PR in the Philippines

(SeaPRwire) –   When Mortal Kombat first launched in 1992, packaged inside arcade cabinets that delivered pixelated gore to players far too young to view it, it became a virtually immediate hit. Its diverse lineup of thunder deities, brightly colored ninjas, and even a playful send-up of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, its addition of the “juggling” mechanic to standard fighting game rules, plus its legendary, progressively vicious fatalities secured it a rightful place on the fighting game Mount Rushmore. It has held that position through its bumpy shift to 3D graphics and into the series’ current reboot period.

On the other hand, when the first Mortal Kombat film hit theaters three years later, it drew criticism for being corny and underdeveloped narratively, on top of its wooden performances and PG-13 rated action. Even with these shortcomings, it performed well commercially, and did an impressive job of capturing the chaotic, over-the-top energy of slamming action figures together that defines the games, mostly by refusing to take itself too seriously. Thirty years on, though, we live in an era where Hollywood treats every property with excessive earnestness. Debuted five years ago to the day, the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot is a compelling case study of what occurs when that trend goes too far in the reverse direction.

Even with director Simon McQuoid’s strongest attempts, the MK reboot unavoidably comes off as a film belonging to a past period for both video game adaptations and major studio tentpole releases, and that is for good reason. A new film take on the series was already in development as far back as 2011, first helmed by Kevin Tancharoen, the creator of the beloved fan-made Mortal Kombat: Rebirth short film and the subsequent MK: Legacy web series. The time the project spent stuck in development limbo is almost palpable, as the film is in many respects the final leftover of the distinctly 2010s method of adapting video games for the screen.

At first glance, Mortal Kombat adapts the games’ core premise clearly: pop culture’s second most beloved Thunder God, Raiden (played by Tadanobu Asano), has to put together a team of honorable fighters from all over Earthrealm to take part in the 10th Mortal Kombat tournament. This deadly cross-dimensional martial arts contest is held once every 50 years to determine if the tyrannical Outworld realm is permitted to invade Earth (though the entire reboot is set before the tournament actually happens, a baffling creative call that brings the always-applicable Surf Dracula meme to mind).

The original game’s core setup is such a silly, flimsy excuse to throw a whole host of martial arts film tropes into battle together that the 2021 film’s extreme earnestness stands out sharply by comparison. Much like 2008’s Max Payne or the 2005 Doom adaptation, it seems to come from a studio miscalculating how easy the source material is to engage with, and overcorrecting by attempting to make the premise feel more “realistic”.

One of the most annoying choices the film makes in this vein is the introduction of new character Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan), a past-his-prime MMA fighter who acts as the entry point for viewers. But this role could just as easily have been filled by existing characters Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, or Johnny Cage (a direction the upcoming sequel appears to be taking). Not only is he a generic, cookie-cutter “fighter” in a franchise packed with some of the most distinct, larger-than-life fighting game characters ever made, but the film also created a messy backstory to link him to MK co-creator Ed Boon’s preferred character, Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), a call that makes him read like an original character pulled straight from fan fiction.

The film’s fixation on making the premise feel grounded even applies to something as basic as the games’ take on magic and special powers. Abilities that are innate to characters in the games, like Kano’s laser eye or Sonya Blade’s wrist-mounted energy blasters, are reworked here into a surprisingly much more campy magic system where fighters have to “train” their personal “arcana” to unlock them. The arcana training sequence feels like it came directly from a note sent by a clueless studio exec confused about why Liu Kang can throw fireballs without a clear in-universe reason, ignoring the fact that random superpowers for characters are a core part of the franchise’s appeal, which blends Saturday morning cartoon energy with Hong Kong action film flair.

What makes Mortal Kombat so disappointing, though, is that it also gets a huge number of elements right. It features plenty of hard-hitting, gory action sequences: the opening fight between Scorpion and Bi-Han/Sub-Zero (played by Joe Taslim) is a dream come true for long-time fans, a beautifully choreographed sequence that follows the still-living Hanzo as he takes down a small squad of ninjas before facing off against his sworn enemy. The fatalities are another spot where the film embraces the series’ natural over-the-top tone, and there should have been far more moments like Kung Lao slicing a vampire assassin clean in half with his razor-edged hat before declaring his “Flawless Victory” to nobody in particular.

Unexpectedly, another strong point of the film is the chemistry between its characters, particularly the heroes from Earthrealm. There is far too little genuine back-and-forth and playful banter between them, but the moments that do exist are a delight. The film seems to worry it will be labeled as “goofy” like the 1995 adaptation was, but the absurdity of seeing a Special Forces agent talking to a Shaolin monk and an Australian hitman is a big part of why the franchise has remained a beloved fighting game mainstay for more than 30 years now.

In its effort to distance the franchise from the supposed embarrassment of the original 1995 film and its heavily criticized follow-up Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Warner Bros. discarded some of the innate 1990s-era camp that is core to Mortal Kombat’s identity. This film was the final example of a now mostly obsolete approach to video game adaptations, and fans are hopeful that the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 will understand that it is perfectly fine to be a bit playful for a franchise that famously brought Babalities to gaming audiences worldwide.

Mortal Kombat is available to stream on HBO Max.