Mortal Kombat

Summary

“Kano wins.”

As a child of the Nineties, I remember playing Mortal Kombat as an arcade game and then on my Genesis, Sega CD, and Super Nintendo. It is hard to explain to people that were not alive at the time what a cultural phenomenon the game was. It was thanks to Mortal Kombat and a game called Night Trap that senators and congressmen began to worry about violence in video games which led to a self-imposed rating system by the video game industry. I remember playing the game in all of its iterations, with the Sega versions easily beating the toned down Super Nintendo versions. It was amazing to see blood fly from punches landed and the amazing array of fatalities in the game. This amazing cultural moment would be marked in 1995 by a movie version of the game from director Paul W.S. Anderson which would gross over $100 million dollars above its $18 million dollar budget. I remember that my dad took me to see the movie after I begged and pleaded with him. I was ten years old at the time. Halfway through the movie, my dad looked at me and said, “this is too violent. Let’s go.” He took me out of the film against my protestations. It is a seminal memory from my youth. 

In 2020, with the Corona Virus raging across the nation, HBO MAX worked out a deal with Warner Bros. to release films simultaneously for a limited time on HBO MAX as they arrived in theaters. One release that they announced that I could not wait to watch was a new movie adaptation of Mortal Kombat. The inner child within myself could not wait to see a few favorite characters portrayed onscreen and some fatalities. I was extremely excited that the film was R-rated, which makes perfect sense for an adaptation of such a violent game. Before the movie left HBO MAX, I watched the film. I found myself juggling between aspects that I thought the filmmakers really nailed, and aspects of the film that did not quite connect with me. 

In Japan, in the Seventeenth Century, at the compound of Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada,) Hanzo leaves his home to fetch water. His wife and young son hear someone approaching the house. They hear the invader killing someone outside their door. She hides her infant child under the floorboards. She is visited by Bi-Han (Joe Taslim,) who has the power to create ice at will. Hanzo returns to the house to find that Bi-Han has frozen his older son and his wife. After fighting numerous masked Lin-Kuei assailants outside the house, Hanzo fights Bi-Han in the forest. Bi-Han wins the duel, and Hanzo Hasishi is killed. He disappears into the ether as his soul is condemned to the Netherrealm. After Bi-Han walks away, an electrical force surrounds Raiden who arrives there and retrieves the baby. After this opening, text reads:

“Earthrealm is on the verge of catastrophe. Should it lose one more tournament, the savage realm of outworld will invade, but an ancient prophecy foretells that a new group of champions will be united by the rise of Hanzo Hasishi’s blood.”

An MMA cage fighter named Cole Young (Lewis Tan) loses a match in front of his daughter Emily (Matilda Kimber) and an onlooker named Jax (Mehcad Brooks.) Special Forces Major Jax tells Cole that he could have won the match if he had used the cage to his advantage. Jax also asks Cole about the dragon tattoo on him. Cole explains it is actually a birthmark. From the Outworld, Subzero – formerly Bi-Han- is sent to the Earth realm to kill all the champions of the earth by Shang Tsung (Chin Han.) On Earth, outside the gym, Jax saves Cole and Emily from Subzero and explains that the birthmark means that Cole is a chosen fighter. Jax tells Cole he needs to meet up with Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee.) Jax stays behind to fight Subzero. In the fight, Subzero freezes and explodes Jax’s arms. At Sonya’s trailer-hideout, Sonya explains to Cole that the mark is an invitation to a tournament for Mortal Kombat. She has done tons of research. Also at the hideout is the mercenary drug-dealing Australian Kano (Josh Lawson.) Kano has been chained up by Sonya. They soon will all three be forced to work together. After a fight against Reptile, they head to Raiden’s temple where they meet Liu Kang (Ludi Lin.) The film progresses from there.

As I mentioned above, there are things this film does well and things that don;t work so well. First off, the opening sequence is great. Watching two well known Asian cinema martial arts practicing actors square off as soon as the film began was a very strong way to start the film. It established a strong tone and a good visual acumen from the start. Secondly, Kano is great. Josh Lawson essentially holds this film together with his performance as Kano. Kano is also the best written member of the team. I honestly don’t know if I could have watched this whole film without his involvement. In each scene that Kano appears, the film is elevated and works. Third – the filmmakers obviously wanted to do the video game justice by paying homage to the storylines in the game and through featuring some of the most famous fatalities and lines from characters. As a fan of the game I appreciated that. Therein though is also the rub – Mortal Kombat never exactly had a story that worked that well. It was always a little silly. By trying their best to replicate story elements from the game, they accidentally have a few too many moments that honestly reminded me of Power Rangers episodes. When you see the movie, you will know what I mean. The movie also gets bogged down for way too long on the training stuff. It needed to be sped up substantially. My biggest complaint is that Cole Young is a pretty halfassed main character. Created specifically for the film, Cole is meant to be an everyman that will help the audience view the crazy events in the film through his eyes. What this manages to do is irk a generation of Mortal Kombat fans that want to see outrageous characters like Johnny Cage, Kitana, Nightwolf, and Baraka on the big screen. Cole is not interesting at all, and it hurts the film. That said, it was not because of Lewis Tan‘s performance that Cole was so boring. It was simply an unnecessary plot device that I found aggravating.

