The plot is quickly fleshed out through exposition during a short trek across an unknown desert, but at least some fun begins when the fan favourites pop up, including Raiden ( Tadanobu Asano, who doesn’t get to do a whole lot), Liu Kang ( Ludi Lin) and the villainous Shang Tsung ( Chin Han, who also doesn’t get to do a whole lot). While said meat bag grabs some post-fight burgers with his wife and daughter, they are ambushed by Sub-Zero ( Joe Taslim), an Outworld fighter with the ability to create and manipulate ice, before they are saved by a former Special Forces agent Jax Briggs ( Mehcad Brooks) and his partner Sonya Blade ( Jessica McNamee). He gets beat up pretty badly as we’re introduced to his character in a cage fight, but he’s a good guy because his opponent (condescendingly?) taps him on the shoulder for being such a good meat bag. He’s a good-natured, ordained hero figure who has absolutely zero weaknesses other than being completely useless at the beginning of the film because the story demands it. Anyway, I digress.įans of the video game will already raise their eyebrows at Cole Young, and despite being an “original” character for the film, Clueless Cole is about as interesting as any protagonist from a young adult novel.

There are minor quibbles about why the combatants are fighting each other now, and the plot of the video game never made much sense anyway, but the big irony in the movie is that the tournament never actually happens. The film follows the same plot beats as the game the existence of Earthrealm (basically, Earth) is threatened by the Outworld (a land where all beasts and monsters are evil), and a team of human fighters are tabbed to participate in the titular do-or-die fighting tournament, where another loss would leave Earthrealm vulnerable to an invasion. He has a convenient birthmark that signifies his importance (he’s not) to the movie’s central premise.

In general terms, the new Mortal Kombat is just fine – but it’s also just one on a long, long list of films in which the intelligence of movie-goers is collectively given the middle finger by studios who think they know better.īased on the best-selling video game, the newest film adaptation follows the plight of Cole Young ( Lewis Tan), a washed-up, has-been MMA fighter (he’s missing a Nick Nolte-like mentor on a redemption arc) who is down on his luck (to make sure he starts from the very bottom).

Mortal kombat flawless victory scene