by Alice-Ginevra Micheli, Contributing Writer
So, off the bat, I should say that I am not one with nostalgia or with any sort of affection for the original Mortal Kombat game. Leading up to my viewing, I found myself often going to my partner to ask about the general concept, as well as what people would be specifically be looking for in the film. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely recognize some of its iconic phrases like “Finish him!” and “Get over here!” but that’s where my knowledge ended.
All this to say, I am not a Mortal Kombat stan, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t keen for this. When I saw the first trailer, I was in the moment I saw a character freeze another’s blood and then use it as a blade against him.
And I was not disappointed.
Produced by James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring, Aquaman) and directed by Simon McQuoid in his feature film debut, Mortal Kombat follows an MMA fighter (Lewis Tan) as he seeks out the world’s greatest fighters to stand against the threat of the Outworld.
Along the way you meet Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks’ Jax, Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero and Josh Lawson’s Kano, as well as many others.
While all do relatively good jobs portraying their persona, the real star is the Australian Josh Lawson — and no I’m not just being a biased Australian. Carrying the first half of the film on his shoulders, he’s a perfect representation of the uncompromising Aussie spirit. Foul-mouthed, brutal, and just absolutely crazed, he is the epitome of the bad guy you love to hate. Without Kano, this film would immediately lose some of the charm that helps bring the audience from the film’s beginning to the main show.
And really, something to know from the outset, is that the plot in this movie is thinner than a sheet of paper. It is there, but only to get you to the fights and — more importantly — it knows it.
This is not something you’re going to go to for an intricate story with overactive themes. The audience shouldn’t care about the character development, unless it leads to a boss fight scene, and the dialogue is just there to help get the audience from point A to point B — or should I say fight A to fight B.
And when you do get to those points, you are not disappointed. The fights are visceral, the action is exciting, the score is overdramatic and the combat choreography is just downright thrilling. In fact, I have it on good authority that part of this film’s success is that each actor keeps their combat style true to the one of the character they’re portraying, whether it’s a heavy boxer, a wacky berserker or a technical martial artist.
A warning to curious audiences as well, this is not a film for the faint-hearted. Part of the reason the original game was popular was because of its intense violence and gore, and the film makes sure to lean on that aspect for all its deaths.
At the end of the day, this is a film that knows what it is and so it gets the important stuff right, and makes the rest good enough. No one is going to go see this for anything more than some awesome action, which harkens back to the iconic 80’s Arnie movies like Predator and Running Man.
While Mortal Kombat won’t be the cause of many in-depth discussions or be in the running for any prestigious cinema awards, it’s still a lot of fun. A great movie to go see with a bunch of mates on a Friday night, I for one am a fan, and am looking forward to seeing more installments in the future.
So if you’re wanting a movie with pure adrenaline, over important music and thrills from one moment to the next, put down your phone and GET OVER HERE.
Grade: B-
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