Summary
You kome for the film but stay for the kinematic kool. Kan konfirm it’s not krap! Bloody, bawdy and batty, it’s also joy to see unadulterated Australian swearing peppering the bloodletting.
Mortal Kombat is one of those video game franchises that feels like it’s always been there. Slipping into arcades in 1992, on the back of the monolithic success of Street Fighter II, for me the franchise is about crowding into a corner of a video store after school to get solidly beaten to a digital pulp. It’s friends over on a weekend to play Mortal Kombat 4 all night on the N64. It’s Christopher Lambert in a big hat. It’s colliding with the DC universe years before Injustice.
So, decades after the franchise first made it to the big screen — giving us Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Monster Hunter) as the preeminent purveyor of game-based franchises — the battle between Outworld and Earthrealm once again lights up our screens. By that, of course, I mean it splatters them with blood and viscera in a pleasing combination of fanservice and constant fighting.
The film opens in 17th-century Japan as a group of assassins led by Bi-Han/Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) attack and kill Hanzo Hasashi’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) family before the latter falls into hell. Thunder god Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) oversees his legacy, which leads to former MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) in the 21st century. Assembling a crew to defend Earth — one consisting of survivalist Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), special forces member Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a mercenary named Kano (Josh Lawson) and champions Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao — they must take part in the tournament known as Mortal Kombat.
There’s two ways one can go in a franchise adaptation like this: either reverentially recreate the source material or completely take the piss. Thankfully screenwriters Greg Russo and Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984) find a reasonably healthy middle ground where they can have their cake and eat it too. If by ‘eat’ we also mean pull out its still beating heart, stomp it to pieces and condemn its remains to hell.
At one point — and take this as a spoiler warning if you will — one character attacks a hero, misses and is promptly sawed in half. The would-be opponent cooly stands to one side and quips “Flawless victory.” It’s one of the many (many) indulgences the film allows itself. From the one-on-ones to the death by icicles, no reference is left unturned.
In much the same way that Taika Waititi brought New Zealand humour to the world in Thor: Ragnarok, commercial director Simon McQuoid unleashes Australian vernacular on an unsuspecting public. It’s entirely possible that Josh Lawson’s dialogue alone rivals The Wolf of Wall Street for a record number of fucks given.
While it’s by no means a perfect adaptation, it really never attempts to be anything more than what it is. Here is a film that had a singular goal in mind and instead of suffering a fatality, it’s scrappy enough to earn a victory and, if we’re lucky, a sequel or two.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Simon McQuoid | WRITERS: Greg Russo, Dave Callaham | CAST: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada | DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. | RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 April 2021 (AUS)
