This was alright. I'd give Mortal Kombat (2021) a 3/5.

Sub-Zero and Scorpion's rivalry was the highlight, and that intro was off the charts good. Then the movie turned into a story about this entirely new character who is never fleshed out or that memorable or interesting. https://twitter.com/nbajambook/status/1386087320647000064

Also: Kano was great. Kind of reminded me of Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters (2016) -- a character much more interesting and compelling than their counterparts.

Lots of fan service, and I appreciate the tributes. But also there were a lot of unnecessary missteps and detours.

Where was the Mortal Kombat tournament itself? I kept waiting for that to happen. That's such an interesting concept you can work with, of advancing and building toward a big finale. Instead we've got these characters wandering and bickering. I really wanted more structure there.

But man, they really did some of my favorites dirty. Ofc some characters must die for the movie to progress, but some villains were given so little. So many moving parts in the movie that it would have benefitted from narrowing the focus to the OG cast with a few cameos.

Most mainstream movies like this need a relatable regular person as the lead, but Scorpion and Subbie alone are ***iconic*** and could easily have carried the movie. Everything revolves around this new dude Cole, who is like Tom Cruise as an MMA fighter (not very Mortal Kombat).

One big thing I thought was off was the settings.

You don't need every MK background, but some of the fighting environments were so off: MMA cage, diner, outside a house in the country (?). Seeing Goro fight in that last setting was really weird not in a good way.

Also what was up with this whole birthmark/invitation motif? MK doesn't need this element added to set up a tournament (which never happens anyway in the movie). I don't get it.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao could have been main characters, too. They have cool stories and could be the relatable protagonist(s), and you could build on their chemistry.

Or make Sonya Blade the main character as she's the person who is investigating this tournament.

Just lots of puzzling choices.

Reminded me a **lot** of '90s/early 2000s adaptations of comic books/video games when adaptations would regularly take major liberties with the worlds.

Then Marvel came along and proved fidelity to source material won't turn people off.

Why not put the same confidence in Mortal Kombat? This is a worldwide phenomena for a reason. It's not an accident people love it so much. Just use what's right there as a real base.

Good things:

I thought Jax was awesome for what he had to work with. Actor was perfect and I'd like to see more of him. (Another person who could have been a good main character.)

The Fatalities were really well done. Those felt right as part of the movie.

Outfits were on point for the most part. I would have loved some more color.

Mileena had so little to work with but was quality. Should have given her much more.

Soundtrack was cool, I need more of that ending remix in my life.

Shang Tsung and Raiden were just there for me, nothing too memorable. The 1995 movie destroys this one in this category.

Not enough portals for me. I always thought portals were a cool part of MK lore and this movie could have used them for story building.

This still hasn't scratched my itch for a truly great live-action version of Mortal Kombat. Bucket list dream is to write this if someone else doesn't beat me there first: https://mobile.twitter.com/nbajambook/status/1362456865930678275