Mortal Kombat Review : No Solid Story and Characters makes this a "Skip This" material.

Mortal Kombat is an American martial arts fantasy action film directed by Simon McQuoid and stars Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada and was released on 8th April 2021 on theaters and on 23rd April 2021 on HBO Max.

The film starts in the 17th century in Japan where an assassin from the Outworld realm Bi-Han kills a ninja clan. Now in the present day, the outworld realm has beaten the Earthrealm in nine out of ten match tournaments called the Mortal Kombat. Now Cole Young (Lewis Tan) along with other champions of the Earth has to face the soul eater sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) and his army of monsters to save this Earthrealm. 

Mortal Kombat film is based on video games that were originally developed in 1992 by Midway Games. Already two Mortal Kombat films have been made in 1995 and 1997 and this 2021 version is no different from what we have already seen in those films. The people who have played video games might find these live-action interesting but I didn't find this film that good. The iconic game characters Sub Zero, Raiden, and many more are brought to the screen alive but the adaptation of video games into a movie doesn't always work. 

Monster Hunter failed to impress though it had amazing VFX and monsters I find Monster Hunter and Mortal Kombat pretty much similar. They both have nothing solid to the story. What we get here is a very thin plot, similar to every other superhero movie out there and that's why you know what to expect from this film. And that's why I understand from the first 15 minutes only, except the strong prologue, that it will be centered around only action sequences and it will tell almost nothing about the characters to hold onto or feel connected to. 

Watch The REVIEW in Hindi Below:- 

And that's what happens, the characters are just there to do actions and the tone of the film is also very confusing and not good. The prologue was brilliant and it increases the heartbeat and expectation no doubt but after that when the characters, or say action heroes get together for training and to find their powers, the screenplay appears to drag and drag with delivering a fight sequence that doesn't add anything to the story and the dialogues are simply the worst thing in the film. The comic element through the dialogues is very torturing.

Some scenes don't make any sense, a scene where Jax lifts a big rock to save Sonya is very awkward. I mean Sonya was lying under the rock, conscious and so clean. And in another sequence, Kung Lao is killed by Shang Tsung but why didn't Cole save him, he was standing there. And why didn't Lord Raiden saved him, instead he says, "All gods are forbidden from engaging in one realm's war against another". Just anything. The film only shines in action sequences that are amazingly choreographed and shot. The over the top gore, the slashing of bodies are a treat to see and sadly that's the only good thing to say. 

The performances are just average and ordinary. Jessica McNamara keeps smiling in every scene. Why? 

Germain McMicking's cinematography is good but still, the film looks like a b grade action film, I saw once a movie called Jiu-Jitsu another Martial Arts film which is total crap, and both look the same. I enjoyed the background score of the film which was at times more entertaining than the film itself.

So overall, Mortal Kombat is strictly for the video games fans or the 90's movies fans or to the one who enjoys watching mindless actions films. The characters are so shallow, the way the film ended, I fear the next part will be nothing more than a headache. This reboot was not necessary if the makers are going to revive the franchise in this way. The fans deserve better. I'm going with 2 out of 5 and I'll say the only thing if you're not aware of the Mortal Kombat video games or 90's films, don't waste your time on this. 

Rating:- 2/5 

Now streaming on HBO Max.

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