Mortal Kombat 2021 Review

Video game movies have a bad reputation of not being good. It is especially concerning when there has already been previous failed attempts of creating movie adaptations of this video game franchise. Leading up to the release of the new 2021 version of Mortal Kombat there was a lot of skepticism. So, did Mortal Kombat break the stereotype of bad video game movies? No. The movie was bad.

Mortal Kombat is the feature film directorial debut of Simon McQuoid and is based on the video game franchise of the same name. The film is centered around a washed-up MMA fighter named Cole Young who is a descendant of a powerful ninja from the 17th century. One day, after Cole and his family are attacked, he learns that he is destined to compete in Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is a tournament between different realms where they have their strongest fighters or “champions” fight one another. The champions from the realms have “marks” (the Dragon Mortal Kombat logo) that are passed down once someone is defeated or through lineage. The Outrealm is hunting down the champions of Earthrealm in order to secure themselves a victory. Earthrealm cannot lose another Mortal Kombat tournament or they will be invaded by the Outrealm.

Overall, the movie did a decent job of capturing the essence of the video game franchise. It’s funny and entertaining watching the characters say the phrases that you would hear in the video games. Mortal Kombat also captured the trademark gore that is present in all of the video games. The gore, combined with some cool special effects makeup the best and most entertaining parts of the movie.  But, the problem with Mortal Kombat is that there was not enough of that.

Too much of the film focuses on the characters and their journey through finding their true power, and that stuff was dull and boring. None of the characters are developed well, so it’s really hard to care about them. The movie consists of boring characters and a dull plot who get into very few cool fights. And on a technical aspect, the movie doesn’t offer anything interesting. There are just a lot of jump cuts and no satisfying camera angles. If this movie wanted to be more fun, it should have had more fights, because those were the only saving points of the film and they were entertaining to see on screen.