My knowledge of the Mortal Kombat lore is extremely limited. I may have played some Mortal Kombat video game when I was young but that’s about it and as such had no real expectations when walking into the cinema. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Mortal Kombat is a thoroughly entertaining, gore filled action flick with humour and great world building that demands to be seen on the big screen. 

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MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage-or why Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family's safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with.

 

Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), as he prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana-the immense power from within his soul-in time to save not only his family but to stop Outworld once and for all?

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As I mentioned earlier, I know next to nothing concerning Mortal Kombat so I’m the wrong guy to ask how well they treated the source material. As a Mortal Kombat novice there was nothing that I felt like I missed in the story as the lore and building of the Mortal Kombat world was done succinctly.

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Although the pace of the film slows from its quick pace in the middle of the film during the kombat training scenes, nothings gonna stop this from being a damn fun and entertaining ride. This isn’t a film for the faint hearted; the fight scenes are as beautifully choreographed as they are ferociously gory. They are bloody brilliant though. 

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While the majority of the film is a semi serious action flick, Josh Lawson’s Aussie Kano is the best comedic relief character in a summer, popcorn blockbuster in a long time. Nearly every line of Kano’s elicited roars of laughter from the packed cinema I watched it in, as the rough as guts Aussie laid down his truth. 

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Mortal Kombat is a thoroughly entertaining, gore filled action flick with humour and great world building that demands to be seen on the big screen.