Review of Mortal Kombat (2021): The brutal video game adaptation is that good
Review of Mortal Kombat (2021)
The first 1995 Mortal Kombat film adaptation, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, has some iconic details of its own. There is, for example, the well-articulated, but still wonderfully dazed-looking Goro suit. Above all, however, is the wild soundtrack, which includes tracks from the metal bands Napalm Death and Fear Factory as well as a single by the actress Traci Lords and perhaps the most epic intro song of all time with "Techno Syndrome" (the latter is also found in a modified form in the new edition). At that time, however, fans had to do without the striking feature of the video game series: Despite some well-known fighting movements and sayings from the original, New Line Cinema did not show extreme violence for obvious reasons. Warner Bros. ' The new edition of 2021 now promises to remedy this situation and to show the audience brutal fatalities like in the latest video game offshoots.02:23
Mortal Kombat: First trailer for the remake with numerous fights loadVideoPlayer ('83612', '& sAdSetCsategory = article_featured', 12, '16: 9 ', false, 1371800, false, 277425, 260, false, 0,' ',' ', false); Mortal Kombat from € 15.99 Newcomer Simon McQuoid is a commercial filmmaker and self-explanatory gamer with an eye for style behind the camera and an experienced filmmaker at his side with producer James Wan (Saw, Aquaman, The Conjuring). The prerequisites for a hit are in place and the release of the film on HBO Max actually generated record numbers on the platform. Unfortunately, Mortal Kombat is plagued by the same problems that have dragged so many other video game films from the big screen to the rummaging tables in front of the tills of various electronics stores.
Sub Zero is introduced as the main opponent at the beginning, but otherwise hardly takes part in the plot Source: Warner Bros. Everything actually starts so well: The story begins with a flashback to the 17th century, where a troop of assassins, led by the warrior Bi-Han (Joe Taslim), ambushes and murdered the family of the ninja Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) in their hut. In the last second the magician Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) saves the little daughter of the vanquished and thus his bloodline. The fights are short, but robust and as clichéd as this entry may be, it definitely makes you want more. In addition, it is established extremely efficiently that we are dealing with a really lousy pig priest in Bi-Han, who will later be called Sub Zero.
Unfortunately, then the actual plot of the film begins. Today, Hasashi's descendant, the MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is hunted by the henchmen of the evil wizard Shang Tsung (Chin Han). As in the games, Tsung is also a conqueror of the Outworld dimension, who tries to emerge victorious with his minions in the eponymous tournament. Only one victory over Earthrealm, i.e. the earth, is missing for his fighters to rule the world. However, since a prophecy predicts that someone of Hasashi's blood will win, he tries to track down and murder Young before the tournament begins. At the side of the hunted are the Special Forces agents Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) as well as the Earthrealm champions Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang), the hidden power in Cole called Arcana want to wake up.
Protagonist Cole is quite a bore Source: Warner Bros. The tournament to life and death, which is announced in the title, does not take place in the film at all. So, strictly speaking, it is the pre-story to Mortal Kombat. Characters like Mileena (Sisi Stringer), Goro (Angus Sampson), Reptile and Sub Zero may strive for Cole's life, but most fights do not have the character of the video game at all, instead they are confusing, filmed unimaginatively, hectic and almost exclusively in dark rooms or caves instead. Only towards the end of the film is there a fight scene in which the skills of the individual opponents are well presented and the location is also used as part of the argument.
It is accordingly misplaced when the characters are iconic Say lines from games like "Fatality" or "Flawless Victory". Especially since we get to see far too few of the former. When, after more than an hour, Kung Lao finally uses his knife sombrero to saw an opponent in the usual cruel way, most viewers have almost forgotten that they are watching a film from the Mortal Kombat franchise.
The fight choreographies are by no means bad and you can tell that a large part of the cast has real martial arts experience. What is sorely lacking, however, are scenes in which the characters' personalities and idiosyncrasies come to light. Even if the film adaptation from the 90s is anything but a masterpiece, you at least get the impression that Johnny Cage, for example, has to adapt to the different opponents in his fights against Scorpion or Goro and use new tricks in order to win. In the reboot, on the other hand, the characters simply thrash each other with different forces, without the duels telling their own little stories. This is mainly due to the structure. Instead of leading to the actual tournament, it would have been more entertaining to just show Mortal Kombat as we know it. As a tournament with weapons, fists, magic and memorable finishes.
Josh Lawson as Kano Source: Warner Bros. Main character Cole, about whose determination the whole plot revolves, is also a very passive protagonist, has no really individual character Motivation or interesting character traits and unfortunately does not undergo any significant change. Most of the personality shows the barely recognizable Josh Lawson (House of Lies) as Kano, who takes on the role of the funny sidekick in the first half of the film. His crude sayings get on your nerves after a short time.
On our own behalf: Mortal Kombat (2021) will also be part of the topics discussed in the next episode of our Heim Kino podcast. There Maci and Chris discuss the colorful world of films and series every second Thursday. Listen and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and / or Instagram.
