FATALITY ATTRACTION

MOVIE
Mortal Kombat
Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson
Director Simon McQuoid
Review Ray Chan

You’d be surprised to learn that for every person who has played Mortal Kombat – considered one of the best fighting video games of all time – there’s an equal number, or indeed more, who’ve never even heard of it.
    So let’s briefly recap for the uninitiated. At the heart of the game is the tussle between the player and an opponent of his choice in a one-on-one match, involving various combat moves and attacks. The  trademark feature is the Fatality, a finishing move executed against a defeated rival to kill them in a gruesome fashion, some of which have become almost iconic. Indeed, it is often the prime reward for many victorious players, who take macabre pleasure in seeing what form the Fatalities take.
    In the single-player game, the player faces each of the seven playable characters in a series of battles, after which he must then fight in three endurance matches, each of which involves two opponents. After the third endurance match, the player fights the four-armed Goro, followed by a final match against Shang Tsung, the main villain of the piece.
    The challenge for any moviemaker then is to take the simplicity of this fighting platform, and build any sort of storyline around it, incorporating all the various characters, elements, and yes, even the Fatalities. Especially the Fatalities, in fact.
    This 2021 cinematic version of Mortal Kombat follows on from two previous efforts, the second of which was universally panned for its low budget effects, poor plot and endless fight scenes. So this time round, screenwriters Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, director Simon McQuoid and producer James Wan have been careful to learn from previous misjudgments,  pulling out all the stops with the aim of making it the necessary reboot this title required. 
    Here, the lore of the series is brought to a grand and epic scale, showing off the crowded roster of individuals.
    Backed up by some beautiful cinematography, stellar fight choreography and physical stunts that defy logic and gravity, the impressive action sequences brim with energy and excitement, with many based on those found in the video game, such as bicycle kicks and juggling maneouvres.
    It’s replete with lashings of gore, violence, and blood to echo everything that’s a staple of the enduring legacy of this brutal series. There are enough scenes of exploding heads, severed limbs, people split in two, gored bodies and entrail displacements to warrant the extreme R rating, but really, these days the shock effect is minimal because almost everyone has been accustomed to the wizardry that special effects creators can generate.  
    There’s a stronger attempt than in the previous movies to tie up the settings into a cohesive story, although as might be expected, personal development is light and the premise slightly stilted.
    But there’s one definite character improvement which stands out, which truly sets this apart from other video game adaptations where the cast consists of humdrum individuals.
    The scoundrel Kano, played brilliantly by Josh Lawson, has been transformed into a dinky-di Ocker with wisecracking one-liners and a foul mouth that would make a sailor blush.
    The interpretation completely steals the show, bringing pure, unadulterated joy and injecting some much-needed levity at every turn, so much so that when Kano is not on screen, he is genuinely missed. 
    Essentially though, Mortal Kombat is a film crafted almost exclusively for diehard fans, but this time arguably done correctly.
    Despite McQuoid’s claim of taking one step at a time, this movie is clearly planned as a new franchise for Warner Bros, with many Easter egg references and enough bait to set up a sequel should this entry perform well at the box office. 
    And if the wait for a follow-up is too long, surely an interim one-off featuring Lawson as Kano would be worth considering.

*The Australian force is strong in this production. Lawson, McQuoid and Wan all hail from the big country, with most of the movie also shot in South Australia.*

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