The first half of the almost two-hour-long movie is a blur, racing from one character to the next, while also trying to set up the rules of this unique fantasy world. But unlike, say, The Avengers or even Justice League, Mortal Kombat doesn’t spend nearly enough time introducing its huge cast. The setup is a bit like a big superhero epic, with a bunch of superpowered folks banding together to fight a common foe. “We don’t hesitate to make dramatic changes to the formula of the game.” - Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon on his long history with the seriesīut the story gets in the way of all that. There’s a sequence where an invisible Reptile is stabbed with a flare so he can be tracked in the dark, as well as an absolutely brutal battle with a very CG-looking Goro - Mortal Kombat’s iconic four-armed warrior - who doesn’t have four arms by the end.
(Sorry Jax.) Later, when the two realms face off, it’s an incredible spectacle. In the early stages, you get to see exactly why Sub-Zero is so feared he uses his ice powers to terrorize an entire city block and, yes, rip off someone’s arms. Of course, that premise is mostly just a way to explain the action, and, for the most part, the film does deliver on that front.
Unfortunately, their Netherrealm counterparts have decided not to play fair and are hunting down Earth fighters ahead of the tournament, so that they can win by default. In the movie, there’s a slight twist as Earth’s champions are chosen for this task - and they know they’re chosen because they all have matching Mortal Kombat dragon logo birthmarks. Mortal Kombat largely follows the same basic premise as the games, where champions from Earth face off against creatures from a place called the Netherrealm in a fighting tournament, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. It’s also not particularly fun, despite all of the aforementioned ripped-off arms. The film features plenty of callouts to the games - gruesome fatalities, goofy one-liners, and lots of familiar faces - but it never stops long enough to tell you why you should care about anything.
You wouldn’t really know that from watching the new movie, though. Over three decades the fighting franchise has amassed a large mythos, filled with histories, lore, and motivations for its many combatants, which are mostly used to answer the question of why somebody is having their spine and / or arms removed. For a series about people getting their spines ripped out, Mortal Kombat has a surprising amount of story.
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