MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

Tagline: Test Your Might

(Action, Adventure, Kicking everything you see) [PG-13] 

I'm in a hostile environment. I'm totally unprepared. And I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys who probably want to kick my a-s... it's like being back in high school.

So this one is based on the video games series MORTAL KOMBAT. Which I think came out in the ’90s because that seemed to be the only decade where you could get away with spelling crap wrong and no one batted an eye. The movie involves an ancient fighting tournament where the souls of the losers are literally sucked into the body of a wizard named Shang Tsung (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, this might be his “most known for role” but he’s been in a ton of stuff). If the realm of earth loses this tournament it will open a portal for the Emperor of the Outworld to invade Earth. Earth’s fighters are mentored by Lord Rayden (played by Christopher Lambert who is most famous for being the HIGHLANDER). Can these mere mortals obtain victory and save the world? 

Having only played the game maybe once and getting killed in like 14 seconds, I never went to see this movie because I loved the game. I went because it looked freaking great in the previews. With a 90’s crushing soundtrack and crazy action sequences that weren’t really being done at the time, this movie blew me away. First off, I am a huge fan of director Paul W.S. Anderson’s style. He has a flair for the ultra-stylish cinematic nonsense with an absolute disregard for self-awareness or physics that I love.

This movie is full of goofy little nods to the actual game and even some earlier movies. Johnny Cage’s character (played by Linden Ashby) is a wise-cracking martial artist who a lot of people think is a fake. His lines resemble a LOT of the stuff Jack Burton from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA would say with a few of his lines appearing to be almost ripped right out of that movie. He’s also got a few lines that are clearly a nod to DIE HARD. It’s all pretty cheesy, but still completely fantastic for this movie. Bridgette Wilson plays Sonya Blade in this movie and just absolutely kills it. She also refused a stunt double dislocating her shoulder in one scene. She wisely turned down a role in the sequel deciding to do I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER instead. Robin Shou is the perfect Liu Kang from the game. Shou is probably more known in some circles however for his roles in the DEATH RACE series. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is fantastic as Shang Tsung. So you kind of get the picture, the cast was epic. 

Effects wise for the ’90s this was some pretty cool stuff on the level of what they were trying to pull off in SPAWN, but by today’s standards it does look a bit rough regarding the Reptile character and Scorpion’s hand thing is just odd. There are also some scenes especially in Outworld that are too clearly video-gamish budget CGI. Having said that the stunts and action sequences hold up for the most part. I don’t sit down and watch this movie now thinking…oh that was terrible. It’s still really just a lot of fun. 

Overall I liked this thing enough to buy it and just the soundtrack alone is worth revisiting. In 1995 this would have gotten a 7 out of 7 from me, but given time I think I will bump it down to a 5 out of 7. Some plotlines were introduced that seemed to go nowhere and I think I would have liked to see a better actual fight between Goro and Johnny Cage since they went that route. Sonya getting taken and given a completely different outfit also comes across as odd. Like they just had a complete outfit in her size laying around in Outworld? 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF DREAMWORKS PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.