This is a film that's rated R in Australia for violence alone, which almost never happens (R ratings are largely reserved for drug use and sexual stuff), and when it does it's usually because they're worried impressionable youth might try to copy the violence. Good luck trying to freeze a man's arms off, kids.
What makes this interesting is that in a lot of the rest of the world Mortal Kombat is going to be available for home viewing as well as cinema screenings and again: see it with as many fans as you can, if only to assuage your sadness over the fact this film does not begin 0.0001 seconds in with someone yelling MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAT (okay, the song does show up eventually, but still). Because while movies the world over remain restrained by various forms of civility, on television for a long time now anything goes.
Well, on pay / cable TV at least: last time I checked The Chase wasn't ending with the loser having their face sliced off. But if you were a fan of the classic series Spartacus: Blood and Sand almost a decade ago you saw exactly that, and while that was a bloody high (or low) point for a series notorious for its gore, it's not like television - which in the US at least, is bound by no external rating system whatsoever once you hand over your cash - has ever backed down from a challenge.
So while Mortal Kombat is possibly slightly extreme gore-wise as far as franchise movies in 2021 go, it's baby's day out as far as the small screen is concerned. And even then it seems more likely that R is the result of a combination of marketing and the censorship board being worried that youngsters might come out of this trying to stab people with garden trowels (who knew the secret origin of Scorpion, a character who literally burns with hatred fresh from the fires of Hell, would be so closely intertwined with gardening?). Just to be completely clear, while this does have a handful of cool finishing moves, it's not like you've stumbled into Robocop and just seen a man doused in toxic waste explode into slurry when a car hits him.
That said, this in no way disgraces the memory of the previous Mortal Kombat film despite the lack of Christopher Lambert. It's surprisingly well paced and structured, with just enough fights early on to keep things interesting even as the story involves a pair of bland chumps (Lewis Tan and Jessica McNamee as Cole Young and Sonya Blade) plus Josh Lawson as Kano - easily the funniest and most entertaining human here - wandering around trying to figure out what their weird dragon marks mean.
(bonus points for having the reveal of "Mortal Kombat" promptly followed by someone saying "they spelt it wrong")
The gaps between the fights narrow as the film goes on until the final twenty minutes or so is one big biffo, which honestly is all the fault of chief bad guy and evil magician Shang Tsung (Chin Han): if he'd simply played by the tournament's rules (it seems Mortal Kombat is a regular punch-up between Earth's champions and Outworld's, and if Outworld wins this time they get to invade) his side would easily have won - but because he was so evil he just couldn't help himself and had to cheat, which allowed the good guys to go around bashing his guys in return.
Speaking of which, while the fights aren't amazingly amazing - hard core fight fans have been well served in recent years so what's offered here has a high bar to kick - they generally do the job as far as decent moves go while the (also decent) special effects are well integrated into the fights (and usually provide the method of finishing someone off, thus making it slightly less likely that little kids will be able to copy what the ratings board doesn't want them seeing).
More than most films of recent times, this is one best enjoyed as a slightly ironic group activity. It takes itself seriously enough to work as cheesy viewing, but never so seriously that things get embarrassing. It's based on a video game that was a series of fights held together by gore and catchphrases: anything extra is a bonus.
- Anthony Morris
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