Mortal Kombat

While some fan service is ok, some performances are fun (linden Ashby, Cary Hiroyuki tagawa) and the theme song is awesome, this is garbage. The effects are a joke, the fights are mediocre, the pg-13 rating is just one big WTF, the story is boring and generic, the jokes are not funny, and the effects (with the exception of goro) are pathetic. Terrible movie, waste of time. Just play the games and the 2021 movie.

And that really says a lot about how the not-so-current trend of games-to-movies are received among critics. But this one was easily the best of all of them. This is easily in a league higher than the likes of Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Wing Commander, the Tomb Raider movies, Resident Evils 1 and 2, House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, not to mention that this was one of the few that actually stayed true to the game, from the costumes to the tourney fights, from the characters to the plot lines, everything was done right, and it makes for one hell of a fight-'em-to-the-finish type movie.

But heed my warning: AVOID THE SEQUEL AT ALL COST! Just stick with the original. You won't be disappointed (well, maybe you will, just maybe).

"The essence of Mortal Kombat is not about death ... but life." Mortal Kombat is filled to the brim with bad acting, terrible dialogue, and horrendous CGi.

But outside of that, what we have here is a film that cares for its source material and is not afraid of showing it. Whether it be Scorpions fire-spitting skull head, or Johnny Cage doing his splits nut-punch, it shows the creator knew and cared about Mortal Kombats origins and ridiculousness.

It doesn't shy away from having a lot of fights too. Although not as bloody and gruesome as you'd expect, they still feel impactful enough to get the point across.

Mortal Kombat pleasantly surprised me with how it stayed with its source material unlike most video game film adaptations. It had a pretty decent story and lots of good fights, but it does suffer from some poor acting and dialogue along with some of the worst CGi i've seen. The Goro animatronic was impressive though!

EDIT: Reptile is my all time favorite Mortal Kombat character so seeing his HORRENDOUS appearance kind of upset me. But then thankfully redeemed it in the end.

There's some fun nostalgia here, but honestly not much else. The CGI has aged very poorly and acting/writing is pretty poor. The fact they used the actual MK music is dope though and definitely amps up the fun factor. If you take this film for what it is, a nostalgic mid 90s video game adaptation, you can find some amount of entertainment.

Honestly I thought the 2021 one is pretty bad but then I played this one and it is definitely a lot worse than I remember it. I used to like this one but the execution is just bad. No back story, no explanation, no consistency, bad costumes. The characters are lacking depth and their general vibe from the game is completely absent - they are not menacing (except for Shan) and interesting enough as it was in the games. Wtf were these ridiculous fight scenes?! And what happened to Kitana's hot outfit? At least I absolutely love the bad ass theme song - reminds me of the childhood.