Mortal Kombat series

(On Cable TV, September 2021) Most will agree that it’s useless to criticize Mortal Kombat for its excessive violence — considering that the videogame series on which it’s based was epochal for its depiction of pixelated gore, and that the making of its latest instalment was so stomach-churning that it gave PTSD to some of its developers. I never played the series, but still, as a filmgoer, I would like to watch films without cringing at the sight of spurting blood, spilling guts or a woman being very graphically sliced in half. I may think more of the soundtrack of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film than the film itself, but the PG-13 film did not need to be so violent and had a charm of its own. This newest version, despite being far more technologically advanced (is there a single frame without a digital effect?), is considerably bloodier and duller. The problems start with some curious choices made at the onset of the film — positioning this as a first-of-three films means that we merely get a prologue, and one that has a character quixotically trying to stop the mortal tournament from taking place. Then there’s the selection of the male lead, a very bland actor playing an even blander protagonist, while, right next to him, the character arc of the Sonia Blade character is immeasurably better. Mortal Kombat doesn’t necessarily get better in execution, with recycled sets, dull settings, inexplicable plotting and a very strange mishmash between the series’ grandiose mythology and some crude dialogue coming from some characters. (The character of Kabal feels particularly out-of-place, but the flip side of that is that Josh Lawson is the film’s highlight even in an incredibly abrasive role.)  The fights are choreographed with some skill, especially when special effects dominate the scenes — but that may explain the film’s over-reliance on close-ups quick editing rather than seeing the fights play out at length and in medium shots. Watchable but distasteful due to the excessive gore, Mortal Kombat is technically smoother than its cult classic predecessor, but not something I’d recommend to anyone but the already-accursed fans of the videogame series.