What's been interesting about MORTAL KOMBAT is how different the consensus seems to be among horror vs action fans. I think it highlights the film's strengths and weaknesses. Take this scene for instance. There's tension between striking horror imagery and lazy action design.

1st shot here is great! Nice creature design brought to life by good visual effects. The shot composition works well, with the red from the flare on one side and the yellow from the fire on the other. Brings out the monster spectacularly. Comfortable horror territory. But then..

...things start getting weird. They use a focal length that makes Reptile and Kano look incredibly close to each other, almost blurring the entire shot with the flare in the foreground. They forego an establishing shot of the 4 fighters, making it look like a duel, and from...

…the creature's side, as this type of shot would usually suggest. When Kano attacks, it's impossible to feel the blow because we've suddenly switched to a wide shot (when it should have been the opposite!). The wide shot reveals the other two are just... standing around? The...

next cut is typical cheap action filmmaking: Reptile throws a punch to the right and the film cuts exactly when we should see the hit connect with Cole's face. So instead of feeling the punch, we feel or see nothing: the actor's body language merely suggests something just...

...happened. Also look at how far the fist is to the face (which is obstructed from view by Sonia...). For all we know, Reptile could have hit the air, makes zero difference to us. Then comes the second most baffling shot of the scene (first most baffling still hasn't happened) :

we switch from a shot of Reptile from the back that includes Sonia in the frame to… a closer shot of Reptile from the back that includes less of Sonia in the frame? Why? The blocking completely obstructs the action… and the action makes no sense: the lizard does a bunch...

...of back and forth movements with his arms and supposedly hits Sonia in the belly, but we would not know that were it not for her grabbing on to her stomach. Her hand is already in place when the hit supposedly happens... It's a mess. OK, back to Kano, who…

...supposedly hits Reptile again with his weapon? I mean I guess, we don't see shit in this shot. See, the problem with this type of action is that it's not action, it's the illusion of it. Imagine you're promised Sub Zero, and then all you get is a guy in a motorcycle...

...helmet throwing ice cubes at his opponents. You'd feel cheated, right? Yeah…

So Kano's attack we didn't see and didn't feel was so powerful the lizard has to take a few steps back. Whatever. The camera whip pans to the left (back to Kano), and the guy has been grabbed by...

..Reptile's tongue. Do we see the lizard throwing his tongue at Kano? Barely, the action is blurred by the camera movement, even though that would be entirely CGI… Anyway, it apparently takes FIVE shots to drag Kano over and lift him up. Then comes the most puzzling part...

Sonia gets up, and so does Cole. She shouts "Knife!", so he grabs one and throws it to her. She catches it mid air… so far so good. And then… what the fuck kind of shot is this?! This is the most baffling thing I've seen in an action movie in a while. Who thought inserting...

a blurry, under-the-lizard-armpit-angle shot would be a good idea?! Then, look at how badly it leads into the next shot. We go from a horizontal position to a very obviously standing Sonia stabbing Reptile in the chest... THIS is what you call the best fight scenes ever filmed?

So anyway, it takes 3 more shots for the lizard to punch Sonia away, and then Kano gets back on his feet, pulls out the knife and plunges his fist through the monster's rib cage… and the movie comes alive again! The horror takes over from the action, and the team delights...

…in the spectacle of gore. Again, it's a common image of the horror genre, but the difference is that this part is done with reverence. It's a heart-ripping scene that shows what it's supposed to show: the gore, the victim and the murderer, the joy of the kill. The complete...

…opposite of everything that has to do with action. Hey, here's another example I though was telling of the difference: this is an amazing fatality, one of those crowd-pleasing kills the audience has come for. Gory, sadistic, spectacular. I love this kill. And...

...everything that comes before that is entirely forgettable, a non-action scene filmed in close shots when the aerial choreography called for wider compositions. But no, once again, it's like they need to get to the kill and the rest has zero importance. But in action...

...movies, the act of killing means nothing on its own. That is not the appeal of an action film, and certainly not the sole appeal of a fighting game. You have to earn that fatality, work for it. In this film, they never do.

Of course, the initial observation just comes from a general consensus I've noticed among both communities, and there are tons of exceptions, but what's more telling perhaps is how the studio seems to have preferred to send screeners to horror outlets over action-focused ones...

Lots of people have suggested Timo Tjahjanto would have done a better job. I agree of course, but it's interesting that people would think of him (beyond the Taslim connection): THE NIGHT COMES FROM US creates horror through action itself, instead of treating both separately.

Anyway, I've seen worse action films this year, true. But there is also much, much better. And at this budget level, some stuff just shouldn't really happen (like... why the redundant editing here?). I guess for me they got the MORTAL right. The KOMBAT, not so much.