This is likely the only time that a new film will have to meet the benchmark created by Paul W.S. Anderson. And I’m not even remotely kidding; the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie remains one of the best video game adaptations of all time. Yeah, it’s a dense slice of action cheese, but with that casting, that soundtrack and those one-liners… in all seriousness, I went into this actively hoping for that same level of all-out fun. And truth be told, that is exactly what I got.
Let’s start with the main thing that got me excited about this: The rating. It’s an R18+ movie, meaning that all the fatalities and gratuitous amounts of blood that makes up a hefty amount of the franchise's style is fully unleashed. And it. Is. Glorious! Not only do the fatalities look great (and show producer James Wan back in his gory wheelhouse of yore), but the fight scenes around them aren’t half-bad either. There’s some definite over-editing at play here (which I just always assume to be the case when more than one lead editor is credited), and the pacing kinda evaporates during the third act, but between the character-specific move sets and the fight choreography, it still delivers as an action flick.
Then there’s the casting, which varies from passable to legitimately giving the ’95 cast a run for its money. Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada as Sub-Zero and Scorpion respectively work out very well (mainly because they’re actually portraying Sub-Zero and Scorpion this time around, which neither of the other live-action movies allowed), Lewis Tan in the lead as new character Cole Young is bland but at least isn’t actively annoying to watch, Mehcad Brooks and Jessica McNamee as Jax and Sonya are solid, Ludi Lin and Max Huang as the Shaolin duo Liu Kang and Kung Lao are great, and Tadanobu Asano as Raiden may be no Christopher Lambert, but he’s got god moxie to spare.
Then there’s Aussie actor and budding filmmaker Josh Lawson as Kano. He is the best thing about this movie, bar none. He is as close as we’ll ever get to having Mick Taylor in a martial arts movie, and he steals every single scene he’s in. Knowing just how Aussie this production is (as most of the filming, post-production and effects work was done right here), having someone like this firing off one-liners with near-perfect accuracy while radiating ocker energy is quite endearing. Same goes for Damon 'Manson from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Herriman as Kabal and Angus 'Tucker from Insidious' Sampson as Goro; top blokes all round.
But what about the plot? Well, in a move that is likely to piss off some of the more diehard fans, there is no Mortal Kombat tournament in this film, with it ultimately being set up for a sequel. I am really starting to hate the ‘written for the trade’ approach to big-budget moviemaking these days (it’s the main reason the Sonic The Hedgehog movie annoyed me as much as it did), but in fairness to this film, there is still an actual plot to speak of.
While there’s a lot of setup to do with training for the tournament, the main characters developing their ‘arcana’ and ramping up for the larger mythology of the series, the main draw of the narrative here? The rivalry between Sub-Zero and Scorpion. As something that even the ’95 movie dropped the ball on, that itself is enough to fill out the margins, especially since they manage to generate more pathos with just a few lines of dialogue than the bulk of the other characters here. It may end with sequel bait, but it still has more resolution to it than just about anything Paul W.S. Anderson has ever made.
It’s basically a healthy meeting point between the enjoyable cheesiness of ‘90s video game movies like the first Mortal Kombat and the Street Fighter movie (or even the Double Dragon movie, for those who remember that one), and the more recent attempts at dramatic storytelling in video game adaptations like Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed. It functions largely as an excuse to see recognisable characters interact with words and fists, and in that vein, it maintains the casting, writing and set design delight that made the '95 movie as fun as it was. It may try more for pathos, but thanks to the presence of Kano (current frontrunner for my favourite film character of the year; test your might, 2021!), it never feels like it’s being overly serious about itself or what the audience should expect from it. It's not a flawless victory, but it’s still a victory and a satisfying one at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment