When everyone said that video game movies could never be good and they'll never make a good video game in a feature film, Mortal Kombat was the argument. This was a movie that actually did its homework and made a decent Mortal Kombat movie, though it was still stocked with issues. While they did do a good production with a good cast of characters, the film was still almost wholly bloodless and not even remotely as graphic as its video game counterpart.
Anyone will tell you that this game gets the practical effects down very well, but when it comes to CGI, this movie fell very short. Reptile looks like a pixelated Dreamcast game character, and there were maybe three or four special moves involving a tiny bit of special effects. Goro, on the other hand, was a very well produced effect through costume and animatronics. They make him look like he is in the scene, aside from his final scene.
Another stark point in this movie's favor is the cast. Robin Shou was in some very low budget action movies before this, and he would turn out to be one of its better actors. Beyond that, many will tell you that this movie features the best Shang Tsung. Apart from that, Raiden is also among his best performances with Christopher Lambert. He brought a silly light hearted bit of character into the scene, while also offering guidance and wisdom.
The fighting scenes are hit and miss, while thankfully being mostly hits. It's worth it to see Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but it would have been nice to see them fight like their video game lore states rather than being "servants" under Shang Tsung. Scorpion has some of the best scenes, especially in his fight with Johnny Cage. While some of the fight scenes start off well, many of them do not have the most fulfilling ending. Many will cite the Liu Kang fight with Sub-Zero when it comes to disappointing endings.
This Mortal Kombat movie has several problems, but they can be chocked up to a simple writing problem or lack of budget. This was not given a great amount of money, but they obviously did a lot with what they had. The sets look very good and otherworldly like they should. The costume designs were also convincing on a level you didn't often see because no one took video game movies seriously. Paul W.S. Anderson did a great job with this movie, but it's obvious that he wouldn't have done much better with it, given what he did to the Resident Evil movie series.
It's hard to say what W.S. Anderson would have done with the sequel movie, but many will tell you that it would probably be better than the movie we got. When this movie came out, Mortal Kombat II was on its way out the door to make way for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The first movie's plot focuses on the first Mortal Kombat game, but differs a great deal on a few details. While it does have teasings of going with Mortal Kombat II next, but instead, the sequel skipped onto Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Did it do this well? Well no, but check out Mortal Kombat Annihilation in the next review to see how bad it can get.
