Rated: R
Directed by: Simon McQuoid
Produced by: James Wan
Starring: Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Ludi Lin, Chin Han and Mehcad Brooks.
Death is just another portal.
The Tournament is coming. Where worlds send warriors who have unlocked their arcana, their power of the soul, to fight.
The Outworld has won the last nine tournaments against Earthrealm, and is set to win the tenth by any means, giving them domination over the Universe.
Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), a Cryomancer, is determined to end the bloodline of Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada ) – dating back to Japan 1617, where Hanzo is seen living his day-to-day life with his family. He says to his wife, ‘I am grateful and blessed to be with you.’
He’s a good guy.
Sent to hell.
His family left frozen amongst the flowers.
The film shifts to modern times, a jolt to MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) getting a pep talk from his coach before walking into the cage.
He carries a mark he doesn’t understand. A mark making him an Earthrealm champion.
He’s also a family man, about to take a beating.
I braced myself for the cheesy asides and family drama while Cole dodges Sub-Zero, Cole unaware of his heritage dating back to that fateful day in Japan where a baby is somehow overlooked and survives (how was this overlooked, I wondered at the time?).
But while Outworld’s Emperor, Shang Tsung sends his warriors to take down Earth’s champions before the high stakes battle even begins, the film introduces a pleasant (well, maybe pleasant isn’t the right word) surprise: chained-up rogue mercenary, Kano (Josh Lawson). An Aussie meat-head that immediately disarms with comments like, ‘You don’t have the mongrel in you.’ And, ‘No skin off my sack.’ Ha, ha!
I wasn’t expecting crude humour in this video game inspired action fantasy, and was thankful for the risk, lightening the mood, adding to the already entertaining bloody action-packed fights.
Then the film got a little more serious with the good versus evil, or Earthworld versus the Outworlders as Cole finds the temple of Lord Raiden to train, to find his arcana.
Mortal Kombat is an entertaining action movie with good effects: frozen swords and triple, quadruple kicks and getting sawed in half and arms-frozen-off action.
Good on the big screen that gets bloody, with a splash of humour – while entertained in the cinema watching, immediately forgotten – I have to blame some of my distraction on the hellish (ha, ha, excuse the pun, those fans of Scorpion) – day.
There’s a few holes in the story that got me wondering about the why (fans of the video game franchise will notice nods to the game and get more out of the storyline). But there’re enough surprises, laughs and satisfying wins to make Mortal Kombat (the movie) a good entertainer.