Mortal Kombat (2021)

Thank God this movie wasn't absolute horseshit like that trailer.

Now you're expecting me to say it's the best Mortal Kombat movie to date. Nope. I can't even explain why I didn't like it, now I must set a disclaimer. I did not hate it. I thought it was average. I can't even discern what angle the filmmakers were going for, they didn't make another practical remake of the original film, they didn't make it an all out fight fest plot be damned, now you think I would be thrilled that it wasn't another movie where a buncha' fighters take a boat to an island like yesterday when I gave good grief for the animated movie treading familiar waters. But here's the thing, there is no tournament. At all. The plot follows new character Cole as he's very much slapped into this world of magic, creatures, and abilities as he meets up with various characters and has to learn his special abilities to fight in the tournament. The tournament that never even begins. Oh sure you get your fights and your gore, but there's no real semblance of beginning, middle, and end. Now I know. I know. This film was in production at a very uncertain time, and while the effects are done okay the story needed revisions. Several revisions. Now the characters are done well, there were a few I didn't know but the ones I was familiar with were played by good actors and it got the basics right so I have no complaints there. The effects look good, though Goro looked just flat out like Hulk from The Avengers except with 4 arms. But the designs worked for me with tons of love going to Scorpion and Sub-Zero giving a proper update from the 95' film. And I must admit the film never really got me pumped though the fights are decent, but really the highlights were at the beginning with Hanzo and at the end with Scorpion, those were done very well. But it just kind of fell flat for me, it's an okay movie and I have no problem seeing the second but this is totally a rental not a theater experience. It really is sandwiched between the two other live action films which some may consider bad but it's purely logical. Annihilation got a 1 for f***'s sake and the original got a 7, that's a wide berth. So this gets 2 stars, 6/10. Christ this really was a rocky week of quality, with the first Mortal Kombat movie being the best still for me with Scorpion's Revenge coming in second. I can scarcely believe that and I just wrote the damn thing but man that first film is better than most would give credit for, and I wouldn't mind adding it to the movie collection at all. So sort of a disappointing end to the month but there are always possibilities and opportunities in the future. So give this a watch if you're hardcore for Kombat or just want to judge it for yourself.