Mortal Kombat – It’s Movie Time

I know I said that the Jackie Chan film Skiptrace would be the next film that I reviewed. But I had a strong urge to rewatch one of my favorite martial arts movies: Mortal Kombat. I’ve been a fan of Mortal Kombat, from the games to the movies since childhood. Because of this, I hope you all understand why I made the decision to switch the movie.

Mortal Kombat begins with our villain Shang Tsung (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) masterfully avoiding aerial attacks from some monk. As the fight ends, we learn that this was a vision sent to Liu Kang (Robin Shou), the main protagonist. The monk was actually Liu Kang’s younger brother Chan. Because we now have the motivation for Liu Kang to enter the tournament, we now meet our next fighter. We find Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) tracking down a villain in a nightclub where the techno music is thrumming through our souls! She’s on the hunt for the man who killed her partner; Kano, a brash Australian crime lord. Sonya and her new partner Jax come across Kano’s henchmen, a quick shotgun blast to the chest gives Sonya the lead she’s looking for.

Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), our final hero is filming a movie when we first meet him. He leaves the fight scene that he was filming in disgust; he has less than stellar stuntmen to work with… as he stomps off to his chair in a tizzy, we meet Johnny’s martial arts instructor. They have a quick conversation where Master Boyd informs Johnny of a tournament that would silence all the haters. As their chat finishes, both men walk away and we learn that Master Boyd was actually Shang Tsung in disguise!

We jump to the Temple of Light located in China and find Liu Kang arguing with the Temple’s elders. It’s at this point we learn that Liu Kang (the chosen one) left the Temple because he didn’t want to represent Earth in the next Mortal Kombat. While the argument progresses, an old beggar approaches to offer his opinion. Apparently, the old man is actually Raiden; God of Thunder, defender of Earthrealm (and Christopher Lambert). Liu Kang naturally is skeptical of a grubby old beggar being a God and challenges him to a match. Liu Kang then gets his butt whooped by the aforementioned grubby old man.

This leads to our hero storming off in anger saying he’s entering the tournament no matter what the Temple Elders say. As we fade out of the scene, there’s a quick conversation between Liu’s Grandfather and Raiden about how Liu Kang isn’t ready. Flash forward to the docks in Hong Kong, where our heroes all converge on each other for the first time. Johnny Cage sees Liu Kang and mistakenly assumes he’s a dock worker. Due to this rude case of mistaken identity, Liu Kang then throws Johnny’s luggage into the harbor. Which isn’t the best first impression, but they work it out! Sonya, catching glimpses of Kano slowly makes her way to the ominous and spooky ship waiting to transport our combatants to the tournament location.

Once everyone has made it onto the ghost ship, Johnny Cage and Sonya literally run into each other. In a completely rational exchange, Johnny noticing that Sonya is super attractive begins to hit on her; this leads to Sonya’s gun kissing Johnny on the lips. There are some more words exchanged, and the three set off on a trip: Sonya to find Kano, Johnny to win over Sonya, and Liu Kang ineffectually trying to be the voice of reason. As they journey to the bowels of the ship, Shang Tsung is waiting with two of his slaves; Sub-Zero and Scorpion. We learn the two ninjas are mortal enemies but are forced to work together because of Shang Tsung’s mind control.

As our first real fight is about to commence, a bolt of lightning flashes and Raiden appears! He tells Shang Tsung it’s against the rules to fight outside of the tournament. Shang Tsung agrees, and Earthrealm’s defenders march up to the deck for some exposition by the God of Thunder. It’s at this point we learn Earth is screwed if our heroes lose this tournament, and the planet will be invaded by the Emporer of Outworld.

Lightning flashes in the sky, and we hear Shang Tsung holler “It Has Begun”! Shang Tsung transports his ship to his fighting island. As the fighters make their way up an innumerable amount of stairs, we get our first glimpse of the captive Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto). During the opening night banquet, the fighters are treated to a glimpse of the competition. Sub-Zero takes on a masked soldier of no consequence; the fight is over quickly, with the icy ninja freezing his opponent and letting him crash into millions of frozen flesh legos.

Now we dive headfirst into the actual tournament. Our first match is Liu Kang vs “Fighting Monk”. The monk is Cyborg from WMAC Masters if anyone cares for random movie trivia. The fight itself is decent, ending with Shang Tsung absorbing “Fighting Monk’s” soul, showing us for the first time that Shang Tsung is more than meets the eye. The next fight is the first consequential fights, Sonya Blade vs Kano. I haven’t discussed much Kano to this point because his scenes are mostly just filler and his arrogant boasts. His match with Sonya reflects this, as he saunters out hairy chested and swinging the knife he used to kill Sonya’s former partner with. Unfortunately, he is all talk, with Sonya quickly dispatching Kano and breaking his neck with a real sweet handstand trick.

