"Mortal Kombat (2021)" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Get Over Here!

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Mortal Kombat
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line
Director: Simon McQuoid
Screenwriter: Oren Uziel & Greg Russo (Story By) and Greg Russo and Dave Callaham (Screenplay By)
Starring: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada
Rated: R (for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references)
Runtime: 110 minutes

Plot Summary: Why has Outworld's emperor sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, to hunt down MMA fighter Cole Young? In search of answers, Cole finds his way to the temple of Lord Raiden and begins unlocking the secrets of his heritage. As Outworld’s threat to Earthrealm grows, Cole joins warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Kano in a high stakes battle for the soul of the universe.

Comments?

Related Discussions:
-Mortal Kombat News & Discussion (Spoilers)
-Mortal Kombat Review (Spoilers)
-Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge Talkback (Spoilers)
-Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge News & Discussion (Spoilers)
-Mortal Kombat/Mortal Kombat: AnnihilationFeature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Mortal Kombat Legacy News & Discussion (Spoilers)

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[Yojimbo]

The industry will be watching this one to see if WB's day and date theatrical and streaming release will impact box office numbers.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I saw this one in theaters too despite having HBO Max- I forgot I had an AMC gift card to use.

Maybe if you're brand new to the franchise, this would be a worthy introduction, but as someone who's followed MK since the beginning, there was virtually nothing in the film I haven't seen in the games, the first two movies, and the animated spin-offs. I said this in the Scorpion's Revenge thread but I'll say it here too: The games in the last decade and a half have really expanded the MK lore and given us new stories, so to retell the same story again just feels unnecessary.

Well, one thing is different from the other adaptations: Johnny Cage isn't in this! Well, he's name-dropped at the very end to set up a sequel but that's it. His omission was glaring- Kano kind of fills the void with his wisecracks but it's a different dynamic than the Liu Kang/Sonya/Cage trio. There was no "skeptical outsider who thinks he's better than he actually is".

One big downside to this version is the overall look. It's dark, gloomy and with muted colors. Yes, the series is not light fare by any means, but people often forget that the games and the first movie (and Scorpion's Revenge, actually) were quite colorful and varied- I didn't get that same feel from this movie. All that dark detracted from the fight scenes- sometimes I had a hard time seeing what was going on.

An odd thing was how they introduced one of the characters. You have this kickboxer guy, I thought, "That's Liu Kang." But no, it's a completely different character. I was like, "Who's this guy?" Liu Kang isn't introduced until almost 1/3 through the film: "Oh, THERE he is. Finally."

Soundtrack is more in style to the modern MK games, which I didn't mind, though the remix of Techno Syndrome during the end credits and one other scene was a nice homage to the 1995 film.

The main positive I can give the film is, obviously, it's more faithful to the games in its R-rated gore. Obviously the 1995 film toned things down to get the younger audience, so this new film has the edge there. But here's the thing: Since the games have gone harder and further than this, this almost feels like the bare minimum. The closest the movie got to the over-the-top nature of the games was the scene where Kung Lao splits Nitara in two with his hat.

I didn't hate the movie or anything- at least it didn't outstay its welcome, and it was competently done. I just feel like I've seen it all before.

 

[TnAdct1]

The main positive I can give the film is, obviously, it's more faithful to the games in its R-rated gore. Obviously the 1995 film toned things down to get the younger audience, so this new film has the edge there. But here's the thing: Since the games have gone harder and further than this, this almost feels like the bare minimum. The closest the movie got to the over-the-top nature of the games was the scene where Kung Lao splits Nitara in two with his hat.

In terms of toning things down in the original version: yeah, I can see how some people can complain about it due to how most people associate the game series with the gory fatalities. However, there's two things that I can say in response to that:

1. Even if you take away the gore of Mortal Kombat, there's still a good Enter the Dragon inspired story about a tournament that is used to ensure that that invaders from other dimensions cannot conquer a place instantly, with the invaders needing one more win before they can take over Earth.

2. When it came to the fatalities in the first two games, the ones that felt more interesting were those that didn't involve body disembodiment. Along with being more creative in how a person gets killed, some of these fatalities also delve more into the lore of the characters (Scorpion being a undead ninja seeking vengence for his clan; Kitana actually being beautiful underneath the mask, while her "twin" Mileena is really a clone of her made using a being that's the same species as Baraka).

