Mortal Kombat (2021) – Movie Review

Finish him!

Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is an MMA fighter whose life is turned upside down when he and his family are attacked by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an assassin with superhuman abilities. Cole must then seek shelter at Lord Raiden’s temple where he must train with Earth’s Champions to stop the enemies from Outworld from gaining control of the universe.

Let me start this by saying I am not the biggest Mortal Kombat fan. Having only played the game a handful of times at a friend’s house, the only characters I knew were Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Now, that being said, even without knowing much about the universe, Mortal Kombat was decent and entertaining.

It was about what I expected story-wise – not much – and had good action. Unfortunately, the action was not quite as good as I was expecting it to be going into this movie. Of course, I did just finish Ip Man 1-4, so that may have ruined me. But, like Ip Man, I thought this film’s action would pop, where you can follow and feel each individual blow. Instead, the focus seemed to be more on the gore and the fatalities of the characters, which makes total sense given that that is what fans of the franchise most likely want to see. And, like a Mortal Kombat movie adaptation should be, it pulled no punches with the cringe-worthy fatalities and insane levels of gore.

The film did have an interesting idea about each Chosen warrior having to unlock their arcana to get their special abilities, but the story was too rushed to explore this in any meaningful way. Instead, the characters seemed to unlock them when it became convenient without much effort. But when they did unlock their abilities, all of the special effects were really well done.

The highlight of the film was Scorpion and Sub-Zero. There is a reason these guys are the most well-known Mortal Kombat characters, and their fight was the best of the movie. Another highlight was how they found  a way to bring in the game’s iconic lines, including “Finish him”, “Fatality”, “Flawless Victory” and, of course, “Get over here!”, as well as each character’s unique fatality.

I’d rate Mortal Kombat 3/5 stars. It didn’t do anything revolutionary or different but was entertaining and met my expectations. If violence and blood are not your thing, this movie is an easy pass. You aren’t going to be missing much. If you don’t mind seeing someone’s guts fall out of their stomach or their heart ripped from their chest, I could definitely recommend watching this once, especially with it being included with HBO Max.

Mortal Kombat is available on HBO Max and for purchase. If you are on the fence about it, you can check out the first seven minutes of the film here.