The performances in the film for the most part are all solid, even when delivering the occasionally clunky line of dialogue. I thought that Jessica McNamee was perfect as Sonya. She has the right physique for the role and does good work in the film. Mehcad Brooks is solid as Jax. The casting of both Hiroyuki Sanada (of Twilight Samurai fame) and Joe Taslim (of The Raid: Redemption fame) was genius. They light up the screen whenever they appear. Josh Lawson steals the whole movie as Kano. I can not say that I found performances by some of the other actors in the film to be on the same level as those.

The direction by Simon McQuoid is pretty good for the most part. He handles the numerous technical challenges of mixing real fighting and martial arts with CGI fatalities and old school in-camera tricks pretty well. What this film needed desperately was a revision of the script. While it is obvious that Greg Russo and Dave Callahan are huge fans of the games, I would have loved to have seen what could have been made if they had polished the script a little bit more.

As it stands, Mortal Kombat scratched an itch for me and (thanks to Kano) I had fun for the most part watching the film (despite numerous aspects that irked me.) It is a pretty average movie at the end of the day, but that won’t stop me from checking out the inevitable sequel.

Video

Mortal Kombat teleports onto 4K UHD from the original digital transfer from Warner Bros. presented in 2.39:1 aspect ratio with an HEVC 2.1 Native 4K encode. This is a really strong presentation of the film which definitely benefits from the HDR 10 used throughout the film. Like most digital films, the picture at times feels almost clinically clean due to the lack of filmic grain. I imagine that anyone who sees the film will be happy with the UHD presentation, and I would opt for spending the extra money to get the UHD over the Blu-ray in this case.

Audio

Warner has provided a well done Dolby Atmos track which converts to Dolby True HD 7.1 for systems without Atmos capability. It’s a well made track that delivers a lot of action and immersion. The film definitely benefits from great sound design. 

Supplements:

• Deleted Scenes

• From Game to Screen: The Making of Moral Kombat – Members of the cast and crew, including actors Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Matilda Kimber, and Ludi Lin, co-writer Greg Russo and director Simon McQuoid, discuss their love for the game itself and the production of the film. It is an interesting and informative piece, and made me like the film a little better by seeing their passion for the project.

• Mortal Kombat: Fan Favorite Characters

• • Cole Young
  • Sonya Blade
  • Kano
  • Sub-Zero
  • Jax
  • Lord Raiden
  • Scorpion
  • Shang Tsung
  • Liu Kang
  • Kung Lao
  • Mileena

• Fight Koreography – Director Simon McQuoid, second-unit director/stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner, fight choreographer Chan Griffin, and more discuss the fight choreography in the film.

• Intro the Krypt: Easter Eggs of Mortal Kombat
• Anatomy of a Scene – this feature looks at seven key scenes and how they were accomplished.

• • Hanzo Hasashi vs. Bi-Han
  • MMA Fight: Cole vs. Ramirez
  • Sonya vs. Kano
  • Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero
  • Reiko vs. Jax
  • Kabal vs. Liu Kang
  • Mileena vs. Cole

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 3.5/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Mortal Kombat is not as good as it could have been, nor is it as bad as it could have been. There are several aspects of the movie that I really enjoyed, and several aspects of the film that annoyed me to the point of distraction. At the end of the day, it still scratched an itch for me to watch some martial arts action and some fatalities in a live action film. I did not love it, and I did not hate it. I think without the inclusion of Kano and the excellent performance by Australian actor Josh Lawson, this movie would have been a pretty big letdown. Thankfully, due to that performance and the inclusion of some truly excellent Asian cinema actors, this film still had enough moments that hit the nail on the head for me. I will not shy away from checking out the sequel when it is released. The 4K UHD release by Warner Bros. features a very well done Dolby Atmos track and a strong visual presentation. The supplemental package is pretty in depth. Fans will definitely want to purchase this 4K UHD, while newcomers to the film may want to entertain a rental prior to purchase.