Watch the trailer
Written by: Greg Russo and Dave Callaham (screenplay by), Oren Uziel and Greg Russo (story by), Ed Boon and John Tobias (based on the videogame created by)
Directed by: Simon McQuoid
Starring: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Chin Han, Ludi Lin
Rated: R
Plot
MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth's greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe.
Verdict
It's more or less what you might expect. Lots of fighting and CGI with little plot. Adapting a video game that has little source material for a story is difficult, but even then this plot is thin. Including an actual tournament could have really helped this even if that's a predictable story line with an obvious conclusion.
Skip it.
Review
If you're looking for any kind of explanation for anything, you're not going to find it. This starts with the character that will become Sub-zero killing off a family to end the bloodline for an unknown reason. I guessed Sub-zero and Scorpion due to the blue and yellow colors. I was right.
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| Mehcad Brooks and Joe Taslim play Jax and Sub-zero. |
This includes many of the video game characters and makes specific references to the game with "finishing moves," though every reference is forced. This throws a lot at you as it tries to give characters purpose. I can excuse the information dump as this movie exists only for ridiculous fights.
There are rules to this supernatural tournament which are never disclosed. We also never see the tournament. The Outworld will control Earth if they win one more tournament. Despite being overpowered, they still want to cheat and kill the Earth champions prior to the tournament. There doesn't appear to be anyone that enforces the rules and the Earth champions aren't very good anyway. I assumed we'd see a tournament that included the video game characters. Instead we get a lot of unclear rules, prophecies, and a champion dragon mark that passes between characters. There's also the unlocking of arcana which is where the Earth champions unlock their super powers.
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| Hiroyuki Sanada plays Scorpion. |
I get the games don't provide a lot of backstory. Making this about the recruitment and training may be a bit typical, but I almost would prefer the fighting movie trope of losing an early fight only to win big in the end. The pacing just doesn't work as this movie plays to fan service. Even then, there are a lot of video game characters we don't see. A tournament would have provided an avenue. The Earth champions response to the Outworld cheating and killing champions is to also cheat and kill the Outworld champions prior to the tournament.
I thought we'd see a lot more Scorpion in the movie since he's on the posters. I don't know why he doesn't appear earlier. Creating a rivalry between Sub-zero and Scorpion could have been an interesting sub-plot. The ending is entirely underwhelming and the dangling of a sequel is a stretch.
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