Mortal Kombat

I'm old enough to remember the early days of Mortal Kombat. The ultra-violent video games kreated by Ed Boon and John Tobias made their big screen debut in 1995 in a less-bloody form. Its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, krippled the franchise for over twenty-years. But it's back with a bloody vengeance in a new live action spectacular. 

So what's the backstory? There's a tournament kalled Mortal Kombat fought amongst the multiverse. The evil Outworld is allowed to konquer Earthrealm if it wins ten straight tournaments. They just need one more. But the evil host Shang Tsung (Chin Han) decides to win the tournament by default by killing Earthrealm's fighters. A dragon birthmark identifies them as the chosen ones.

One of the chosen ones is MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan). One night, he and his family are attacked by Shang Tsung's icy ninja Sub Zero (Joe Taslim). Special Forces agent Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) saves them and directs Cole to his partner, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). She explains all the backstory of destiny to him. They need to get to the temple of Thunder God Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) to prepare for Kombat. Meanwhile, Cole has visions of another ninja, Hanzo (Hiroyuki Sanada), better known as Scorpion, who Sub Zero killed in the prologue. What do they mean?

This Mortal Kombat kompensates for the original film's bloodlessness. We see folks rip out hearts, smash heads in, split others down the middle and immolate. The Kombat scenes are realized with good visual effects, kool cinematography by Germain McMicking and a strong score by Benjamin Wallfisch. These fight scenes are where the Kombat is at its liveliest. 

What about the non-action scenes? A lot of the backstory, including Sub Zero and Scorpion's klan history, is left unexplored. The stiff dialogue is hard to get through. The section set at Raiden's temple is especially sluggish. A lot of good stuff appears to be saved for a sequel.

The dialogue scenes are livened by one factor: Kano. Kano (Josh Lawson) is a brutish mercenary chosen for Kombat who later defects to Shang Tsung. He's so unrepentantly loutish that he's hilarious. He's klearly having the most fun in a super serious movie. The second best factor is Kabal (Daniel Nelson/Damon Herriman), Kano's rival and one of Shang Tsung's warriors. His banter stands out quite a lot. Too bad they won't appear in a sequel.

What about the rest of the kast? Lewis Tan is fine as Cole Young; basically, his scenes with his family were more kompelling than his Kombat training. Kombat mainstays Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) are good friends, but their screentime isn't enough to make the latter's death a gut punch. Taslim is quite watchable as Sub Zero and is more formidable than Shang Tsung. Sanada gets two great fight scenes, but he only appears as Scorpion in the klimax. A few konversations with Cole could've fleshed out their relationship.

Mortal Kombat's action scenes were more kompelling than its talking scenes. Its technical aspects kompensate for plenty of story lulls. But a few villains help spark some life. Overall, it's not dull but it's not a flawless victory. It's ready to watch on HBOMax or in your local cineplex. I'll leave you to decide where to watch it.