I saw two excellent movies the previous two nights...
Mortal Kombat (2021) and Pixels.
These are both films when I first heard about them, I was somewhat intrigued in checking out, but after hearing the terrible reviews and audience response, declined to go see but figured if I could ever see it for free, I'd check it out. Just so happens both were streaming on Tubi so I watched Mortal Kombat one evening, and Pixels the next.
I can happily say, both were just as disappointing as advertised! Shockingly, I think Pixels might actually be a better movie.
So Mortal Kombat. Where do I start? The opening prologue revealing Sub-Zero and Scorpions origins was okay but I realized something amusing. Having just seen John Wick 4 (which starred Scorpion actor Hiroyuki Sanada as well) I just realized all of the fight choreography in Mortal Kombat, I was measuring against that which I had just seen in John Wick and the former did NOT measure up to the latter. And I think it legitimately impacted my impression of this films quality. Another funny thing, Cole Young (the original protagonist of this movie) had an introductory MMA fight to display his fight qualities or whatever. That fight... I thought it was better then the entire opening sequence which had ninjas and samurai and kusarigamas and ice magic.
The acting was subpar. I don't think it was the actors per se who were bad, but it felt like all of the dialogue was done on a first take. The delivery of lines and conversations was so flat and generic. I wanted to like the characters and they had nuggets of being interesting, but the only character who stood out was Kano.
The way they changed the plot somehow was stupider and more convoluted than the video game. Somehow the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie made infinitely more sense then this films wacky story which involved unlocking something called Arcana which only people who have a special Mortal Kombat birthmark have and thus can participate in this tournament. Speaking of which, the tournament doesn't even happen in this movie because Shang Tsung is trying to assassinate all of Earthrealms champions before the tournament starts and it is that which this movie is all about.
As I explain this, there are literally mountains of plotholes that are flooding my poor little brain that I want to ask. Like if Raiden can teleport anyone anywhere, why can't he teleport the fighters to their safespace temple? It's awfully convenient that Cole Young was the direct descendant of Scorpion and turned out to be an MMA fighter. If he was an accountant they'd really be in trouble. How does Cole Young understand Japanese? Why did the monks attach little baby robot arms to Jax after he lost his arms if they didn't know what his Arcana superpowers would be? How did Kano know where the secret Temple to Raiden was? He didn't even know about the significance of his dragon birthmark. Is Arcana updated with technological or did Earthrealm have champions whose Arcana was EMP blasts and rocket flight back in 30BC or whatever? Why is Raiden a fucking bitch through the entire movie?
I could go on... Was there anything I liked about this movie? I guess it was "entertaining." Like a B-movie and you can push out the fact you are witnessing them rape into oblivion a franchise you like for one liners, set design and costume ideas.
Oh the gore was alright, but it was such obvious CGI splatter it made me sad.