Mortal Kombat
Year: 2021
Rating: R
Length: 110 minutes / 1.83 hours
In the last few years, it feels like Hollywood has finally come to grips with adapting video games into movies. There has been such a sour taste from the initial wave of video game-inspired movies from the mid-90s that it’s taken 25 years to finally delve into this genre again. As these movie franchises are being rebooted, it’s nice to see that the writers and directors (mostly) understand the appeal of the source material and can translate it to the big screen. It also helps that CGI technology has advanced to the point where the special effects in these films aren’t nearly as campy.
While the original movie version of Mortal Kombat (1995) was OK, there were definitely a few odd choices in its production (inducing casting and some script issues). For the reboot, I felt Mortal Kombat (2021) nailed the aesthetic and the characters with just enough plot to make the reason for these brutal fights plausible. There were just enough classic characters to draw in the nostalgia factor while also providing lesser-known newer characters from the series that added a “cool factor” that makes me want to try some of the more recent installments of the video game franchise. Of course, there has likely been over 20 years of lore to draw from to help make a violent fighting game into something that makes sense.
Those of us who grew up in the era of this video game can appreciate that the movie’s staples are intact, even if they are references that heavily wink at the audience. Catchphrases and extremely brutal fatalities were sprinkled throughout and somewhat distracted from the overall flow, even if they were necessary to tie to the original games. In the end, though, Mortal Kombat was a fun ride and an entertaining bit of nostalgia that was improved by “better graphics” of today’s CGI.
Another example of a video game adaptation done correctly, I give Mortal Kombat 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
