Mortal Kombat

The good: the story mostly works, the characterizations are insanely good (from costumes to personalities), and the movie is as gory and brutal as needed, actually way funnier than expected, and the CGI for the powers really great.

The bad: the story is a bit messy, the characters motivations and reactions not always 100% natural and/or coherent, and the action and fights (with the exception of the ones with Scorpion) are fine, but the choreography and/or filming is kind of weak (easy to improve with a bigger budget and more talent on board).

Plot was lacking but the violence, gore and fighting choreography made up for it. The editing was a bit choppy and lacked in arrears that needed more detail. With all that being said, it was overall enjoyable if you're an MK fan.

I am not that biggest Mortal Kombat fanatic, I would at best describe myself as a casual fan of the property, I played the first three games endlessly as a kid and watched the short lived animated series, short lived live-action TV series, and the original 1995 feature film adaptation multiple times. A new big screen version seemed appropriate in this day and age with technology becoming more advanced and the franchise's mythology becoming more complex but honestly after watching this latest attempt I am left scratching my head as to how and why this was considered to be the best possible version they could have made. Story-wise it's pretty boring, its essentially a 'set-up' tale that stuck in first act mode throughout its entire runtime, it moves pretty fast and its a little hard to invest yourself to the characters because of it. The humor is really mean spirited and completely overdone, I like Kano as a character but often I found myself yelling "shut up!" at the screen. The action I have to say is not very impressive, a lot of it is pretty cut heavy and you do not really feel any sense of excitement or feel there is any danger for the heroic characters in this. Visually, it looks and feels a lot like a series from The CW, very few times really feel it warranted a big screen release on a cinematographic level. Honestly, that it was R rated is the one aspect they got right, everything else however...No.

I'll try to say as little as possible so no spoilers.

I, personally wanted to watch it and changed my mind the first time going to a theater as I read some reviews here. I'm glad I changed my mind again and went to see it.

I enjoyed the whole movie,and looking forward to next one. The negative reviews mostly say couple of things : 1 bad acting 2 not enough action.. Well firstly it's not an oscar reaching drama so for acting - acting was fine, all characters were in their style and some even better than expected.

The movie has plenty of action but you gotta keep in mind that it's clearly made to be continued soon, so this film gives a nice welcome to MK world. Well balanced story good action and def fun MK fights.

...these reviewers must have lost the love for MK world, but it's easier to criticize the movie vs recognizing that they too old for this .lol..

Ignore negative reviews, go watch it and enjoy.

Great visuals, excellent fight scenes, good choices on most of the cast (e.g Kano, Scorpion, Sub-Zero) and just a fun movie overall. If you are familiar with the game, you will like it.

Keep in mind that it's a trilogy, so this first film tries to add some background! Luckily there's not much time spent on meaningless conversations and the scenes get into the action parts faster than you would expect. Runtime of 1h 50min is works well; you will not be bored.

Fight scenes get more rewarding halfway through, closer to the game style.

Also, the idea to rotate this film's story around the rivalry between scorpion and sub-zero worked; it gave some background. Maybe the lead protagonist is not that interesting compared to the other characters but he seems necessary to keep the story moving forward.

So, this first film does the job and although not everyone from the game is in it, I m sure all the other favorite characters will appear in the next 2 films and I m looking forward to that.

6,5/10 good effort bringing the game on film screen.