Of all the sub-par video game adaptations over the years that have faded from the collective memories of audiences, 1995’s overly-cheesy Mortal Kombat remains bizarrely revered and loved by fans. Perhaps it’s due to the tongue-in-cheek tone that both does and doesn’t take itself too seriously or (and this is the correct answer) maybe the incredibly 90’s techno theme song whose mere mention will have you screaming “MORTAL KOMBAT” at the top of your lungs. However even die-hard fans can’t deny that the acting and story of that outing were atrocious, with wooden performances and non-sensical plot points souring the much anticipated film debut of the iconic video game franchise. The world of those games is a rich (nether)realm of story-telling with layered and complex lore practically begging for the for the cinematic treatment and Warner Bros has tasked first-time director Simon McQuoid with the franchise’s return: a fun if extremely messy affair that strangely respects and disrespects the franchise’s legacy at the same time.
In what marks the start of a string of odd decisions for the reboot, we follow a newly created character in Lewis Tan’s Cole Young; an MMA fighter with his best days behind him providing for his young family through cheap paycheques from lacklustre amateur fights. When his family is attacked by the ice-powered assassin Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and rescued by former military man Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Cole learns that he is part of a chosen few who have been selected to defend the Earth in a fighting tournament known as Mortal Kombat. Teaming up with Jax’s partner Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and the sharp-tongued mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson) the trio set out to uncover the Thunder God Lord Raiden’s (Tadanobu Asano) temple, hoping to learn more about the battle to come and to prepare. Once there the group meets fellow combatants Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) and come to learn that their opponent in the tournament, the evil wizard Shang Tsung (Chin Han) is not above breaking the rules of the tournament, ambushing the fighters before it has even begun in order to ensure victory.
The film comes out of the gate swinging, with an emotionally and physically brutal opening scene which sets up the conflict between bitter rival ninjas Sub-Zero and Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada). Taking place in feudal Japan, the scene showcases a serious tone, gut-wrenchingly ferocious violence and the exploration of the franchise’s arguably most interesting story to terrific effect, setting up an emotional core to what looks to be a grounded take on the franchise in comparison to the 1995 version. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. Scorpion and Sub-Zero are swiftly relegated to side-characters with varying degrees of presence going forward and the audience is introduced to Cole’s story. While not awful by any means, this main storyline is essentially the same as the original film; not a sin in itself, but disappointing after the superb opening. Lewis Tan is fine in the role of Cole, and his martial arts prowess helps to sell some of the more intense fight scenes, but nothing can really hide the poor writing on display. Cole is our window into the world of Mortal Kombat but he himself is something of a blank slate, lacking emotion or even surprise as he encounters fireball-wielding men and Thunder Gods, with scarcely a driving force outside of the generic cliché of protecting his briefly-seen family.
The same can be said for most of the supporting characters within Mortal Komat. Everyone from Liu Kang to Sonya Blade is extremely serious and dour throughout proceedings, constantly discussing the end of the world or how slim the chances are of survival. It all gets to be a bit much after a while, especially considering how handily our heroes dispatch their “fearsome” foes, (with the exception of Sub-Zero) and makes the contributions of the wise-cracking Kano all the more hilarious by comparison. Josh Lawson steals the film as the foul-mouthed Australian, letting loose a constant series of diatribes against everyone he comes across, dropping more F-bombs in a 10-minute stretch than Seth Rogen does in an entire film. His character is the only levity to be found in the entire film, dealing out meta jabs and insults that rip his fellow combatants apart more viciously than the series’ trademark fatalities, and the scenes without him tend to be weaker for it. After all, this is a story dealing with four-armed alien warlords, hell-bound ninjas and men with saw-blade hats; if you don’t stop and laugh at yourself every now and then it becomes ridiculous.
What you come to a Mortal Kombat film for is the fights, and there are a lot of them here to be found, with varying degrees of quality. Any scenes involving Scorpion or Sub-Zero, you may have guessed, tend to be gold, with the real-life martial artistry of the stars translating to the characters and allowing McQuoid to simply point the camera and let it roll, showcasing the skills of these talented fighters as they leave it all out there in their decades-long quest to vanquish one another. Everything else generally suffers without the skills of these real life fighters, with McQuoid editing around the action to disguise the constant cuts and piece-meal approach to constructing the scenes rather than the long, fluid choreography of the ninjas. It becomes increasingly difficult to tell what is actually going on within later fight scenes in the film and this isn’t aided by constant cuts between different fights in different locations, a montage of carnage that actually shows you less than if you had fewer bouts more carefully thought out. The expected gore is there for the vicious fatalities, but these are few and far between with barely a drop of blood outside of these handful of scenes. McQuoid also makes the divisive choice of throwing lots of characters into the film. Outside of those already mentioned, the film features franchise staples Kabal, Mileena, Nitara, Reiko and Gore, all of whom barely get anything more than a scene to really shine, which will surely disappoint fans, and whose presence detracts from the amount of characterisation able to be given to the core cast of heroes and villains.
Whilst considerably better than the two previous live-action versions of the franchise, Mortal Kombat is still something of a disappointment, sacrificing solid characterisation and action in favour of a balls-to-the-wall blowout of character appearances and carnage that ultimately lacks much substance. Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada easily outshine the rest of the cast with an emotionally engaging story and brutally excellent fight choreography, but their limited presence and the decision to focus on Lewis Tan’s Cole instead seems like a misfire from which the film never recovers. Viewers hoping for the next great video-game adaptation should look elsewhere but if all you’re looking for is a fun, mindless action film with wacky characters and over-the-top gory kills, then do what Scorpion tells you to do and GET OVER HERE.
Mortal Kombat stars Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Ludi Lin, Max Huang & Hiroyuki Sanada – In Australian cinemas and streaming on HBO Max in the US now.