{"id":9416,"date":"2024-11-30T12:06:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9416"},"modified":"2024-11-30T12:06:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:06:45","slug":"mortal-kombat-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/mortal-kombat-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortal Kombat (2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mortal Kombat<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and language throughout, some crude references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon McQuoid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Greg Russo and Dave Callaham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Benjamin Wallfisch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Germain McMicking\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 23, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Matilda Kimber, Laura Brent, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Chin Han, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Sisi Stringer, Mel Jarnson, Nathan Jones, Daniel Nelson, Ian Streetz, Yukiko Shinohara, Ren Miyagawa, Mia Hall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $42.3M (US)\/$84.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Never have I ever played the video game Mortal Kombat or any of its many sequels. I\u2019m not at all familiar with any of the characters. I hated both the 1995 film adaptation and the 1997 sequel. As such, I had zero interest in seeing the new Mortal Kombat<\/strong> reboot. I didn\u2019t see the point in subjecting myself to yet another crappy adaptation of a video game I know nothing about anyway. I can\u2019t say what possessed me to finally watch it, but I did. Do I regret it? Read on, faithful readers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m about to say this, but I like Mortal Kombat<\/strong>. Like the MK movies before it, it\u2019s stupid as all get out. The storyline is silly, the acting isn\u2019t much, it\u2019s loud and heavy on the CGI. At 110 minutes, it\u2019s definitely overlong. It represents everything I hate about modern-day filmmaking. By all accounts, I should be tearing it to pieces. I won\u2019t be doing that and here\u2019s why. It is extremely violent and bloody. For me, that\u2019s a huge selling point. The f-bomb gets dropped a lot as well. This Mortal Kombat<\/strong> more than earns its R rating. I realize how shallow this makes me sound, but I can\u2019t help it if it brought out the teenager in Movie Guy 24\/7.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story begins in 16th<\/sup> century Japan with the evil Bi-Han (Taslim, The Raid: Redemption) and his forces attacking and killing the family of warrior Hanzo Hasashi (Sanada, The Wolverine). Hanzo fights valiantly, but is ultimately defeated by his opponent whose main goal is ending his family\u2019s bloodline. Bi-Han fails, of course. The god of thunder Lord Raiden (Asano, Thor 1-3) appears and takes Hanzo\u2019s surviving infant daughter, hidden beneath the floorboards by her mother, to safety.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/strong> cuts ahead to present day where we learn that a fight tournament known as \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d is about to happen. It involves fighters from two realms, Earthrealm (the heroes) and Outworld (the villains). Outworld has won the past nine tournaments and not by playing fair. If they win one more time, they\u2019ll take over Earthrealm and enslave everybody. In order to ensure another victory, the soul-eating sorcerer Shang Tsung (Han, Skyscraper) sends his warriors to kill all of Earthrealm\u2019s champion fighters, identified by a dragon mark somewhere on their bodies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the chosen ones is Cole Young (Tan, Skyscraper), a former MMA fighter who knows nothing of his lineage. He has no idea what his dragon birthmark means. He only learns of his destiny after he and his family are attacked by Sub-Zero, the baddie formerly known as Bi-Han. Fellow champion Jax (Brooks, Supergirl), after rescuing them from certain doom, sends Cole to meet with his partner Sonya Blade (McNamee, The Meg) who will explain what\u2019s going on. She doesn\u2019t bear the mark, not yet. Along with foul-mouthed Australian mercenary Kano (Lawson, House of Lies), they defeat the reptilian assassin Syzoth before heading off to Lord Raiden\u2019s secret temple to begin training for Mortal Kombat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A big part of their training involves finding and unlocking their \u201carcana\u201d, special powers unique to all dragon mark bearers. If you\u2019ve played the games, and I\u2019m sure at least 90% of people watching Mortal Kombat<\/strong> have, you know who has what power, so I don\u2019t need to explain. However, I\u2019d like to make special mention of the mechanical arms Jax is fitted with after losing his own in a fight with Sub-Zero. They\u2019re cool! In one scene, he uses them to crush a foe\u2019s skull.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to stop describing the plot now. What\u2019s the point? It\u2019s all a bunch of nonsense anyway. Let\u2019s focus on the action instead. First-time director Simon McQuoid keeps things moving along at a decent clip most of the time. Mortal Kombat<\/strong> sags a bit in the middle with a prolonged training sequence. It does have some cool fight scenes though, especially in the final 30 minutes. Sure, they\u2019re the frenetic, overedited kind that typically gives me a headache. Yes, it\u2019s all CGI. They\u2019re also brutal and fierce with plenty of splatter. The best part, however, is the prologue. It sort of reminds me of an old school martial arts movie set in medieval Asia. There\u2019s some great sword work on display.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s get real. The action and violence are the only things worth commenting on in a movie like Mortal Kombat<\/strong>. Who cares about trivial matters like acting, writing and directing? Certainly not anybody that puts Mortal Kombat<\/strong> at the top of their must-see list. They only want to see a live-action (sort of) version of their favorite video game. On that level, Mortal Kombat<\/strong> will not disappoint fans. All others need not apply. As for me, I\u2019m surprised at how much I enjoyed this dumb, stupid, idiotic excuse for a movie. Of course, it could simply be my inner gorehound speaking. Either way, it\u2019s a guilty pleasure and boy, do I feel guilty for liking this mess.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mortal Kombat (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and language throughout, some crude references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon McQuoid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Greg Russo and Dave Callaham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Benjamin Wallfisch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Germain McMicking\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 23, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Matilda Kimber, Laura Brent, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mortal-Kombat-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9416"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9616,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9416\/revisions\/9616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}