Mortal Kombat (2021): 100% Fatality (review)

ByLeila September 29, 2023

A martial arts film which pretends to be nothing more than a pretext for a series of iconic blows and cult lines. Nothing else. We have the right to find it fun.

“Finish Him” ! That’s the key word of this new adaptation of the cult video game, a title that shook up arcade machines in the early 1990s, with its gory and brutal style. A straight-up martial arts film that begins as a Tiger and Dragon and ends in completely assumed nanar, this Mortal Kombat – to be seen this evening in prime time on TFX – fully embraces its heritage and focuses on a succession of fights, justified by a violently tenuous common thread:

The Earth is threatened. Raiden, his patron God, brings together warriors from all walks of life to confront the forces of the Otherworld led by the terrible Shang Tsung, who has been seeking to invade us for centuries…

JCVD FINALLY arrives in Mortal Kombat! (trailer)

The scenario does not go any further and never tries to pretend to be what it is not. The one and only reason to live from this Mortal Kombatis to bring the game’s characters to life so that they can swing their combos, their cult replicas and above all crush their opponents using the legendaries “Fatalities”, which the unknown Simon McQuoid strives to reproduce meticulously. There is nothing else.

Absolutely nothing more. The casting is not very good. After the opening in Japan, the staging is uninteresting and the decorations are papier-mâché. But the “fights” expected are extremely effective. We find Scorpion, Sub-Zero or Kano with a certain nostalgia. And the graphic brutality of each “Fatality” enough to make us happy as old gamers. Even if Christophe Lambert’s hysterical laughter as Lord Raiden – in the first film Mortal Kombat from 1995, ultimately not so bad – undeniably lacking, the hoped-for fun is there. You Win!

Karl Urban (The Boys) set to play Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2

Leila

Leila is the editor-in-chief at DTmovies, leading the charge with her team to deliver engaging cinema and series content. With a keen eye for emerging trends and a passion for the stories behind the screen, she is the creative backbone that drives the site’s editorial excellence. Her expertise and dedication have established DTmovies as a go-to source for film and series enthusiasts.