The script by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham is woefully poor, riddled with way too many cheeky references and in-jokes to cover up all of its shortcomings. Why complain about the shitty opening text screen or how all the heroes are assholes to each other when I can be a sheep and point and clap at the repetitive leg-sweeps, the usage of the famed uppercut, or cameos such as Shinnok's amulet? Wait, some of the people actually do their fatalities in all of their gloriously gory fashion? And there's also a random guy named Eddy Tobias?! That totally makes up for the absolutely stupid way all of the heroes have to find their hidden magical abilities. Or how a mouthy mercenary who is clearly evil is treated to be a savior of humanity until he "shockingly" might have a chance of allegiance for pathetically limp reasons. Or how the newly generated main protagonist is incredibly ineffectual on his own and utterly devoid of charisma to be the supposed prophetic leader of Earthrealm.
It further doesn't help that the script is filled with plot holes that would outstretch any portal generated by a thunder god or a soul-sucking sorcerer. I don't know what I suffered more from; Was it how a left-for-dead non-designated hero somehow arrived early and with ease to a secluded location than Earth's last remaining defenders of the realm? Or maybe it is how Earth's diety protector Raiden always has willy-nilly teleportation powers, including the ability to transport Earth's heroes into an ultra-safe void environment that Shang Tsung could never ever penetrate, but choses not to. Other written embarrassments include the eye-rolling pop culture laden insults (nearly all of whom just happen to be Warner Bros movies), an arcana power being easily defeated by modern medicine, and the rushed final third of the picture consisting of a big battle, a "major" death, then an immediate final series of brief fights. Then you have the fireworks factory that is Scorpion, one of if not the most popular character of the franchise. After an admittedly good prologue, the legendary hell ninja is goofily teased and teased until surprise, he pops up in time for one last fight. He also pops in to save the wimpy hero but we are supposed to not pay too much attention to that. All of this would have been a fun shock if not for the sheer fact that he is all over the poster and all of the trailer and commercial media spoils nearly the entire fight.
Eerily similar to MK: ANNIHILATION, Warner Bros gave the film to an unproven director and it clearly shows. Simon McQuoid is adequate enough to make a couple of good scenes but they are all front loaded in the movie. He proceeds to go on auto-pilot for the rest of film when he isn't tanking a scene thanks to bad lighting or laughable editing. All of the actual combat scenes are often executed confusingly, due to bad camera placement or flat choreography or both, and are way too brief to be totally satisfying. The visual effects are a very mixed bag. Though I often hate CGI blood, I didn't really mind it too much here and the gory fatalities were pretty damn good at being gory. The effects crew also did a fine enough job with most of the special moves and a certain midboss character. On the other hand, one notable character is given robotic arms that look so fake and are so pitifully tiny that they immediately break the suspension and will cause you and your audience to burst out laughing every time you see them. And the less said about Raiden's eyes, the better. As for the acting, look: I spent a lot of this review ridiculing Cole Young and how he is written and shown on screen. It's nice that we got another non-white main character for this film franchise and Lewis Tan is probably a nice guy but he doesn't have the ability to shine past his character's bottomless shortcomings. The rest of the cast is serviceable enough but the only two to stand out at all are Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada as Sub-Zero and Scorpion respectively. Taslim does well as a total menace from beginning to end whenever the story remembers his character exists and Sanada brings some real gravitas as the tragic ninja when he's not distracting you with the fiddling of his mask.
As someone who's been in love with the franchise since its inception, still utterly adores the 1995 movie, warts and all, and continues to listen to its and the sequel's excellent house-and-metal soundtracks, I know that I will more than likely revisit this reboot more than once down the road and give far it more attention compared to better reviewed flicks. But time will not sand off the many harsh edges this disappointing reboot will forever have. To be honest, thanks to this being released via HBO Max, my time with it was actually more enjoyable even with all of the snickers and groans. If I saw this in theaters, I would have been more crestfallen and maybe even harsher against it.
FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5
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