Review of Mortal Kombat (2021) by Thisguy1 — 26 Apr 2021

If you came into this movie expecting it to win awards, be profound, or to see an American film have fight choreography on levels similar to The Raid... there's nothing "wrong" with that, however I'd recommend re-evaluating your expectations so you can have more fun movie-watching.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Joe Taslim steals the show as Sub-zero. Ludi Lin, Max Huang, and Hiroyuki Sanada are all excellent, especially considering they each had limited screen time. Most other characters are fairly forgettable.

Josh Lawson as Kano was about 60/40 hit or miss and could get a bit irritating. I loved all the references to the games. The opening scene is absolutely fantastic. The final fight is a lot of fun as well, but not on the same level as the opening scene.

For anyone complaining that "they don't actually fight in a tournament," I think that's a little petty. The final act of the movie is very much tournament style fighting and reminiscent of the source material.

Understandably, the minds behind the film understand that they can't just keep making movies about another tournament and another tournament and another. I like the idea of introducing the characters and mythology first, trying to make that film as audience pleasing as possible, so you can come back and do the tournament in a later film.