Hara-kiri instead of fatality – a review of the film “Mortal Kombat”

Before moving on to the film, I would like to say a few words about the game series. From the very beginning, Mortal Kombat boasted a rather elaborate lore: each character had his own reasons for participating in a bloody massacre, heroes famously changed sides of the conflict, and political problems accompanied battles even outside the tournaments. But it was the tournament, the very Mortal Kombat, that was always in the spotlight: it was there that representatives of the Earthly kingdom fought with the Outside World for the right to remain free, and they did not always succeed. Over almost three decades of the franchise’s history, the lore managed to acquire a lot of details and details, becoming so complicated that at some point the series needed a restart.

By all accounts, the filmmakers did an excellent job of homework. A short opening scene not only demonstrates the potential of the fighting that viewers will see in the film, but also delineates the conflict between Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei, the two ninja clans from which Scorpio and Sub-Zero emerged, respectively. Immediately after that, the attention, although it shifts to the newcomer Cole Young, but the attentive viewer will immediately notice the posters with many references to other characters like Johnny Cage and the Cabal. In dialogues, for example, Bo’Rai Cho’s name pops up, and seemingly half-forgotten Reiko and Nitara, who disappeared from the plot after restarting the series, appear in the frame.

Love for the original source is also felt in battles: the authors do not hesitate to add references to combat situations from the game (for example, characters may complain that the enemy “only knows that one move”) and insert branded attacks. It will not do without signature finishing moves: Kano, for example, tears out his heart in the frame, as in a classic fatality, and Kun Lao cuts his opponent with a hat in the manner of newer parts of the series. And the details of the biographies spoken in the film correspond to those in the games – there is no way to dig in.

But when you try to figure out the script created for the film, big questions begin to arise. Perhaps it’s worth starting with an elephant in a china shop: despite the name, there was no place for a tournament of the same name in the film. This can hardly be called a spoiler: there will still be plenty of fights in the frame, and most of the spectators will come precisely for them, but they all unfold shortly before the start of the official tournament for the Earth’s right to remain free. As a result, the film suffers from the same problem as the adaptation of Monster Hunter or Warcraft – it is a kind of prologue to the main action, the first episode of a long franchise. Formally, the film also has a complete storyline, which, however, has very little to do with the fate of the Earth. The story in question will be familiar to every fan of the franchise, but it’s still not worth talking about in order to avoid spoilers.

Newcomer Cole Young’s story is driven by the standard modern Hollywood message about the importance of family, which in the context of the story of saving the world looks somewhat out of place. Not to mention the fact that this trope managed to set the teeth on edge due to its appearance in every first film. The creators threatened that Young would become a truly powerful addition to the main cast, but most of the time he is more of a kind of fifth wheel: the character simply does not catch on and does not cause any emotions, going through the painfully standard development path from “zero” to ” hero “.

However, here in general, very few people can boast that they are able to somehow hook the viewer. The most charismatic character in the end turns out to be Kano: the head of the Black Dragon clan is a classic comic hero and pretty much defuses an overly serious storyline. Against the background of cardboard Raiden, Jax, Sonya Blade and other characters, he looks amazingly lively and interesting.

It’s better to keep silent about the episodic Reptile, Nitara and Reiko altogether: the characters, in fact, do not even have lines in the plot, and everything they do in the end is obstacles in the way of the heroes. It’s a shame that Goro also has a similar function – the legendary fighter of the series deserves much more than a three-minute appearance on the screen. However, “Mortal Kombat” generally treats most of the classic heroes strangely.

Another stone flies into the film adaptation garden because of the ragged plot with many holes. At the beginning, when creating the exposition, the viewer is explained for a long time that the chosen warriors are determined in a special way – and all in order to break this rule in the final. The central character of previous film adaptations and the first parts of the franchise, Liu Kang, must perform a certain function assigned to him by Raiden, but he copes with it very badly (why – again a spoiler). And the receipt of special abilities by the characters is furnished, to put it mildly, strange: for some reason, the creators screwed on mysterious “arcana”, which each warrior must master on his own. Some spend a lot of screen time on this, others for some reason get it at the click of their fingers or even off-screen.

As a result, Mortal Kombat suffers from its own ambitions. If we recall the first film adaptation of 1995, then there were no problems with this: the exposition with the duel was issued, in fact, from the very first shots, which was sufficient motivation for an almost non-stop massacre. This is exactly what they expected from a movie called Mortal Kombat – fights, and more. At the same time, the plot of the original from the nineties had a completely logical ending with the ability to continue the story, which was later done with a controversial degree of success.

The novelty diligently reveals the details of the lore, losing the fight in tons of text – albeit generously flooding the screen with blood at the right moments. One gets a clear impression that it is better to start watching “Mortal Kombat” with a hypothetical second part: judging by the data on pre-sales of tickets, the film will have good receipts, which means that the sequel remains a matter of time. Well, or after the release on home media, watch a cut of the best fights somewhere on YouTube, instead of spending almost two hours watching a full view.