Mortal Kombat Movie (2021)

The most important cinematic event of the century is almost here! MK the movie's coming to HBO Max and theaters (what are those?) on April 16th. And it looks...

...not terrible? Visuals are fine, action's okay and the acting seems tolerable. Of course they could still ruin it all in the final movie, but based on just this, it seems like something I'd watch on a lazy day.

I don’t like the new trend in both the games and this movie to make the ninja face masks some futuristic armor instead of just cloth - it’s all so over-engineered

I still don't get the weird OC main character... thing. For all their talk of "respecting the lore" and stuff it's such a weird choice. It feels like the only 2 ways for it to go is either a) he dies a bit in (he is conspicuously not in the trailer much after a certain point), or b) he's actually Johnny Cage all along. Which would feel... pointless.

Everything else looks alright, like the costumes, and I'm especially into Liu Kang and Kung Lao who should, ya know, be the main characters. Only wish Scorpion/Sub-Zero were a bit less... gritty. I want ~color~ on those guys.

I'm not totally convinced there was a need for the audience surrogate to be an original character but sure this looks like a competent amount of dumb fun from the trailer at least.

Pretty much the same reaction as others. Looks like the fights will be great and fun (Sub-Zero using Scorpion's blood as a dagger, nice), but using a new character and having chosen one tattoos seem like lame choices.

On the bright side I can't imagine it being worse than Annihilation. They would have to work hard to make it that bad.

It looks the part for the current games, but I do worry about the story. The live action Tekken movie also seemed ok on paper but wound up being pretty bad.

MK '95 was entertaining as hell, and this seems to be taking itself way more seriously. Not quite as dour as MK: Legacy.

Short answer: I'm gonna watch but have no idea what to expect.

I think the problem a lot of these movies are facing is that the stories needs to be at least as good as the games they're based on. Which used to be a pretty low bar to clear, but has gotten harder and harder as games have gotten better.

For example, back when the original MK movie came out, the game's "story" was pretty much a few paragraphs on an arcade attract screen. The movie could get away with writing just enough story to connect the fights and still have it work because, hey, that was still a lot more than an arcade box was going to give you.

But the recent MK stories have been . . . pretty good, actually? They're ridiculous and schlocky in a B-movie kind of way, but it's still entertaining and intelligible. I'm not a fighting game person by any means, but I was entertained enough to play through the last MK, which actually says a lot about how decent the narrative was. I don't see myself getting as invested in a cash-grab like this.

Coming at this entirely from the point of view of someone who doesn't know or care about the lore, this looks like dumb fun. And I love me some dumb fun.

"It's a birthmark." "What does that mean?" "It means he was born with it."

Wtf. Action looked great. That Scorpion is perfectly casted... well except for the weak "get over here."

@therealturk: Yeah, the recent games have given some good stuff to pull from. Pretty interesting trailer overview by the director over here.

So I went in with pretty low expectations. I LOVE Joe Taslim (if you haven't, go watch his interview with Scott Adkins and marvel at how a goofy guy who looks like your uncle can also be Sergeant Fucking Jaka and "Joe Taslim from The Night Comes For Us") and expect at least a few minutes of good ass fight scene as a result

But... that actually looks okay? Still have concerns over a lot of the cast (girl from The Notebook as Sonya and Jimmy Olsen as Jax. But who knows) and the POV character is stupid as all hell. But... said POV character's secret also seems REALLY heavily choreographed and down to two options

Speculation based on trailer and interviews:

Even if I didn't have a renewed HBO max for last week tonight I would probably get a month for this. It looks like we should still get at least one or two good fight scenes and if we actually get a "so bad it is fun" movie on the side?

I don't think there is supposed to be any expectations to an MK movie except for "Is it fun?", and I think this trailer answers "yes."

Looks good, mixing something new and old, and still has the cheese I want. Stoked for April now.

Also, seems like Kano still sucks in a dumb fun way. That's a positive sign.

Coming from someone who does know about the lore, this also looks like dumb fun. The games have gotten so good at telling their story, I don't really expect a movie to keep up with it, which is a weird, weird thing to say, but it looks like the kind of fun the original movie had. All that's really different is that they have a budget and are going for an R rating. More power to them, I'll watch it.

You sonofabitch I'm in!

Before Trailer: What is this nonsense?

After Trailer: I'm ready MK. I'm ready.

I liked the trailer but it made me think for a moment.

Did we really need Johnny Cage in the story or should he show up in a sequel?

Seems like this movie will suck, but it will suck in all the right ways for the people who want it to suck like that. I'm not super interested in it, but it seems like the perfect direction for fans of the franchise.

