as someone who played and enjoyed the Mortal Kombat games and who saw the original 2 films, THIS version is far superior.. I enjoyed the martial arts action.. Cole's arc was pretty decent I thoroughly enjoyed Sub Zero and Scorpion and hope their arcs somehow continue. Sonya was okay.. Kano was a ot.. Mehcad Brooks got buff..
I'd give this an 8/10
Agreed. It had some good points like Sub-Zero (much respect to Joe Taslim and his fight work) and to some extent Kano and Kabal, but was mostly disappointed from this.
I really wanted to like the film too despite the punches I had to roll with leading up to the release, but all my worst fears and assumptions pretty much happened. Cole's lineage I didn't have a problem with at first, but with how it was stupidly played out in the end, cemented him as the fanfic gary stu OC I initially presumed him to be. A lot of the other characters didn't really have much of a presence to them either, and some were just cameos. Similar issues to what was had with with Annihilation far as the writing, but both still had talented martial artists... and some messily edited fight scenes. This one here gives a good idea of what you're in for with all the cutting.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Fandango/status/1384174701690245129
Apparently this film's director Simon McQuaid hadn't previously directed a movie; only did PS4 commercials, which would explain a lot. That's how little WB thinks of the MK IP I guess. With all the connections they got they could've had some real established director doing this, but no.
I'm gonna rewatch Scorpion's Revenge later with the time I have left on my month of HBO. Suddenly more thankful for it now.
For all the progress videogame movies have been making, I felt this has sent them back a bit. It can't even let you enjoy it as a stupid fun flick, it's just stupid and Cole doesn't make it better.
If he's not sticking his hands in his Navy pants in the background, he's getting his butt kicked so much that it becomes literally his super power. There is no point to his existence other than the far fetched reason "we needed somebody the audience can relate to, that don't know Mortal Kombat." I'm pretty sure Kano (one of the only few positives of the film btw) fit that bill better vocalizing what I'm sure people watching were thinking. Cole just mocks the spelling of the game title and becomes an angsty teen from there. Very captivating. The story attempts making him important and cool like
Spoiler:or
killing Goro who had next to zero buildup
Spoiler:This character sucks.
interrupting Scorpion & Sub Zero's iconic rivalry and making it a handicap fight against the latter making one of the fights you were looking forward to most from the trailers a lie.
Also did anyone notice Liu Kang totally ripped off Ryu from Street Fighter near the end? The red headband, the white Gi? Did Ed Boon or somebody get so salty with Capcom not wanting him in MK11, they took his likeness out of spite? lol
This was ****ing terrible. Fight scenes were shit. Only sub zeros where done well. Cole is a Gary Stu to the max. It's Alice from the RE movies all over again.
In addition, there is just one thing that I expect from a MK movie. Just one thing. And they didn't do it. It's kinda like how all you expect out of a Doom movie is a portal to hell opening on Mars and the first movie didn't do that. All I expected was a damn martial arts tournament. And this movie didn't do it.
For an almost 2 hour movie everything felt rushed as well. This movie just felt like a 13 year old edge lord directed it and inserted their own new character into it that they made up during Mrs. Peterson's math class. The original MK movie is a hundred times better than this garbage.
Shaolin monks was more cinematic and engaging than any movie of the first game. I'd even play it again 😂 rarely did I enjoy playing co op games with my autistic older brother whilst I struggled with being left handed with a right handed controller... Seriously, make a lefty controller 😡 but ye. Still a very good game.