Don’t let the title mislead you – Mortal Kombat was a thoroughly enjoyable movie going experience! One of the hard parts about talking about films is that you have to take notes (or at least I do – I’m just not the genius I appear to be, ha!), and doing do requires your aversion from the film for brief, but important seconds. I’ll be definitely seeing this movie in the theater one more time to sit back and just enjoy it!
All I wanted from the movie was to not be utterly cheesy. I got what I wanted!
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A Quick Recap of Mortal Kombat (2021)
Mortal Kombat kicks off with a sequence taking place hundreds of years in the past. Bi-Han kills Hanzo Hasashi, believing the Shirai clan is now destroyed.
Shang Tsung, leader of the Outworld Realm, is bent on killing the Earth Realm Champions. If Outworld wins the 10th Tournament in a row (the next one comes before the next full moon), it will dominate Earth Realm.
Jax introduces himself to the newest character in the Mortal Kombat Realms, Cole Young, an MMA fighter on the bad end of his career. Jax ends up saving Cole and his family from Bi-Han (who now goes by Sub Zero). Bi-Han freezes Jax’s arms off and leaves him for dead.
Cole leaves his family to meet Sonya Blade. She fills him in on what she knows about Mortal Kombat. Kano is Sonya’s captive in her house.
Shang Tsung sends one of his assassins, Reptile, to kill Earth’s Champions. He ambushes Cole, Sonya, and Kano, but the three end up fatalitizing (that’s a made up word, but it’s cool) Reptile. Kano knows of the Earth Realm temple, and agrees to help Sonya and Cole find it for $3,000,000.
Into the Temple
On their journey, they run into Liu Kang, who takes them directly to the temple. Sonya finds Jax in the temple, brought here by Liu Kang. Monks are building Jax new arms. Shang Tsung and his squad go to the Earth Temple to slay the champions, but Raiden puts up a barrier.
Kano, Sonya, and Cole find out that they have an inner “arcana” – a special power granted to them by their dragon marking. Kung Lao assists Liu Kang in training to help bring out the arcana, but Kano discovers his through rage over an egg roll.
Raiden sends Cole home as they both believe Cole doesn’t possess the fortitude to find his arcana.
Shang Tsung enlists the help of Reiko and Kabal to defeat the Earth Realm Champions. Kabal, who utilizes an “iron lung” because of Kano, convinces Kano to join Outworld. Kano breaks down the lightning barrier with his laser eye.
Kombat Kombat Kombat!
The Outworld Champions defeat The Earth Champions easily. At one moment, Mileena has a chance to kill Sonya, but decides not too because Sonya isn’t a Champion. Kano then attempts to kill Sonya by dropping a hand from a large statue on her. Shang Tsung takes Kung Lao’s soul.
Prince Goro is sent to destroy Cole, but Cole finds his arcana when he sees his family in trouble. He defeats Goro, and heads back to Earth Temple.
Jax wakes up from his beating from Reiko. He finds his arcana (his arms turn into fully functioning bionic arms) when he sees Sonya under the statue hand, which he lifts off her.
Raiden brings all the Earth Champions to a place between Heaven and the Earth Realm – a place where Shang Tsung can not go. Here, Cole comes up with the idea to attack everyone individually with Raiden’s teleporting assistance.
Jax kills Reiko.
Liu Kang kills Kabal.
Sonya kills Kano and gets his dragon mark.
Cole kills Mileena with Sonya’s assistance.
Sub Zero then appears. Cole charges at him and they teleport to Sub Zero’s chamber, where he has Cole’s family. When Sub Zero is about to kill Cole, Hanzo, now Scorpion and Cole’s ancient ancestor, saves him. They fight together to defeat Sub Zero. Raiden sends Shang Tsung back to Outworld.
The movie ends with Cole refusing to work $200 fights anymore and in search for Johnny Cage.
Dumbness Begins from the First Sequence
Some of you may be aware I went to film school, which I abhorrently admit I attended. However, for someone to garner 168 quarter credits in college and learn nothing would be ridiculous, but I could’ve learned everything on YouTube or sites like Udemy and Skill Share.
One thing I generally pay particular attention to in movies are the opening and closing shots, something I started doing in film school. To me, those two shots can tell a lot of the story and contain a lot of meaning. However, Mortal Kombat’s opening shot was just dumb.
We didn’t even get an establishing shot. It was a very low angle, somewhat angelic shot of Hanzo’s wife. She was doing something outside. And she dies minutes later without even putting up a fight.
Did the filmmakers even attempt to put any thought into the opening shot? Were they on set before they realized, “Hey, we need to have an opening shot!” and followed with “Oh, just put the camera on the ground and point it up at the Mom”? You may not think it’s a big deal, but with the $55,000,000 budget, I’d probably put an hour or two into producing a meaningful opening shot.