Also, is "I am Sub-Zero" a line that is a reference? Or is he saying that because people might not have understood he was Sub-Zero??? Feels like the trailer should have been building to "Get over here" in that moment, but instead it uses the big dramatic swell to have Sub-Zero say what seems to be a throw away line? Odd choice.

@norcal02: I'm pretty sure it's more of a reference to how the announcer in the games would say "Sub-Zero" when you select him.

This just looks like every single uninspired superhero miniseries on Netflix, HBO, or CW. I particularly like scenes where character say their own name. "I'm Sonya." "That's Kano." "I'm Liu Kang." "I am Sub-Zero."

If there's something worse than bad, it's crushingly uninteresting.

God... now I want a CW show with sexy mortal kombat characters going through every possible shipping scenario over the course of a few years and having constant misunderstandings because they won't talk to each other.

... or just Stephen Amell as Kurtis Stryker. He has the right loveable douchebag look for that wannabe bike cop.

Count me in. Looks fun.

All you need in an MK movie is decent takes on the characters and good fights, and this looks like both of those.

@lapsariangiraff: EXCUSE YOU!

You also need THE GREATEST VIDEO GAME MOVIE THEME SONG EVER WRITTEN BAR NONE

If this song is not an end credit stinger or something I will write a letter of complaint. It does seem to be referenced in the music at the end of the trailer so I'm optimistic.

As for the new movie...it looks possibly okay. Maybe a bit too self serious. The thing that made the first movie actually good was how ridiculous it was. I'm worried that this movie is just going to be a DC Universe style dark slog and won't have anything like Christopher Lambert's Raiden or the Johnny Cage Goro nut shot.

@epidehl: Of course he's Johnny Cage. He's a washed up MMA fighter who is used to losing. He gets a taste of winning, starts a movie career, takes the stage name Johnny.

But...he doesn't seem obnoxious or American enough.

Looks like a B grade acted movie with great action scenes. I'm in.

I'm down. Seems like a fun, dumb action movie with some cool fights. And if that isn't mortal kombat these days, what is?

If nobody ever yells the name of the movie at some point during it, I'm going to be angry.

It looks sick

@bigsocrates: You raise a good point :P

I fully expect some dubstep version of this to play in the final fight.

If not this is a 0/5

The thing MK has always had going for it is that the franchise knows exactly how stupid it is.

This sure looks stupid! So I'm basically on board.

(ETA: Okay, Annihilation didn't know it was stupid. But ASIDE from that.)

@ohverture: Cole is 1000% Johnny Cage.

I just hope Reptile is a damn ninja and a raptor looking asshat. hype for the movie tho.

I'm psyched for it. I'm all in for some dumb action fun.

As they filmed this in South Australia, I think I saw some of the cast (or crew) while out to dinner with my family one time.

Also, as I've only seen clips here and there of the old MK movies, are there any 'TOASTY!' mentions in them, because 100% missed opportunity if they've never referenced one of the funniest parts of that franchise, and a chance to rectify that massive mistake in this movie if they didn't.

No Lambert as Raiden? No thanks!

hopefully it's fun

It’s probably too much to wish for a F&40s of this one right after release, cause it’d maybe be a hassle to record. A spoilercast would be alright too, even if not as entertaining.

So, my favourite American film critic reviewed the new Mortal Kombat movie, and boy, he pulls no punches. (Taken from the first two paragraphs.)

Is it too much to ask that a dumb movie also be fun? Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 adaptation of the fighting game series Mortal Kombat managed to be both: the fast-paced, kid-logic plotting; the goofy dialogue; the camp performances of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Christopher Lambert, and Linden Ashby; the pure good-times-ahead energy of the opening seconds, with its yawps of “Mortal Kombat!” over loud techno beats. Compared to that, the new Mortal Kombat, directed by first-timer Simon McQuoid, barely qualifies as entertainment. It is a patience-testing exercise that repetitively paces a small handful of locations (one of which, bizarrely, is Gary, Indiana) while the audience hopes for something, anything to happen. Call it Waiting For Goro.

To be fair, the four-armed extra-dimensional champ does eventually make an appearance. The titular tournament, in which the best fighters of our dimension (referred to as “Earthrealm”) face the bruisers of the evil dimension of Outworld, does not. There is, technically speaking, no Mortal Kombat in Mortal Kombat. (They’re saving it for the sequel.) There are, however, some unremarkably choreographed fights with sporadic VFX gore and digital blood spatter. Whatever happened to the gnarly prosthetic? The fire-hose-strength arterial spray of bright, bright red? Digital effects haven’t made movies any cheaper, but they’ve definitely made them less interesting to look at.