The next match is Johnny Cage vs Scorpion, the ninja of many catchphrases! This is probably one of the best fights in the entire movie. With Scorpion transporting the two of them into Hell once Johnny began getting the upper hand. It’s a fascinating interpretation of Hell, with tons of scaffolding, shields, and spears and other various and sundry items. As Johnny defeats Scorpion in an icky explosion of goo and fire, we learn that Scorpion was a huge fan of Johnny Cage: as evidenced by the autographed photo fluttering to the ground.

The next two fights are Liu Kang vs Kitana and Liu Kang vs Sub-Zero respectively. The fight with Kitana is nothing more than a chance for Kitana to show she is actually on the side of good. Also to seductively whisper a riddle about the fight with Sub-Zero in his ear. The fight with Sub-Zero isn’t one of the best fights in the movie, but it moves the plot along. The two men exchange blows, and Sub-Zero resorts to his ice powers to try and eliminate Liu Kang. Luckily, Liu finds a bucket of water and throws it through the icy field creating an icicle that impales Sub-Zero ending the fight in a pointed way.

Earthrealm’s success forces Shang Tsung to unleash Prince Goro. The four-armed secret weapon of the Outworld forces runs rampant through the Earthrealm fighters. The loss of one of Johnny Cage’s friends prompts Johnny to challenge the giant Shokan, allowing us to see the iconic crotch punch for the only time this movie. As the fight ends, we learn that Shang Tsung has kidnapped Sonya Blade and taken her to Outworld. His plan is to force her to be the person that challenges him to the final fight in Mortal Kombat. Liu Kang and Johnny Cage get Raiden to send them to Outworld in order to rescue her.

Once in Outworld, Johnny and Liu Kang are immediately set upon by the last of the Three Ninjas Reptile. Liu Kang naturally steps up to be the one to fight the Green Ninja, and they go crashing through walls throwing all sorts of sweet kicks. Liu Kang emerges victorious, and the two men from Earthrealm enter the location of the final battle. Immediately Shang Tsung resurrects five of the greatest fighters in history to eliminate Liu Kang. But they are easily dispatched by the descendant of Kung Lao.

Thus begins the final battle; Shang Tsung vs Liu Kang. As Liu Kang ascends the stone steps to meet Shang Tsung at the top of the arena, spikes rise up out of the dragon emblem emblazoned on the floor. It’s a nice touch and it really adds a sense of “don’t fall off the fighting platform”. Which hearkens back nicely to the environmental fatalities from the games. The fight begins fairly evenly matched, with Liu Kang getting the upper hand slightly. Shang Tsung realizing there is a chance he could lose taps into the countless souls that he absorbed in previous Mortal Kombats. In case you don’t remember the opening of the movie, where Liu Kang’s brother Chan was fighting Shang Tsung and dies. That becomes relevant again as the fighter Shang Tsung changes into is none other than Chan himself!

Chan begins pleading with Liu Kang, telling him how he let Chan die; how he could have stopped Shang Tsung. This is the catalyst that Liu Kang needed to break the paralysis that seeing his dead brother had caused. Because Liu Kang knew that Chan chose his own destiny, he gives a shout espousing that sentiment and we begin round 2. This is very much Liu Kang’s fight now, and the battle ends with Liu Kang channeling his chi energy into a fireball; blasting Shang Tsung onto the spikes below. As we see a pillar of souls erupt from the dead sorcerer, our heroes begin to celebrate. We next see everyone back at the Temple of Light continuing the celebration surrounded by bubbles. Unfortunately, the party is quickly cut short when the Emporer Shao Kahn decides to disregard Earthrealm’s victory and invade anyway.

I happen to like the majority of the fights in this movie, and I think that they did a remarkable job interlacing a more realistic approach with some of the more fanciful elements of the game. That being said, probably my least favorite fight involved one of my favorite characters Sub-Zero. I spent many hours as a child dressed up in homemade ninja gear freezing imaginary opponents. But the fight was very anticlimactic for me, there was minimal engagement between Liu Kang and Sub-Zero before Sub-Zero decided to try and end the fight with his ice powers. I had issues with the attack he chose. He’d have had much more success using an ice ball rather than generating the ice force field as he did.

It isn’t my favorite fight by any stretch, but I have to give the most props to Bridgette Wilson. She played her fight with Kano perfectly, even with numerous injuries sustained while filming. I think my favorite fight would have to be Liu Kang vs Reptile. Especially since the only reason we got that match was Robin Shou and Ed Boon believed there wasn’t enough action. This fight really shows a lot of Robin Shou’s skills and Keith Cooke, the human version of Reptile, put on a heck of a fight. So keep an eye out for that match at the end of the movie.

All in all, my childish delight at watching one of my favorite movies again aside. There is a reason that this is one of the few video game movies that people consider successful. It isn’t a good movie by any stretch, but it was kept simple. I think that’s where many other video game movies tend to fall short. Having movies based off a tournament really takes care of the majority of the plot for the movie, and if you pay attention to some of the source material, the noncombat scenes aren’t all that hard to fill in.

On the Goodall Rating Scale, I’d have to give this one a 2.5 out of 5.

On my Nostalgic Rating Scale, it gets a 1,000,000 out of 5 though!

You can check out the last It’s Movie Time review here.