MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

Tagline:  Get Over Here…

(Action, Adventure, Fantasy) [R]

Throughout history, different cultures all over the world reference a great tournament of champions. That dragon marking, I think it's an invitation to fight for something known as Mortal Kombat.

In this one, we get the same basic storyline as we do in 1995’s version. The Outworld has won 9 Mortal Kombat tournaments and needs just one more victory to gain access to a portal that will allow Outworld to take over the earth. One big difference in this version is that Shang Tsung (this time played by Chin Han) is cheating from the beginning and trying to kill the earth's chosen fighters before the actual tournament even starts. Can our heroes Sonya Blade, Jax, Cole Young, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Lord Raiden thwart Shang Tsung’s plans and overcome some of his best fighters. 

I will say in this movie we get a ton of story that was never introduced in the first film. Most of this story revolves around one of the greatest ninjas ever to live and why his revenge scheme is even more intense than any SCOOBY-DOO villains (it spans generations). We also get a pretty healthy introduction to Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan) who wasn’t even in either of the first two films. In this, he serves as kind of the new Johnny Cage character but isn’t nearly as funny or likable. Sonya is played by (Jessica McNamee is most known for THE MEG), but we aren’t given much of her background outside of that she is special forces like Jax (played by Mehcad Brooks probably best known as Guardian from the TV show Supergirl). Because of the storyline, we get a good amount of runtime on this thing, but it never feels like it’s moving slow. Something nuts is happening about every 5 minutes or so. 

Design-wise comparing to the original, I am not going to lie, both Subzero and Scorpion for me are downgrades. Kano is also a downgrade sadly as is Lord Raiden and Shang Tsung. Where this movie shines regarding design is pretty much everything else. Reptile for me stood out as just flat-out amazing and some of the other new characters introduced are just awesome. Of course, 2021 effects are almost always going to out-do 90’s CGI and none of that is a disappointment here. I have to admit I loved the original cast more and only 3 of the characters in this whole movie I found myself really rooting for. 

This Sonya was not as great as Bridgette Wilson was in this role, but Jessica McNamee was very solid. I really didn’t care for Ludi Lin as Liu Kang but he was oddly good in POWER RANGERS so I have no idea what happened here. I wish I liked some of the other actors better than I did, but casting wise this thing was just a bit rough outside of Jax, Sonya, and Kung Lao (played by Max Huang). 

MORTAL KOMBAT has outstanding fight sequences, several “wow” moments, and a more well-rounded way of introducing special powers for each character this MORTAL KOMBAT (2021) is a better story than we got the first time around. We do get some humor which was also welcome. Unfortunately, it lacks a few MAJOR things the original had as well as the whole point of the game and story.

 I’ve thought about this a lot and think entertainment-wise, this movie gets a 6 out of 7 from me. Yes, that does mean it’s got a better rating than the original. Looking back, I love nostalgia but this thing delivered in the areas it needed to for an “introduction movie”. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF NEW LINE CINEMA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.