of the other movies or TV shows in the franchise. The original movie wanted to be just like the video game so much, which is all that the fans really wanted, that that is what it ended up being: a proper homage. This 2021 version is anything but that.

Granted, it helps to be a fan of the video game or at least a gamer to truly enjoy the film franchise, but at the very least they could have tried to make this a good martial arts movie, but aside from a couple of cool moves here and there, a lot of the fight scenes are pretty bland. The only ones that are any good are the scenes involving Sub Zero and Scorpion; everyone else is just meh. Which is probably the worst sin of this movie. Whereas the original 1995 version is just a very enjoyable bad movie with bad fight scenes, this one commits the cardinal sin of being very boring; which sucks because some of the gory scenes can be pretty cool, like the flying demon girl that gets cut in half from head to groin by Kung Lao's spinning razor hat; easily the best "fatality" in the movie. But they left out a HUGE score of characters from the video games, and the ones that they gave us like Kabal, Mileena, Jax, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Raiden, Shang Tsung, etc. are boring and lifeless caricatures of themselves. Kano is reduced to strictly comedy relief; Liu Kang who was the main hero of the 1995 film is now just some pretty boy who is overshadowed by his sidekick Kung Lao, which is fitting since the character was virtually ignored in the original film; Jax is a sappy, moping mess who spends most of the film wishing that he had his arms back, which were actually impressively and creatively removed by Sub Zero early in the film; and Shang Tsung has to be the most boring movie villain of 2021, instantly overshadowed by the original 1995 Shang Tsung played to campy and dramatic effect by the great Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

I watched this as part of my HBO Max subscription. The movie debuted both on the HBO Max app today for the next 30 days, and in movie theaters at the same time. I must say that I am happy that I didn't pay to watch this in the movie theater. I have a big TV already, but while Godzilla vs Kong (2021) is a film best enjoyed in the movie theaters, Mortal Kombat (2021) is something that should have gone straight to home video. Or okay, let me put it this way, Mortal Kombat (2021) would fit right at home as a bad b-movie on Amazon Prime Video, if that makes any sense. If you really want to enjoy a Mortal Kombat movie, stick with the original 1995 version; that one is at least a fun movie to watch, despite being so laughably terrible. 

[RCMerchant]

I seen bits and pieces from the old '95 version just because I was sitting on the coach and my kids were watching it 20 years ago.
I don't see any reason at all for me to watch this.
This is based on a video game?  Even less reason to watch it.

[zombie no.one]

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

[Gabriel Knight]

It's amazing how much time helped the original MORTAL KOMBAT movie. I always thought it was a very fun movie and probably the best videogame based film until WARCRAFT came out, but everyone always seemed to remember it as some crappy, unrespected campy trash.

It just needed the lack of creativity of the modern media makers to really shine, it seems.

[zelmo73]

It's amazing how much time helped the original MORTAL KOMBAT movie. I always thought it was a very fun movie and probably the best videogame based film until WARCRAFT came out, but everyone always seemed to remember it as some crappy, unrespected campy trash.

It just needed the lack of creativity of the modern media makers to really shine, it seems.

They essentially turned Mortal Kombat into The Karate Kid with that arcana crap. In the original movie and the video games, every fighter showed up at the tournament with their respective powers and/or talents. In this movie, they had to "learn" their power in order to compete in the tournament (which didn't even happen in this movie anyway.) Imagine if Bruce Lee showed up in Enter The Dragon (1973) not knowing any martial arts, and had to learn martial arts before he became The Dragon. It's just silly how they tried to rewrite the entire lore for this genre. Now Mortal Kombat (1995) looks like Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) because of this movie. 

[bob]

I'll end up watching this at some point

I loved the games as a kid and the first movie is the best videogame to movie adaptation I've seen

[Archivist]

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

Dead or alive, they would have made this movie. I've been virtually fighting with friends over whether it's going to be good or not. I'm certainly no street fighter, but I swear I turned into some kind of altered beast when I saw the Mortal Kombat trailer.

[chainsaw midget]

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

Points for that pun. 

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

Dead or alive, they would have made this movie. I've been virtually fighting with friends over whether it's going to be good or not. I'm certainly no street fighter, but I swear I turned into some kind of altered beast when I saw the Mortal Kombat trailer.

But you may have taken it too far  ... and you used Altered Beast (which isn't a fighting game) when you very well could have referred to your Primal Rage instead.   Tsk tsk. 

It's amazing how much time helped the original MORTAL KOMBAT movie. I always thought it was a very fun movie and probably the best videogame based film until WARCRAFT came out, but everyone always seemed to remember it as some crappy, unrespected campy trash.

It just needed the lack of creativity of the modern media makers to really shine, it seems.

It was campy, yes, but the Mortal Kombat games themselves have always been campy as hell.  Being campy with blood doesn't make them any less campy. 

Also, I'm disappointed by the lack of Christopher Lambert in the new movie. 

[zelmo73]

Also, I'm disappointed by the lack of Christopher Lambert in the new movie. 

I'm hoping that they were not being age-ist and at least considered Lambert as an option, especially considering how they cast James Remar to take his place in Mortal Kombat Annihiliation (1997) where he looked like Raiden having a midlife crisis with that goofy gray hair. They could have at least cast Christopher Lambert's Hollywood twin Thomas Jane to take his place in this new one; he's still young enough.

[WingedSerpent]

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

Points for that pun. 

I've been waiting ages for this to come out... no idea what's tekken them so long.

Dead or alive, they would have made this movie. I've been virtually fighting with friends over whether it's going to be good or not. I'm certainly no street fighter, but I swear I turned into some kind of altered beast when I saw the Mortal Kombat trailer.

But you may have taken it too far  ... and you used Altered Beast (which isn't a fighting game) when you very well could have referred to your Primal Rage instead.   Tsk tsk. 

Went after that guy pretty hard.  You must have some sort of Killer Instinct   when it comes to people making video game references