I’m glad we’ve reached the point where all video game movies aren’t complete shit.
That’s not to say that Mortal Kombat Twenty Twenty One is a 10/10 or anything, but it’s still a blast. It feels like a genuine love-letter to the franchise. The writing and direction come from a place of respect for the series, not a cynical boardroom writer’s circle.
Well there are little hints of corporate interference. Most notably, is the inclusion of an original character for the main role, Cole Young.
I’ve seen A LOT of people trashing on Cole. And while I understand some of the negative aspects, like his family was annoying at some parts and his “power” was initially lackluster, but I found myself liking him after thinking about him for a bit.
I can’t even give a good justification for that really. I guess the actor just did a really good job. I found myself wishing that he would be DLC for MK11, he kinda fits right into the universe. As someone that just got into the series by playing the MK9 and MKX story modes last month, and with no experience of the games before MK9, I would whole-heartedly believe you if you told me Cole Young was introduced in Deadly Alliance or some shit.
The casting all around is top tier. If you’ve seen any footage of Scorpion or Sub-Zero, you know how perfectly they pulled off the characters. But even the slightly less iconic fighters like Kano, Jax, and Sonya Blade all felt natural. I talked about the casting of the first Mortal Kombat movie in my review of it, how Johnny Cage, Raiden, and others were slightly off. They weren’t awful, but it was weird seeing them with the context of their modern interpretations.
The new movie really benefits from having these modern interpretations as a baseline to build off of. The actors of Kano, Jax, and Sonya do have their little twist on the characters, but I think overall, the casting really resonates with me compared to the movie from ‘95.
That is, until Raiden is introduced.
Raiden from the new MK games, especially MK11, is so fucking good. The actor’s delivery + the post-processing on his voice make him so goddamn imposing.
Raiden in the first movie was a stark contrast to that interpretation of the character. As far as I remember, he didn’t really have any moments where I really felt his power. He was just kinda like a wise old mentor to the fighters. I don’t really like this interpretation of him, but I can acknowledge that the filmmakers at least pulled off what they were going for.
Raiden in the new movie is rough.
Now… hear me out.
I don’t know how to say this in a non-offensive way, so I’m just gonna lay it out plainly. His accent just doesn’t do it for me. So much of what I love of MK11 Raiden is the vocal delivery. And 2021 MK movie Raiden puts me off. I haven’t seen any other films with the actor in it, so I don’t know if he’s laying the accent on thicker for this specific role, but it’s genuinely hard to understand him at times. Again, nothing against him, but just like Christopher Lambert’s interpretation of Raiden before him, it doesn’t float my boat.
I talked earlier about how this film was made from a place of love, and I wanna talk some more about that.
One of my absolute favorite moments of the film, is a fight between Liu Kang and Kano.
Kano’s talkin mad shit and he challenges Liu Kang to a sparring match. They square up. Kano advances towards Liu Kang. He promptly knocks him down with a sweep kick. Kano gets back up undeterred, and charges back at him. Liu Kang sweeps him onto his ass again. Angry, Kano gets up and goes at him, once again, getting sweep kicked to the ground.
Like, I can’t put into words how cool this scene is. It genuinely reflects the mechanics of the series without feeling heavy-handed. Of course, there’s a bunch of other, more obvious references by saying stuff like “Finish Him” and “Fatality”, but those just strike me as cheap fan-service. A movie written by a group of yes-men trying to make first-and-foremost, a movie that fans will like, and pay to see. It’s the obvious things someone would go to if they’ve never played the games or are even a gamer in any way. “Mortal Kombat is the game with the blood and gore right? They say Fatality and Finish Him a bunch I think, we need to make sure that’s in the script.”
The Liu-Kang sweeping Kano bit strikes me as a joke that only a fan of the series would come up with. Because it doesn’t really represent any particular asset implemented by the developer, it speaks to a tactic discovered by players when fighting against lesser-skilled players. It’s a community thing.
Another thing that struck me as a love-letter to the fans, was the inclusion of Reiko and Nitara. Like I said, I’m a new fan of the series, I don’t know much of anything about characters not in the games since MK9.
That being said, I can only imagine what it was like to see fuckin Reiko and Nitara in a live-action feature film. They’re characters that are pretty much nonexistent in the modern games, so the inclusion of them feels like a nod to the older fans. But it’s not a tasteless thing, like, “Heyyyy, it’s Nitara. You all remember her right? Well she’s here, just 4 u :]”. It’s more like, “Shang Tsung has to have some minions, let’s just pick these two. If you recognize them, it’s a cool moment. But if you don’t, then it’s no big deal.”
It might seem like a small difference, but I think it comes down to how much respect is given to the viewer. It doesn’t treat the audience like an idiot if they don’t get the joke.
With all that out of the way, time for me to FINISH THIS review.
Do I Recommend It?
Hell yeah bruther. If you have even a passing interest in Mortal Kombat, This movie is an easy recommendation. While it has some annoying parts, overall, it’s a pretty good love-letter to the series.