Movie Review : Mortal Kombat (2021)
Nostalgia is rather easy to feel, but difficult to comprehend. That’s why it is so popular and so unsatisfying a lot of the time. It works on a case-by-case basis. Gamers might not consider Mortal Kombat a nostalgia IP since it regularly spawned sequels until 2011, but I assure you that it is. That is why everyone has been constantly complaining about it since 1997. What made it magical (realistic violence and a intricate character lore) can never be magical again.
Because it already happened and it has become omnipresent in popular culture because of it. That didn’t stop Warner Brothers from trying to resuscitate the franchise again to try and pump some of that sweet gamer money, which is ironic because they’ve kind of did it right.
Mortal Kombat tells the story of Cole Young (Lewis Tan) a washed up MMA fighter recruited to fight in a cosmic tournament because he’s got a weird birthmark. He is the “blood of Hanzo Hasashi”, a samurai you see getting killed by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) at the start of the movie. If you know Mortal Kombat lore, you also know who that is. Cole is supposed to help unite Earthworld’s force to fight off Outworld in the ultimate Mortal Kombat tournament…
… it’s complicated. They fight a lot and it’s weirdly awesome?
The power of giving a shit
The one fascinating aspect of Mortal Kombat is that it’s not conventionally good. Matter of fact, it’s conventionally bad. It’s shallow, full of uninteresting and unknown athletic actors and it’s really uninterested in being interesting to anyone who hasn’t compulsively played the video games. I watched that movie with Josie at our cabin and she did not understand why certain moments were supposed to be awesome, but she was loosely entertained anyway.
It makes Mortal Kombat kind of adorable in its own way. In may respects, it’s the Mortal Kombat film that was supposed to be shot in 1995. There are only two characters that ultimately matter in this franchise: Scorpion and Sub-Zero. They are the two characters everyone uses in the games because their moves are fucking rad and reenact a cool story of hellish ,beyond-the-grave vengeance, which is even more rad. This movie is strictly about these two and their beef.
Simon McQuoid runs through the old lineup of characters, including old favorites of mine like Mileena (Sisi Stringer) and Reptile who is inexplicably a giant fucking reptile in this adaptation, but once our two Ninjas hit the screen no one gives a shit about anything else.
That is both stupid, crazy and pretty glorious . Adapting a fighting game should be easy because it entails a lot of creative freedom and it’s good to see a director care about that. It’s funny because the reason why you should care about Mortal Kombat is never on screen. It’s like an inside joke between the screenwriters and whoever played the game. Think of Edgar Allan Poe’s Purloined Letter, but half the people knowing what’s in that goddamn letter.
What is so cool about Scorpion and Sub-Zero?
Man, I don’t know. Fighting game characters don’t really have intricate personalities. Scorpion represents anger and Sub-Zero represent robotic cold-heartedness. One is devoured by his own desire for retribution and the other has turned his back on his own humanity. They don’t exactly represent the good vs evil dichotomy because they are two ghouls who will fucking kill you if you let them, but they do represent a certain balance needing to be restored.
No one cares about Earthworld vs Outworld but everyone feels like they’ve been wronged by someone who’s ass they’d love to kick. Simon McQuoid understands that and delivers exactly that in the bluntest way possible. Although it cost an absurd amount 55 million dollars to make, there isn’t much cinematic flare to Mortal Kombat. There is bad CGI, bad acting and the odd satisfaction of seeing something that never mattered to anyone normal going mainstream.
Simon McQuoid is a man who knows where his bread lies.
*
Should you watch Mortal Kombat? If you’ve played the video games yes. A thousand times yes. Forget about the corny, colorful Paul W.S Anderson adaptation. This is the one you’ve been waiting for. But it isn’t a good movie in the conventional sense of the term. The plot doesn’t matter. It is not visually beautiful by any means and it doesn’t start anyone that is meaningfully talented. But it doesn’t matter. What matter is that the game comes alive again.
It’s not controversial or revolutionary in any way, but it’s a throwback to an era where Mortal Kombat was already integrated in our culture. In a way, nostalgia is the only thing this film has going for itself. It works. Against all odds, it isn’t a bad time at all.
