I liked this more than I should have. I have tried the games, but am not into the fighting genre of games (although the Injustice series grabbed me for its story). The previous movies were fun and didnt take themselves seriously - which was good, but they got too hammy and over the top. The last cartoon took itself way to seriously and was disappointing and forgettable to say the least. This movie, however seemed to grab everything good from the previous attempts, added actors who know some martial arts, used some of the key terms and moves from the games and had a stand out performance from Josh Lawson as Kano adding the 'very dry type of Australian' humour. Hell, the score was even good. Given that this is pretty much the same as the game - 10-12 fights some spectacular fatalities and a basic plot with no character development - this was a very fun way to spend 2 hours.

Fluff entertainment at its most bland. The fighting is pretty forgettable but at least they utilized the R rating for some decent gore that honors the game at least. Acting is at best so-so while the dialogue was pretty bad and it probably 10-15 minutes too long. Can't say I'll remember this but for what it is, it's fine as a time-waster. **2.75/5**

Okay so let's start by saying I wasn't exactly sure what to think going into this movie I didn't know what was going to happen but wow this is one of the best action films of the decade so far yeah it started slow but really was a good full time of excitement

OK LETS start off with if you have not watched the latest animations of mortal kombat this will movie will make you feel abit effy. You will need more background on the actual characters you know from previous movies and those you don't. and the True scorpion and sub zero animation also covers alot. Good fighting movie though. Shouting GET OVER HERE!!!!!!and FINISH HIM haha it makes a person feel like you part of it.

OK... my wife is the Mortal Kombat fan of the family, and the fighting game fan of the family. So this should really be her review... because I'm just going to trash it. The problem here is plot, as in they actually tried to add in a real plot. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game. You play it to peacefully beat your friends to a bloody pulp... and that is where the fun is. But they added a plot. In Twister, the star of the show was the tornado. The plot was there to move the view from tornado to tornado. And in Back Draft, it was the same... with fire. Mortal Kombat thought it had to be deep. It thought it had to be something more than it a tournament. It thought the characters had to have more than surface level depth. THE DIDN'T. The Tournament should have been the star. The plot should have only been there to move you from fight to fight with a climax that shouted "FATALITY!" and left it at that. Instead they tried to add depth where no depth was needed... and that killed the fun of Mortal Kombat. Not every movie needs to have a plot and characters, some movies work best as mindless popcorn munching escapism.

<b>Mortal Kombat shows off some amazing design and stunt work, but the writing keeps it from everything fans wanted it to be. Hopefully, the sequel will learn from these shortcomings.</b> I would be lying if I said Mortal Kombat (2021) was everything I had hoped. But I also enjoyed it and hope the sequel does happen someday soon. <blockquote><b>Pros:</b> * The character roster was pretty big for a first outing, and I appreciated seeing so many of my favorites right off the bat. * The costuming and aesthetics were stunning. I immediately recognized each character because their designs held true to the games while still being updated and modernized. The attention to detail was incredible. * Josh Lawson surprised, making Kano undoubtedly the most entertaining part of this movie. * Casting some true martial artists like Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada gave the action more skill and grit. * The R rating was the right fit for Mortal Kombat, allowing the gore-filled fatalities fans have come to love in the games. </blockquote><blockquote><b>Cons:</b> * With a massive payer of characters to choose from in the Mortal Kombat universe, the addition of Lewis Tan’s Cole Young was unnecessary and annoying. A dozen existing characters could have served as the audience’s perspective. * Adapting a fantastical and violent video game to a feature film is no simple task. However, Kevin Tancharoen perfectly grounded the Mortal Kombat story while keeping the magic and fantasy roots in Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011). Unfortunately, Simon McQuoid struggled with that balance, resulting in a script that felt like the CW team wrote. * The whole Arcana superpower thing stripped the need for skill from some of the fighters, becoming a disappointing dues ex machina. I would have preferred better writing.</blockquote> All in all, there were more pros than cons, but the cons took what could have been great and made it decent. All the pros give me hope that Mortal Kombat 2 can fix the cons and make a much better sequel. Fingers crossed!