Mortal Kombat 2021 Review: The Latest Video Game Adaptation Hits the Mark

The fight scenes, sound design and every scene featuring Kano makes for a fun video game adaptation in the form of Mortal Kombat.

As much fun as Godzilla vs Kong was, Mortal Kombat is even more enjoyable. I’m not sure you can ask much more from a better Mortal Kombat film than what Director Simon McCoid delivers. The focus of the film is on the fight scenes. Luckily, almost all of the bone-crunching fight scenes earn a flawless victory. There are some head-scratching cuts in a few of the fight scenes.

Mortal Kombat isn’t a flawless film by any stretch. The first 7 minutes of the film are excellent, but the introduction of the main character and stage setting grounds the film to a halt until Kano appears. Kano’s introduction serves as a catalyst for the rest of the film. Every scene from that point on, even those without Kano, sparks with electricity that just wasn’t there before. The music is a disappointment throughout.

Despite the talented Ng Chin Han (The Dark Knight), Shang Tsung is a terribly bland villain. In fact, Sub-Zero has maybe a handful of lines in the film, but the cold (pun intended) menace as portrayed by Joe Taslim (If you like action, check out Warrior, which features Taslim in a leading role), works far better than the buckets of awful dialog given to Shang. While there’s nothing wrong with Lewis Tan‘s performance as Cole Young, there’s really nothing interesting about the character.

Despite the film’s flaws, Mortal Kombat succeeds in areas it absolutely needs to in order to earn a fatality. With another wave of theaters opening this weekend, this video game adaptation is an excellent way to begin the 2021 spring movie season.

With the overview out of the way, lets dive deeper into Mortal Kombat. Please note there will be some minor spoilers. Mortal Kombat is available on HBO Max for 30 days and is currently playing in theaters.

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Subzero vs Scorpion: Mortal Kombat Through the Ages

The beginning and end of Mortal Kombat are easily the best parts of the film. From action and martial arts standpoint, these scenes between Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion and Taslim as Sub-Zero are at another level.

Positioning Sub-Zero as the villain and Scorpion as a hero is a nice twist on the respective characters. Focusing on Scorpion’s lineage is interesting and a smart way to introduce a new character to the franchise.

Unfortunately, Cole Young is written as such an over-the-hill fighter that it’s hard to root for him as a protagonist. His reluctance is inconsistent. He trusts Jax and Sonya Blade’s Mortal Kombat exposition far too quickly. Yet Cole easily gives up once his training hits a snag, despite the fate of the world hanging in the balance, which obviously impacts the family he wants to protect.

Luckily Sonya, Jax and Kano are handled far better throughout the film than Young, which makes up for having a less than perfect hero arc.

The Outsiders of Mortal Kombat

Sonya Blade has the best character arc of the film, which is saying something. Her opening scene in the film is one bad exposition dump explaining the history of Mortal Kombat. The exposition dump highlights the biggest recurring issue with the film. While the one-liners work well across the board, all of the longer dialogue exchanges land with a thud. However, once Sonya’s history lesson is complete, her character arc begins.

Sonya is the one character in the film that doesn’t have a dragon symbol, which means she hasn’t been chosen for the tournament. Her desire to take part in risking her life despite being told over and over again she can’t is great. It’s not a revolutionary arc, but it works for this film far better than Cole’s arc.

Mehcad Brooks brings a ton of charisma to the role of Jax. Like Sonya, he serves as the introduction to the world of Mortal Kombat to Cole. Placing the focus on Sonya and Jax putting the pieces of the puzzle together as opposed to introducing a new character to the franchise may have worked better.

By far the best character in the film is Kano. Josh Lawson brings the right amount of 80s machismo to the role. Lawson’s delivery of every dumb line of dialogue is hilarious. Kano’s status as a member of the outsiders is unique. With the exception of Cole and Sonya, every Kombatant is a killer, yet Kano stands out as the one truly terrible person fighting for Earth. “Kano Wins!” indeed.

Earthly and Outworld Kombatants

Rounding out the defenders of the earth realm Liu Kang, Kung Lao and to a lesser extent Raiden.

Ludi Lin (Power Rangers) as Liu Kang might be the most shredded individual I’ve ever seen on film. His arm and shoulder definition for a man his size is insane. Kang and his cousin Kung Lao, serve as the defacto trainers for Cole and Kano. Liu has a more humble backstory than Kung Lao, which makes him easy to root for throughout Mortal Kombat. His fight against Kabal is the best fight featuring tournament participants.

Kung Lao is presented as the biggest badass of the group. Kung may in fact be the best fighter and has the coolest fatality in the film.

Raiden is the most frustrating character of Mortal Kombat. He waits far too long to interfere on behalf of humanity. Despite Shang Tsung repeatedly breaking the tournament rules, Raiden remains ambivalent. The moment Tsung breaks the rules, Raiden has every right to fight back, but he just doesn’t do anything for the longest time.

Goro, Mileena, Kabal and Nitara all look fantastic, but only Kabal stands out as a character. Kabal’s relationship with Kano is a fun connection between the respective teams. His voice is just awesome. Reiko is terrible.

Enough has been said about Shang. He has one cool scene in the film and that’s it. The villains fit the requisite function of Mortal Kombat. Awesome fight scenes with fantastic-looking characters that you don’t get too attached to with the exception of Sub-Zero, who is too cool to not care about.

The CGI throughout the film is actually great considering the $90 million budget. Goro and Sub-Zero’s powers are the CGI highlights of Mortal Kombat. The outworld fighters serve as effective fighting counterparts.

Mortal Kombat Final Thoughts

If you want to take a close look, there are plenty of logic gaps in Mortal Kombat:

• If there have been nine previous tournaments and Cole has had the mark since birth, why did Shang wait to attach him until this tournament?
• When was the last tournament?
• If Sub-Zero can lop off limbs by freezing them until they explode, then why didn’t he do that in every fight?

These logic gaps really don’t matter in a Mortal Kombat film. I’m just pointing them out. If you’re watching a Mortal Kombat movie and expecting to find coherence, you probably shouldn’t watch this film. However, if you’re looking for a film with strong visuals, fantastical fight sequences with exceptional choreography and fun one-liners, you should have a blast with Mortal Kombat.

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