Review of Mortal Kombat (1995) by Maineutral R — 21 Mar 2014

Video Game-based movies are just never going to be good. At least not in terms of how a movie is made. For me, a "good" Video Game movie adaptation is when the movie delivers the same feeling as when playing the videogame it is based-off. I believe in Stanley Kubrick's phrase: The idea is not about the realism of it, but the feeling of it. Mortal Kombat delivers the same feeling as when playing any of the video-games, except for the gore, but the rest is well-adapted.

The characters are bland and too typical, but so are the ones of the videogame, so it's fine. The movie has a lot of action scenes. Again, just like the videogame, where all you do to progress the thin story is fighting over and over. The atmosphere is good both on terms of a movie and those of adapting the videogame. The special effects are nothing Jurassic Park-ish, but they help the movie, so it's fine. The script makes no sense, there are no rules, no structure or consistency, but the videogame itself also had crappy stories, relying only on back-story, and after that, you just punch the opponents. No more story after that. But the story is also compensable, even if it has poor crafting. You know what the characters want, what they are and why they are, so it's fine. Acting is not great, but neither too horrible. It's just cheesy, but this whole movie is, hell, it's kinda loveable because of that. I just love this movie: it's the videogame I grew up with and the movie I grew up with too. Just what a Mortal Kombat fan wants and none of what a movie critic wants. I'm both, and I'm OK with that.

Mortal Kombat sucks as a movie, but succeeds as an adaptation: it's loyal, shares the same feelings, experiences and satisfaction. Plus, it has that theme song that has always been cool ever since. It does have a great soundtrack, it's loud, preposterous and cheesy, but fun and satisfying for those that love the Mortal Kombat franchise. Otherwise, it's just a standard action movie. The least it can be is a guilty pleasure. So far, the best movie based on a videogame.