Comparisons can be odious. But thank the thunder gods for comparisons — especially if you had anything to do with the reboot of “Mortal Kombat.”
Directed by Simon McQuoid,best known for his work on commercials for the likes of PlayStation and “Halo,” and produced by James Wan(director of “Aquaman”and “The Conjuring”),the new video game movie adaptation isn’t particularly great. But it’s obviously made well, by people who’ve seen more than one Hong Kong kung fu film and know their samurai cinema pretty well, too, which instantly places this “Mortal Kombat” film miles above that 1995theatrical attempt with the same title.
The brutal and bloody, R-ratedaction here is the 2021 iteration’s greatest strength. Fights are imaginatively conceived and presented with gratifying punch, framed and edited in ways that showcase the athletic choreography. And there’s no obfuscating ’90s quick-cutting to ruin these sequences.
In other departments, performances are about 2% superior to the mahogany impersonations from 26years ago — generally blah but noticeably better, in other words.
Dialogue’s still dreadful, loaded with nonsensical exposition about why a motley crew of fighters needs to train and beat demonic forces from the Outworlddimension in a tournament to save our Earthrealm.但至少它所有发生在令人印象深刻的,耶鲁大学管理学院etimes even natural-looking settings, not just cheesy sets with Halloween store art direction like its predecessor.
This one’s plot has a semblance of coherence, also a rudimentary but nice improvement.
Down-on-his-luck mixed martial artist Cole Young(Lewis Tan of “Wu Assassins”)is losing Chicago cage matches at $200 a pop. UntilJoe Taslim‘sBi-Han — sorry, “I am no longer Bi-Han, I am Sub-Zero!” as he dopily declares to his evil Outworld overlord — comes after Cole and his family with icicle-hurling fury.
In the aftermath, Cole discovers that he comes from a long line of magic-powered warriors. With angry ex-military Sonya Blade(Jessica McNamee)and untrustworthy mercenary Kano(Josh Lawson,in the film’s sole distinctive, because gleefully vulgar, performance), Cole heads to some hidden mountain temple complex. There, they’re mentored by Lord Raiden(浅野忠信),some kind of thunder god appointed to protect the Earthrealm. Another resident hero hurls his metal samurai jingasahat around like it’s Captain America’s shield; Kano calls him Frisbee.
This is more like an X-Men than an Avengers adventure, though, as each newcomer has to discover their particular supergift to prevail against Outworld’s monstrous bad guys. Battles like those that made the video game popular in the ’90s and early aughts take up the film’s last half hour, and it must be noted that they’re more modestly scaled than the ’95 movie’s contests. But they’re, y’know, better — way better, by any possible cinematic measure.
No doubt some fans of crappy video game flicks are going to prefer Paul W.S. Anderson’soriginal film; after all, the director did go on to honcho the genre’s most commercially viable franchise, “Resident Evil.”新版本看起来不like it belongs on a computer screen and no one shouts “Mortal Kombat!” every five minuteseither, which may disappoint hard-core fans. Those who just want to watch a cool, competent and only semi-dumb action movie, though, can thank God for small favors like that.
L“Mortal Kombat”:Martial arts fantasy. Starring Lewis Tan,Jessica McNameeand Josh Lawson.Directed by Simon McQuoid.(R.110minutes.) In theaters and streaming on HBO Max starting Friday, April 23.