Review of Mortal Kombat (1995) by Stuart K — 29 Mar 2014

Directed by Paul Anderson, whose debut Shopping (1994) had brought him attention in the press and cinema audiences. New Line Cinema saw it, and thought Anderson would be a perfect choice to direct their adaptation of the computer game Mortal Kombat, which had been a massive success.

It's a film which tries, but not hard enough, and it just feels routine and pedestrian. While on a film shoot in the Far East, Shaolin warrior Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Special Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) are selected by God of Thunder Raiden (Christopher Lambert) to take place in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat.

It's reigning champion is Prince Goro (Kevin Michael Richardson), who has won it 9 times in a row, if he wins it again, Emperor Shao Kahn (Frank Welker) can take over Earth. Raiden needs our heroic trio to work together to see that Goro and Shao Kahn doesn't win for the 10th time, but it seems like an impossible task at first.

It had potential to be a good action film, but it falls into the same pitfalls that Super Mario Bros. (1993) faced. It's too childish for grown up audiences, and it's too violent for younger audiences.

Anderson moved away from this to do sci-fi epics Event Horizon (1997) and Soldier (1998), and then he went and did Resident Evil (2002).