Mortal Kombat (Simon McQuoid)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Mortal_Kombat_%282021_film%29. png

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYH2sLid0Zc

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293429/) / wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_(2021_film)) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mortal_kombat_2021) / Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mortal-kombat-2021)

Official website (https://www.mortalkombatmovie.net)

[Spun Lepton]

Oof, initial reactions on Letterboxd are mostly bad. I can't say I'm particularly surprised, but I had some hope the movie would deliver something brainless and fun.

[Skitch]

I quite enjoyed this. Biggest complaint is it ends before I thought it would. Heads up, 11 minutes of credits at the end.

[Wryan]

Funnier than I thought it'd be, mostly due to Kano. There are a few gnarly kills and the fighting is....okay. Chin Han is having a grand ol' time. It definitely reeks of heavy ADR work. But overall this could have gone harder with the, er, outlandishness of the whole thing. It's a hard target to strike, being both silly and serious. It's a game attempt. Destined to be described as wasting its cast.

[Dukefrukem]

Fucking awful with a fucked up aspect ratio to boot. Fuck you HBOMax.

[Scar]

I’ll start with the good:

Scorpions limited screen time was awesome.

Other than that, fuck this fucking movie.

[DFA1979]

Normally I would go see this in theaters but with covid and me wanting to limit my theater viewings this year...pass. I'll wait for RedBox.

[megladon8]

Darn, it's THAT bad?

[Dukefrukem]

I'd rather watch the Paul WS Anderson film.

But boy that aspect ratio problem needs to be fixed. If WB wants me to sit at home and watch movies, GET IT FUCKING RIGHT!@

[megladon8]

It doesn't even have awesome fights?

I was expecting the movie to suck, but was hoping it would at least have some great fight scenes.

[Skitch]

Darn, it's THAT bad?

I had a lot of fun with it. I don't know why the whole internet hates this movie so much. But don't listen to me, it's not just MC, apparently it's one of the worst things ever.

It has good fights, pays homage to proper set levels, crazy gore, fatalities and other enders...I mean, the games are stupid as hell, what did you expect? Citizen kane?

[Dukefrukem]

It doesn't even have awesome fights?

I was expecting the movie to suck, but was hoping it would at least have some great fight scenes.

The fights suck.

The Johnny Cage vs Scorpion scene in the Anderson film is better than anything else in this movie.

[megladon8]

That's very disheartening. Ugh.

I so wanted this to be a big dumb fun time.

[Skitch]

The fights suck.

The Johnny Cage vs Scorpion scene in the Anderson film is better than anything else in this movie.

Have you watched it recently or is that nostalgia memory? *backflips 20 times out of the room

[Scar]

Scorpion v SubZero was the only halfway decent fight. The fights in the end were intercut and brief. Hell, the editing was so bad I thought I fell asleep multiple times during the movie.

[megladon8]

Hiroyuki Sanada is such a great actor. I wish this had been better, even if it was just so he had some more American exposure.

That guy has more intensity and charisma in his pinky than most.

If there was ever an Asian offshoot of John Wick, I'd want it to be him.

[Dukefrukem]

Have you watched it recently or is that nostalgia memory? *backflips 20 times out of the room

I just watched it. It;s great. Even for the 90s and the wonky GET OVER HERE CGI.

[Spun Lepton]

The moment I heard they invented a protagonist for the movie, I suspected this was going to a garbage fire. I'm both disappointed and relived to find out my instincts were right. Even the trailer left me underwhelmed. As probably the biggest MK nerd on the board, it's with a slightly heavy heart I say that I may just let this one slip into my "I'll get to it eventually," list.

[Wryan]

"My research shows me that there are other realms..."

Holy shit, does the Smithsonian have an opening??

[dreamdead]

There's a level of ludicrousness that this type of film needs to embrace. Unfortunately, the review that I see myself most in agreement is how the film gets bogged down once the leads have to learn how to harness their powers. That sort of montage is just too long for a film like this, especially when the characters don't have much personality beyond Kano's un-PCness. I'll likely watch any sequel just because a 38-year-old man has a childhood reared around MK culture, but this is one of those types of films where I hope for more dynamic characters in a sequel, and a willingness to let a film around a tournament actually be that.

Wonky editing, too. So many insert shots skipped of characters being freed or situated in the scene.

[Dukefrukem]

I guess a lot of people watched this from home.


Samba TV is reporting that HBO Max posted its most viewed weekend premier ever with New Line’s Mortal Kombat clocking 3.8 million U.S. households. Samba TV polls HBO Max audiences in terrestrial TV homes, and in this case, those who watched the Simon McQuoid directed R-rated movie for at least five minutes. Viewership peaked on Friday in 1.7M households per Samba TV. All in, Samba TV says that Mortal Kombat‘s first weekend drew more viewers than Warner Bros./Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong did in its first five days

https://deadline.com/2021/04/mortal-kombat-hbo-max-record-viewership-samba-tv-1234744310/

[Philip J. Fry]

https://scontent.fcjs2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/179289949_10225910019995878_17 77583170190002389_n.jpg?_nc_ca t=107&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=110474&efg=eyJpIjoibCJ9&_nc_ohc=AglxfGdwb10AX-lDkWo&_nc_ht=scontent.fcjs2-1.fna&tp=14&oh=be7a02d9339fd91187e4a3b6610 5288f&oe=60AD52C6

[megladon8]

Just discovered that this is not available on Crave (Canada's HBO Max).

Instead you have to pay 25 DOLLARS to view it on YouTube or Amazon Prime.

Eff that.

[Spun Lepton]

I went to watch Godzilla vs. Kong on HBO Max tonight and discovered it had been taken down. Damn. So, I watched this instead.

Mild yay from me. Feels a bit antiklimaktik that they're training for Mortal Kombat, but they never aktually get there before the kredits roll. Although, I'm sure they're setting up for a sequel or seven. The fight scenes also felt over-edited. I thought their handling of Kano left something to be desired. Some moments felt a bit shoe-horned in to appease fans. On the positive side, it moves at a great pace, with fights happening left and right. The kast of villains is eklektic, and I was aktually impressed by Kabal, Goro, and Mileena.

6/10

[Scar]

I think GvK will be out on 4k/bluray next month.

[Spun Lepton]

Just discovered that this is not available on Crave (Canada's HBO Max).

Instead you have to pay 25 DOLLARS to view it on YouTube or Amazon Prime.

Eff that.

It's DEFINITELY not worth that.

[Ivan Drago]

This was....okay. I enjoyed the action sequences, the score is awesome, and the cast is awesome with what they’re given, which was sadly a formulaic and cliched fish out of water story that followed a boring blank slate of an original character. I hope Bi-Han comes back as Noob Saibot and kills off Cole, making Johnny Cage the protagonist for the franchise going forward five minutes into the sequel, if it happens.