Now, if somehow it plays into the sequel, then I appreciate the long term planning, but I don’t think movies should just expect to have sequels.
The Slow Motion Water Buckets
I’d like to hear about your opinions on the subtitles. Bi-Han can speak Chinese and Japanese, and the movie puts in parenthesis which language he speaks. The area he’s in only speaks Japanese.
It may have been tacky, but a Chinese or Japanese flag (if that’s even possible – China probably would hate it since Bi-Han is a villain) next to the subtitles when they appeared may have been better. I might be dumb here for worrying about this, but I like the idea of Bi-Han speaking multiple languages.
When Hanzo hears his wife scream, he drops his buckets of water and dashes towards her. The movie shows the buckets crashing and water flowing out in slow motion for way too long. To me, this was a big waste of screen time. If the water had a purpose or some sort of special meaning, then I see the point. The only defense of this slow motion I can think of is “Water is life, and they are dying” or something like that.
Mortal Kombat Life Bars
Now, I completely understand this is a movie. Not only that, it’s a movie based off a video game. One can’t expect this movie to resemble real life by much. However, how far do we push our reality?
For instance, during the Hanzo and Bi-Han fight scene, Bi-Han launches Hanzo. The temple of Hanzo’s head SLAMS into a rock. SLAMS. On the temple! But it barely phases him!
Does the first Lin Kuei assassin just let Hanzo kill him? It sure looks like it. Hanzo pulls out his sword and slashes, and an assassin just happens to run right into the sword?
The next truly dumb moment comes from when we a meeting between Bi-Han and Shang Tsung. Bi-Han informs Shang Tsung he now goes by “Sub Zero” with no explanation at all. This might bug me because I was watching this movie with Movies Are Dumb Sometimes in mind, but why did he decide to change his name? After 400 years of the same name, do you just wake up one day and decide it’s time to change it?
Introduction to Mortal Kombat’s Dumb Jax
First off, Jax’s low angle to show off his arms was quite funny to me! Man, does he have big arms though!
Jax introduces himself to Cole, then tails Cole and his family to keep an eye on him. Sub Zero appears to kill Cole, but Jax saves them with an extraction in his SUV. Sub Zero blocks an alleyway, and Jax gives instructions to meet Sonya to Cole. He grabs some sort of rifle/shotgun and goes after Sub Zero.
As Jax seeks out Sub Zero, he does a quick turn and has Sub Zero’s face just inches away from his gun. However, Jax fails to pull the trigger? He then proclaims he has 6 tours, like that makes him look any better. It also looks dumb that he has no other weapons on him than his one gun!
If you’re tracking down an enemy with a super power, wouldn’t you want to arm up like Rambo? At least a knife or something?
However, this scene did produce a cool shot of Sub Zero after he discards Jax. Of course, it comes in a low angle shot!
Sonya’s Intensity and the Reptile Battle
Cole arrives at Sonya’s home, to which she responds by aggressively taking him down. If Jax was sent to retrieve Cole, how does Sonya not know who Cole is?
Sonya is intense. I don’t know if it is overacting on McNamee’s part or what, but the amount of intensity Sonya has surely would have put some wrinkles on her or something! Everything is so dramatic with her! The only thing I can think of is because she has her arch nemesis, Kano, contained in her home, which she just casually forgets to tell Cole about.
When Reptile attacks them at one point, he’s above them, ready to pounce, and he’s making some noise, but no one hears him.
Another thing that kind of bugs me with video game-to-movie productions is the use of the game. For example, when Kano rips the still-beating heart out of Reptile’s chest, he proclaims, “Kano wins!” Being that Kano never refers himself in the third person throughout the movie, it’s just forced dialogue. Of course numerous other times the game’s phrases are used, but none as dumb as when Kabal proclaims “Fatality!” when Liu Kang kills him!
And how did Sonya discover her arcana? Everyone has to go through some training or journey to uncover it, except Sonya just gets to have hers. Is it because she’s so intense that the arcana caved into the intensity? And why didn’t Mileena’s spine get obliterated by the purple rings?
Did Liu Kang Annoy You as Much as Me in Mortal Kombat?
First off, I’ll say the wrong cousin dies. That means a lot, because in the short amount of time Kung Lao receives, it makes me upset when he has his soul taken. However, can I just dismiss Kung Lao as one of my favorite characters since Mortal Kombat 2? Perhaps that’s why I was upset by his death.
Kung Lao also had the best fatality on Nitara, if you ask me! He’s also the one responsible for Kano discovering his arcana.
Side note – When Kung Lao appears, does Kano even see him use his hat? Kano makes a reference to Kung Lao’s “frisbee hat”, but I don’t think Kano was in the room when Kung Lao uses the hat.
Or, I could be upset because I found Liu Kang to be pretty annoying! Liu Kang, to me, saw some episodes of Naruto one day and thought, “Wow! He’s super cool! I want to be Naruto!” but he’s not nearly as cool as he thinks he is.
Liu Kang isn’t bad at first, but by the time he gives his little speech about how they need to train hard and fast, I was over him!
Liu Kang also proclaims pain is the ultimate catalyst to discovering the arcana. If so, why does no one discover their arcana’s through pain? Jax and Cole discover theirs through fear and Kano finds his through anger. Is Liu Kang just making stuff up because it’s how he found his arcana?
However, Liu Kang does do one hilarious thing – The MOMENT he sees Cole’s wife and daughter, he immediately Demonstrates Value to them by warming them up with his fire. I sure hope this version of Liu Kang is single because he follow’s Dennis Reynold’s D.E.N.N.I.S. system!
Cole Young – New to the Mortal Kombat Realm
Oh Cole. You are a great addition to the Mortal Kombat Realm. You have a pretty decent hero’s journey and Lewis Tan portrays you in a great way. But you are dumb sometimes!
For instance, why is he only fighting for $200? He’s a former champion! I get it, he probably needs the money, but $200 to potentially cripple yourself if you make one slight mistake? C’mon Cole!
However, this is not the creme de la dumb for Cole. When Raiden essentially berates Cole for being a loser for only trying to discover his superpower for 2 days (and we don’t know how long until the next full moon is), Cole goes back to his family. Why would he do that? He still has the mark!
And low and behold, they send Prince Goro to kill Cole! Cole, with his wits and without his arcana, handles Goro pretty well. His family even gets involved when Goro is about to Finish Him. This is weird because they’re literally just standing by, cowering in fear the entire fight, even after Cole collapses the barn on Goro!
What did y’all think about Goro dying in his first appearance? I appreciate his shadow appearance in Outworld, but he dies within minutes. Do you remember having to fight Goro numerous times in the first Mortal Kombat, just to beat him once? He’s a four armed muscular freak! But, if I remember correctly, he didn’t have a lot of screen time in the first movie either.
Not Dumb Comments on Mortal Kombat
The introduction of a new character in the whole Mortal Kombat Realm is a risky one, but thanks to Han’s portrayal of Cole Young, it was a successful risk, even if Cole is dumb sometimes.
My main question is: How did Director Simon McQuoid get the job? According to his IMDB profile, he directed one video short 7 years ago and that’s it. Heck, I’ve even got more IMDB credits to my name!
If you know me, you know I have a HUGE problem with movies that don’t have endings. This movie isn’t different. The movie clearly plans on making a sequel with Cole in search of Johnny Cage in the last 10 seconds of the movie. To me, this ruins the surprise of the story in the next movie. Plus, Mortal Kombat isn’t an original screen play – the vast majority of people who go to see this movie already know the backstory.
Perhaps, though, we didn’t even need to see anything about Johnny Cage, or that Earth Realm needs more Champions. Or maybe I’m just upset I saw Johnny Cage trending when the movie came out and I was so pumped because I thought he was going to be in the movie!
Favorite Quote
Aside from the many fun quotes from Kano, I think I’ll go ahead with a more motivational quote from the movie.
There’s a moment when Jax trains with his new arms, but they just aren’t up to his standard. I think it’s kind of dumb that he’s so defeated by his weak arms, but Sonya encourages him with:
“Either you keep going and prove to yourself you can do this, or regret it for the rest of your life.”
I think it’s a great quote we all need to hear often, especially when we’re doubting ourselves.
Final Thoughts on Mortal Kombat (2021)
Mortal Kombat is fun and it’s awesome it’s making money. In the first weekend, it almost met its budget, and that doesn’t include whatever HBO paid for streaming right.
You can’t go into this movie thinking its going to be the next great film, but the ride is definitely worth it. Movies are definitely an art form, and sometimes movies forget to include the art. The movie made me feel kind of like a kid again and that’s hard to do.
I will say Mortal Kombat played a HUGE role in me becoming desensitized to violence. I was a pretty beta-male child growing up. My dad had a bar and had 300+ video games at one point. I remember playing the original Mortal Kombat and reverting my eyes when a fatality started.
To this day, I remember clearly seeing my first fatality. I was sitting at the bar and I was watching someone play the game off the wall mirror behind the bar. Raiden put that focused electricity into Scorpion’s head and blood shot out like a fountain. “Well, that wasn’t so bad,” I thought as I turned around.
Now, did that make me into a murderous killer? Ha! That’s a subject for another day! This is Movies Are Dumb Sometimes, not “Do Video Games Make Kids Messed Up Sometimes?”!!!
Go see Mortal Kombat in the theater. I’m sure the experience is much better than on your 55″ at home with your one sound bar.
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