Review of Mortal Kombat (1995) by Bill M — 23 May 2011

Caught this on tv in hd the other day, I hadnt seen this film for 15 years! I remember the time clearly, the mid ninties, Mortal kombat was the biggest game ever, everyone in school was going mad for it, parents and the daily mail were pissed off with it for it's bloody, violent content, which made the game even more a talking point and "must have" with kids, and in that period they even managed to get a blockbuster film adaptation in.

This film was a legendary mid ninties video store rental, and although massively toned down from the games heart ripping, blood spurting notoriety, was and is a fun, very entertaining supernatural, martial arts action flick and possibly the most spot on and decent game to film adaptation ever, watching it now you realise how close in tone and look it actualy is to the game, and refreshingly (and this is the key to it's success) it doesnt try to be any more than it should, in fact much like how sin city was an experiment in turning cinema into a living comic book, mortal kombat is film as video game, no filler, no real plot, just face off after face off in quick succession, it's simplicity is it's main virtue, even the dodgy, ancient looking (yet hugely charming) computer graphics somhow add to the feel of this being a video game, in fact the production design in this filmand the atmosphere is actualy suprisingly strong, the whole look of it, especialy in the niether world setting at the end is superbly done, adding to it is the fact that the film looks both slick and well made yet wonderfully cheap and tacky at the same time, which gives it a great, interesting visual quality.

Some of the other plus points are the four armed goro, who is an impressive mix of man in a suit with extra animatronic exstension to the upper body, sure he doesnt look entirely real but is far more physical and cool than most of todays tottled out on a computer in five minutes cartoons.

Basicaly they nail the computer game on film in a way every other director bar cristophe gans (silent hill) has massively failed, the fight scenes are all very diffrent and cool (especialy the awesome fight with scorpion, GET OVER HERE!) the bad guy actualy says aloud the gmaes post fight score ups, "FATALITY", "PERFECT VICTORY"! for no reason other than it was in the game, and christopher lambert is hilariously entertaining and cool as rayden, at times actualy laughting at his own pretentions in some scenes, "the fate of billions rests in your hands, HA HA HA.

......."sorry". The film feels really quick and breezy, even as it ends you feel like a little "CONTINUE?, INSERT COINS NOW!" is going to pop up. A fun, nostalgic little supernatural martial arts flick bets enjoyed with mates and beers.