As for the movie not going harder with the fatalities:

1. I personally feel that outside those that add a little bit of humor to them, most of the fatalities lack the charm of the original games, as the focus seems to be more towards making them as gory as possible (for instance, how the more recent MK games drop the "Kiss of Death" aspect of Kitana that made her interesting and instead have her fatalities instead be focused on her killing her opponents with her fans).

2. Even if the film is R-rated, there still likely going to be some older kids being interested in it, with some of the harder fatalities possibly pushing films towards the unwanted NC-17 rating.

 

[Mostezli]

Maybe if you're brand new to the franchise, this would be a worthy introduction, but as someone who's followed MK since the beginning, there was virtually nothing in the film I haven't seen in the games, the first two movies, and the animated spin-offs. I said this in the Scorpion's Revenge thread but I'll say it here too: The games in the last decade and a half have really expanded the MK lore and given us new stories, so to retell the same story again just feels unnecessary.

Well, one thing is different from the other adaptations: Johnny Cage isn't in this! Well, he's name-dropped at the very end to set up a sequel but that's it. His omission was glaring- Kano kind of fills the void with his wisecracks but it's a different dynamic than the Liu Kang/Sonya/Cage trio. There was no "skeptical outsider who thinks he's better than he actually is".

One big downside to this version is the overall look. It's dark, gloomy and with muted colors. Yes, the series is not light fare by any means, but people often forget that the games and the first movie (and Scorpion's Revenge, actually) were quite colorful and varied- I didn't get that same feel from this movie. All that dark detracted from the fight scenes- sometimes I had a hard time seeing what was going on.

An odd thing was how they introduced one of the characters. You have this kickboxer guy, I thought, "That's Lui Kang." But no, it's a completely different character. I was like, "Who's this guy?" Liu Kang isn't introduced until almost 1/3 through the film: "Oh, THERE he is. Finally."

Soundtrack is more in style to the modern MK games, which I didn't mind, though the remix of Techno Syndrome during the end credits and one other scene was a nice homage to the 1995 film.

The main positive I can give the film is, obviously, it's more faithful to the games in its R-rated gore. Obviously the 1995 film toned things down to get the younger audience, so this new film has the edge there. But here's the thing: Since the games have gone harder and further than this, this almost feels like the bare minimum. The closest the movie got to the over-the-top nature of the games was the scene where Kung Lao splits Nitara in two with his hat.

I didn't hate the movie or anything- at least it didn't outstay its welcome, and it was competently done. I just feel like I've seen it all before.

As someone who didn't follow Mortal Kombat since the beginning, this would still be a weird introduction for anyone who's new to the franchise. Changes made to the material that separate this iteration from what either of us may be familiar with. Did you notice there wasn't even a Mortal Kombat tournament? Did you notice characters get "superpowers" from being Kombatants and not just being fighters with diverse abilities/skills honed from their own volition? What happened to Kano's cyborg eye? Jax grew robot arms?

Kano was still that "skeptical outsider who thinks he's better than he actually is." That's the weirder thing. Kano, one of the most insignificant villains of this series, became the character with the most character even though his motivation was as barebones as anyone else's. Either the director really loves this guy or the studio really wanted another Captain Boomerang.

It's overall look was not at all what you've described. I was worried it would be rather low budget from a visual perspective. The editing did a way better job in detracting from the fight scenes than the surprisingly crisp cinematography. The various vista shots and rather impressive set design gave it the movie quality gloss the other live-action adaptations didn't have (I'm also including the Kung Lao spinoff show & the web series).
The unfortunate part is that the trailers gave away the best looking desktop wallpapers. In the movie itself, none of those shots had adequate meaning behind them.

Every introduction in this movie was odd. Characters spouting the narrator's dialogue after a victory was odd.
Making Cole Young the chosen one, even though they're all chosen ones with the branding, but he's the descendent of Hanzo who's lineage has been protected all this time by Raiden & the monks, was odd. There were so many opportunities to tweak their interactions to make this story they want to tell work, yet instead the best exchange was between Kano & Kabal...wtf.

I'd say if there's a sequel, they need better writers. Otherwise, reboot the reboot and get the script right.

