Ah! Mortal Kombat. The perpetually misspelled franchise is back again taking another stab at the silver screen, after its failed attempt of completing a trilogy back in the nineties. So how does the new 2021movie installment of the granddaddy of all fighting games turn out?
It’s freaking terrible, but I liked it.
Now, hold your bipolar horses I hear you say, that statement is a bit contradictory. What does it mean? Am I saying that perhaps saying that the movie is so bad that it’s good? No.
What MK 2021 is a movie that does some things exponentially well, while others horrendously badly. So it’s movie at war with itself…or should I say in mortal combat with itself (I know I hate myself for that one too)
The movie does its action set pieces really well, along with its special effect. The gore is also so over the top that it crosses the line from being disturbing to watch (like let’s say in the Saw series) into hilariously camp that you cannot take it seriously, which I liked.
But where the movie fails is in the acting, story, dialogue, pacing, consistency and common sense.
The Plot
Can I just say, I appreciate the fact that the movie started and ended strong, that is to say the best parts of this movie are the first and last action scenes, both having to do with the series favorites Scorpion and Sub-zero, and their lifelong rivalry.
The movie starts in feudal japan and man this is probably the best part of the whole movie! It acts as a prologue showcasing Subzero killing Scorpions whole family and then scorpion himself, though all that does is turn the yellow ninja into a hellspawn in reality.
Also it made him shout “Get Over Here” in a language he does not speak
Then we skip forward to the modern era and are introduced to Cole young (original character do not steal!) who is a descendent of Scorpion and a washed up MMA fighter, and from here on out the blandness truly begins.
You see Cole is kinda dull. Why they decided to bring in a brand new character as an audience surrogate instead of using any of the 100 characters that already exist in the MK universe I don’t know, but what I can tell you is he’s a cliché little bitch.
I get why they hired this actor to play him, his stunt scenes are on point and it shows he has a fighting background, but his acting skills are just not that good. We are also introduced to his wife and daughter, and I honestly thought that his daughter was his little sister for a bit, because Cole looks way too young to be her daddy.
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