"Mortal Kombat" Needs A Rematch
Cast: Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Lewis Tan, Hiroyuki Sanada, Joe Taslim, Sisi Stringer, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Tadanobu Asano, Ng, Chin Han, Max Huang,
Synopsis: Hunted by the fearsome warrior Sub-Zero, MMA fighter Cole Young finds sanctuary at the temple of Lord Raiden. Training with experienced fighters Liu Kang, Kung Lao and the rogue mercenary Kano, Cole prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions to take on the enemies from Outworld in a high-stakes battle for the universe.
My Review: “Oh boy!” I say with disappointment, because I had such high hopes for this highly anticipated-overly promoted film. From the beginning of the movie, it drew me in because of the skilled fight scene between Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) and Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) but as the film continued it went downhill fast, as if riding a rollercoaster. There was so much unnecessary dialogue within this script I’m surprised it wasn’t edited, especially on Kano’s part, omg all I wanted to do was slap/shut him the fvck up! He completely ruined the movie for me and really? Laser eyes? Oh, excuse me, laser eye? The “marks” gave them their powers? Why not just line up the characters in the beginning of the film and make it feel more like the game if that’s the case! Cole Young’s character was really unnecessary to the film (no offense to Lewis Tan who I congratulate on landing this role) because his whole “watching his family almost die to get his powers* trip has been seen before but cool armor he got though, very nice! Cole wasn’t impressive for me (sorry LT)
Now, I’m familiar with the MK games and of course the older film adaptations however if this is supposedly based on the games, it certainly felt like a poorly generated one, rushing to the end with no story. The older films despite their low quality and representation of the MK universe, had more of a plot and definitely more to the characters because what was shown here in this 2021 reboot was stale and boring acting, I’m sorry. The cast was diverse yes, so I won’t and can’t complain about that but each character was under developed and had all this knowledge about the MK tournament, which leads me to my next point. Where was the tournament? All I saw here was the bad guy wanting to take over the world with his misfit warriors going up against the good guy and his men, blah-blah-blah, it got boring too quick.
The fights. Hmm. Although well-choreographed by actors that have studied the art for years, I wasn’t impressed (except for the fights between Sub-Zero and Scorpion for they were the best of them all) as I have seen far better (Into The Badlands for example) but considering the way the story played out, can’t have everything in one film I suppose. I would have loved to have seen all this “incredible and never before seen fights” that were overhyped by one of the actors! The fire, ice and lightning CGI was okay I guess and had more effort put in than anything else in this film.
I write this review with disappointment because I had such high hopes in wanting this to be one of my favorites but sadly, it is not and if there is a second film, do bring Johnny Cage into the fold to help balance the originality this film failed to accomplish. And the poster too is a little confusing because anyone would immediately think the film alone is about Sub-Zero and Scorpion :(
I have to rate 2021’s Mortal Kombat 3 stars!