*Spoilers Ahead for Mortal Kombat 2021*
When Mortal Kombat was announced to be getting a film reboot, I was excited. The original Mortal Kombat film is an excellent movie, even if some of the effects have not aged well, but the overall movie was good. Now decades later, there was so much more that could be done to tell the story, and I could not wait to see what they had in store. The results however were not what I was expecting.
Mortal Kombat 2021 is not a bad movie, and I will even say that it is a pretty good movie actually. The problem is that while it is a good movie, it is not a good adaptation of Mortal Kombat and instead feels like an attempt to turn Mortal Kombat into an R Rated Marvel movie. The story follows many of the same beats as modern superhero films and while there are good fight scenes, most feel less like a martial arts movie fight and once again more like modern superhero movies.
Part of the problem is that the movie does not actually feature a Mortal Kombat tournament at all, which removes a major aspect of the story that made the first movie work so well. The game Mortal Kombat was heavily inspired by Enter The Dragon, and the film likewise took inspiration from that movie. The result was that the filmmakers had a great framework to build on and establish their narrative, something that feels lacking here.
One of the biggest complaints about Mortal Kombat Annihilation was the fact that so many characters were randomly thrown in, in an attempt at fanservice that goes nowhere. This mistake is repeated here as well, with characters like Nitara having little to do with the plot before being killed, characters like Reiko being depicted not at all like in the games, and a strange choice of making Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) a villain from the get-go, rather than only after his resurrection as Noob Saibot. Goro, a major character in the games, is wasted here and Mileena likewise serves no real purpose in the plot unlike her specific role in the games.
Adding to the issues with the characters is the use of Cole Young as the main character. Cole was created for this movie, takes Liu Kang’s traditional place as the hero while Liu is basically a side character here, and comes at the expense of other characters. From what I have read, he was a studio mandated character, but there was a way he could have actually been made to work. The ironic thing about the movie is that there is a clear example of the protagonist story arc that is typical in fiction, but instead of Cole, that one belongs to Sonya. Cole feels shoehorned into the story and so much could have been done to slavage the character. For instance, tt could have been established that he was the movie’s version of Takeda, who like Cole, has a connection to Scorpion. He could even have had the backstory with Takeda’s father Kenshi hinted at, and a line or two that established Kenshi was also a descendant of Scorpion like Cole.
The explanation that the various powers used by characters come from special Arcana symbols that characters are either born with or kill to claim also felt unnecessary to me. Kano’s laser eye has always come from having a cybernetic eye in the games, and while Sonya didn’t use tech for her abilities in the original games, from Mortal Kombat 9 onward, this was retconned to use of technology. This may seem like a small complaint and a nitpick, but it is also the fact that the Arcana took away some of the cool factor and specialness of the various characters. Mortal Kombat always felt like a world that was detached from reality and not one supposed to be grounded in it with explanations for everything. It once again felt like the movie was taking the superhero route with the story and I didn’t like that at all.
It was not all bad though, as Josh Lawson was amazing as Kano, and probably one of the best portrayals of the character. Many have stated that he carried the film, and I must agree that he was a high point. The fight at the beginning was also exciting, but it sadly meant that what came after was just not as good, except the final confrontation between Sub-Zero and Scorpion..The sad part is, that there was a great way to make a Mortal Kombat movie adaptation that was ignored, and that would be adapting the story from Mortal Kombat 9, or rather using the Mortal Kombat 1 section as the basis for the movie.
Mortal Mombat 2021 is a ultimately a decent movie in its own right like I said, but just does not work at all when it comes to being an adaptation of the games. Still, if you can enjoy it, then that is what matters.
In addition, for access to an extensive variety of active retro gaming groups on Facebook, visit Retro Gamers Hub.