I definitely don't like what i'm hearing about this being deathly serious. The thing the old MK movie nailed was the tone.

I'll leave out the lead-in to this scalding hot takedown from David Ehrlich for the truly spoiler-averse, but boy am I excited to find out just what kind of weird this movie turned out to be (for what it's worth, I was not excited by the trailer at all):

So begins a movie that’s “Mortal Kombat” in name more than anything else. A movie full of the characters fans know and love — and replete with winking references that only they will understand — but also one so busy straining to upconvert its ’90s soul for the modern blockbuster economy that it soon feels less [Nodima note: 99% sure he meant "more"] like a bootleg “Avengers” that a crack team of modders have re-skinned to resemble a classic fighting game franchise.

@vincentvendetta: " while the audience hopes for something, anything to happen. Call it Waiting For Goro." This made me say "oof" out loud. Just brutal.

Oh, the fights in this movie have so many rapid cuts that it feels disrespectful to the 2D fighting game root...Here is Scott Adkins speaking highly of a cut scene from MK 11, doubt the JCVD of 21st century would say the same about this movie.

From all I've seen this seems to be the worst type of bad in that it's just boring. You can technically sit through a bad movie if it's still entertaining in how bad it actually is, but it's very hard to make it through a thing that just doesn't evoke any emotion at all.

Yeah, just watched it this morning myself and it's just... so boring. I could also have like dozen nitpicks about it, but it really just comes down to that. There's not enough fighting and what is there isn't very good.

The movie was dumb and a wasted opportunity.

Yeah, by no means a good movie, but Kano is generally funny and the "fight" between him and Liu Kang is great (even though it's a total non-sense meta joke). The sad part is that when you watch the movie you get glimpses of how they could've made an actual good and fun Mortal Kombat movie. It even lays out two very different paths they could've gone and still been successful. But what they made is sorta all over the place and way too focused on explaining itself.

Such a boring movie.

I remember hearing the director said some about the potential cinematic beauty of “Mortal Kombat” is what drew him the movie.

So why he decided to set the majority of his movie in a trailer park, farm house, gym and a cave is confusing.

Add mine to the chorus of voices saying that this is a boring bad movie, which is the worst kind of bad movie. I would rather have rewatched MK: Annihilation instead of this, because at least that movie tried something. I was stunned at how anticlimactic it ends, and it really desperately sets up a sequel it by no means deserves.

If you’re determined to see it anyway, do your taxes while watching it.

Disappointed.

There's a decent movie about Scorpion and Sub Zero in there, but it has a good beginning and a decent ending with a whole bunch of garbage smooshed between for 90 minutes.

Also, that main character. What a nothing.

Yeah I also wasn't impressed. I can appreciate people trying to modernize MK, but throwing the "standard action super hero template" over top of MK skins doesn't remotely work at all for me. The entire movie felt devoid of any notable style, something the 95 original movie had in spades. The score alone is evidence, sounding like any other high fantasy/action adventure fare. Don't even get me started on the overuse of needing in universe justification for anything and everything. It just felt like a by the numbers MK movie made by a board of executives.

It's actually kinda wild how exceptionally inoffensive, generic, and unmemorable it is despite many of the games prominent fatalities being featured in combat. Generally the action has to become so contrived so as to set up the fatality, and the camera/pacing doesn't give any of those moments a sense of place that they would otherwise deserve. There was just so many odd decisions they made though. When I had heard campy going in I had assumed perhaps with some self awareness, but it's more campy in the way old cartoons are campy. When did MK characters turn into horror movie monsters? There is just so many examples where they tonally use these characters as if their abilities/powers are stand ins for archetypes in other genres that this movie is intentionally aping. It just didn't really ever feel like Mortal Kombat, being honest.

It's totally fine! MK 9, X, and 11 tell the stories better, sure. The acting (aside from Kano) is nestled squarely in the camp-B-movie-tier. They bloat the middle with a bunch of shallow exposition, but the fights are great. The digital FX do a nice job of bringing accurate looks to special moves from the games (like Kung Lao's teleportation bloop, Sonya's pink arm blaster rings, etc) They toss a bunch of winks and nods to the games history that left my brother and I (fans since the original MK and the ABACABB blood code era) giggling with delight. I thought sub-zero was excellently brought to screen, and scorpion criminally underused. Could it have been better - for sure! I'll be ready for a sequel!