MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high-stakes battle for the universe.
I remember playing Mortal Kombat in video arcades back in the ’90s but I was never a fan of the film adaptations that followed, especially the first cheesy big-screen iteration which came out in 1995. It starred Christopher Lambert and was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson who would later go on to direct several of the “Resident Evil” video game movie adaptations. While this new reboot is gorgeous to look at thanks to cinematographer Germain McMicking (“True Detective,” “Berlin Syndrome”) and the special effects and CGI are practically flawless, everything else is disastrous.
The worst aspect, for me, is the acting. Or lack thereof. While some of the actors do a credible job and at least appear like they are putting forth the effort, most of the cast were obviously hired for their martial arts expertise, while their acting abilities were pushed way down the movie’s totem pole. I understand the story is about all various forms of fighting so trying to hire an actor who is more than capable of performing their own combat techniques, as well as their own stunts, is a big plus but in the end, the whole purpose of a film is to connect with its audience and if your central protagonists don’t have the on-screen charisma or magnetism necessary to achieve that goal, then you have failed.
The movie’s lead, Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan, suffers the most. While he is a good martial artist, having studied karate, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts, sadly, his acting prowess is not up to par. He most certainly has on-screen charisma but when he tries to emote or dramatize a scene, he meets with disaster. It feels like he is sleepwalking through the film and only comes to life when a fight scene arises. His character has a wife and daughter who at one point in the movie, are taken hostage by his nemesis but you never truly feel his anger or distress at their confinement and his initial failure to prevent them from being captured, and in a story like this, those emotions are necessary to draw its audience in so they can relate to him and his circumstances and root for him.
Cole Young is a former MMA champion who earns money fighting at a local gym. One night after losing a fight, he takes his wife Allison (Laura Brent) and daughter Emily (Matilda Kimber) out to eat but soon thereafter they are attacked by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), a supernatural warrior who hails from the Lin Kuei clan and who has the ability to control ice. Cole and his family are intercepted by Special Forces’ Major Jackson “Jax” Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) who rescues them and tells them to find his good friend Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) who will explain everything to them. Jax hinders Sub-Zero’s attack on Cole but is brutally beaten into submission with both his arms amputated and left for dead as Sub-Zero continues his search for Cole.
Cole decides to check his wife and daughter into a secluded cabin to keep them safe while he goes after Sonya. He eventually meets up with her and tells her that Jax told him to meet with her. While at Sonya’s place, he comes across Kano (Josh Lawson), a ruthless mercenary from the Black Dragon organization who is handcuffed to a chair. While there, Sonya explains to Cole that she and Jax have been searching the world for Mortal Kombat ever since Jax killed someone who possessed superhuman abilities. They also had a dragon mark on their body that transferred to Jax after he killed them. Cole proceeds to show her his own dragon mark that he says he was born with. The building is attacked by Reptile, an assassin who sides with Sub-Zero but Kano manages to escape his shackles and kills the creature. Before he tries to leave, Sonya agrees to pay him $3 million if he will help them get to Raiden’s Temple, an arena on the other side of the world that she and Jax believe was a place of worship of the thunder god Raiden. Kano agrees and they set off.
When they finally reach the temple, they are greeted by Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang), who takes them to meet Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) himself. Once there, he tells them that earth, also known as Earthrealm, is on the verge of being taken over by the evil Shang Tsung (Chin Han) who rules the realm of Outworld, and because he has won nine out of ten deathmatch tournaments known as “Mortal Kombat,” should he and his armies win one more deathmatch, they will have the power to invade, conquer and merge the defeated Earthrealm. But Shang Tsung is superstitious because of an ancient prophecy that states that the ‘blood of Hanzo Hasashi,’ Cole’s ancestor, will unite a new generation of Earthrealm’s champions. Sonya discovers that Jax is alive and has been retrofitted with skeletal mechanical arms but with time running out, Cole, Kano, Sonya, and Jax need to prepare for the approaching fight, and all need to discover their own individual “arcana,” a special inner power unique to all dragon mark bearers, before it’s too late.
“Mortal Kombat” is a beautiful-looking movie but that is about all it has going for it. The acting, direction, and script are all lackluster and while Jessica McNamee, Mehcad Brooks, and Josh Lawson are the only actors who manage to infuse any sort of vitality into their respective roles, the rest of the cast are relegated to hackneyed Asian stereotypes and textbook CGI monsters. Obviously, this film is going to make a lot of money so an obligatory sequel will undoubtedly be fast-tracked into production, if it isn’t already, but one can hope that this is just a one-off and that the MK Cinematic Universe will come to an end, here and now.
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