Review of Mortal Kombat (1995) by Aaron A — 23 Apr 2011

"I challenge you to Mortal Kombat.".

If the minions of the powerful Emperor Shang Tsung win another victory in the brutal Mortal Kombat tournament, Earth will fall to the forces of evil.

If you enter a viewing of Mortal Kombat expecting anything other than a film that's been made only to capitalize on the enormous success of it's source material, your an idiot. If your expecting a strong story, deep characters, and technical wizardry, your still going to be disappointed. However, it's likely you'll have a good time nonetheless.

Though the film is essentially a string a fights one after the other, thats pretty much what every other action flick on the market does as well. The difference with Mortal Kombat is that is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, the director does a good job filming the fight scenes to make them interesting even though the choreography is sometimes subpar, and no fight overstays it's welcome thanks to some brisk editing.

It's sometimes laughably easy to tell that certain scenes were filmed on sound stages, but when the fists start flying, one can't help (or at least I couldn't) feeling as if it's an unspoken salute to the "stages" from the games. The costume design is one aspect I think is above expectations. The costumes aren't gaudy in Mortal Kombat (the movie), Raiden is dressed in some beautiful worn-in white robes and Shang Tsung's vest and pony-tail add to his bad boy persona.

Though the lack of a script restricts me from speaking for non-Mortal Kombat fans and women, if your a young boy or otherwise a fan of the videogames, Mortal Kombat is a satisfying adaptation.