 

[Classic Speedy]

It's overall look was not at all what you've described. I was worried it would be rather low budget from a visual perspective. The editing did a way better job in detracting from the fight scenes than the surprisingly crisp cinematography. The various vista shots and rather impressive set design gave it the movie quality gloss the other live-action adaptations didn't have (I'm also including the Kung Lao spinoff show & the web series).
The unfortunate part is that the trailers gave away the best looking desktop wallpapers. In the movie itself, none of those shots had adequate meaning behind them.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. I thought the '95 MK had better art direction, and the games have more varied environments too.

 

[Mostezli]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. I thought the '95 MK had better art direction, and the games have more varied environments too.

Of course the games would have more varied environments. I can't say I know what you're referring to with this reboot's cinematography being more dark, gloomy and less colorful, especially in comparison to the '95 MK. Rewatch those '95 fights or even just regular scenes taking place in badly lit areas. That first MK isn't as straight-video looking as the sequel, but it definitely would have been hard to see in a theater sitting.
This reboot had plenty of varied environments to fight in, even though I reiterate there was no official tournament. Without question, the '95 MK had overall better, more detailed set design. I forget how incoherent and inconsistent the atmospheric lighting was.

 

[Yojimbo]

I was surprised this was only a pre-tournament story and how many characters got killed off, the biggest shocker was Goro. Goro! I'm on the fence with the addition of them finding their arcana and manifesting powers. Kano having a laser eye but no cyber eye seemed really weird. It really diluted the characters, imo. The point of the MK characters is they all have their own reasons for entering the tournament, it's not about a damn birthmark. The insertion of this fate angle just turns the story a YA novel plot point.

Was a little bummed that Cole's was just a version of Black Panther's suit from his solo movie taking in kinetic energy and unleashing stronger moves. I guess the difference was Cole manifested tonfas. Shrug. But yeah, it was interesting he was the descendant of Scorpion and the parallels of their love of their immediate family.

Idk if it was the right mix of characters. I was kinda with Raiden, this is it?

It was amusing Tadanobu Asano was Raiden as he was one of Thor's friends in the MCU movies, Hogun. But at times, idk if that just me but I had a hard time understanding what Asano was saying.

The fatalities were bigger set pieces here than in the '95 movie I think. Like Liu Kang doing the bicycle kick then finishing off Kabal was probably my favorite. Although I was half-expecting the Shaolin soccer one. Surprised to see Kung Lao did his hat trick buzz saw one. The most brutal move of the movie, imo. Didn't think Sonya would do her ring one but woof, just in time. But her lawn gnome fatality was probably the most amusing one. Felt like they should have plused Scorpion's Revenge fatality a bit more and made it look even scarier but eh. Overall, I feel like they should all have with their more over the top fatality moves.

It wasn't awful but it wasn't a game changer. It didn't drag. It was a fast hour 50 even though the plot itself screeched once they got to the temple. But yet, I still wanted more. Like more Scorpion. Instead, he was more of a bookend. The ending with the Earthrealm team continuing with the recruitment drive squandered what little payoff the ending had and made me skeptical the tournament will even happen in the sequel if there will be one. Like they're trying to hold off the tournament for Part 3.

It was a decent prequel movie, but it wasn't really an actual Mortal Kombat movie. 3/5

 

[Spider-Man]

I thought this was alright but could've been better. While I didn't mind the movie bringing in a new character, I thought Cole was ultimately pretty bland and his Arcana/Animality/Power was pretty lame. I was expecting his suit to do more than just glow when he takes hits. The opening stuff with Scorpion and Sub-Zero was the highlight and it was cool to see that basically book-end the movie too but everything else was pretty forgettable and very by-the-numbers. While the old 90s version is a goofy cheesefest I have to say I enjoy that one better than this one. Its a good start but these movies need to get better.

 

[Yojimbo]

Breakdowns of references and easter eggs here and here.

 

[Storm Eagle]

This movie will be released on home video on July 13th, tentatively.



I still need to see the new movie.

 

[Yojimbo]

5/2: Bts clip of a fight scene.

Interview with writer Greg Russo.

5/5: Watch party with the cast on May 7 at 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern.

5/18: It appears the 4K/Blu-ray releases on July 13.

9/13: Spinoff movies for HBO Max reportedly in the works.