IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Blu-Ray
As is the case when someone is successful: Others quickly find themselves wanting to profit from this success. This was also the case when Street Fighter II first became a phenomenon in the arcades in the early 1990s and then conquered the living rooms of the world as a video game adaptation. Many a company tried its hand at competing at the time. While most of them went down without a sound, Mortal Kombat managed to build up its own fan base. Two points distinguished the game significantly from the uberhit. Firstly, the graphics were digitised, which made them look more realistic than the fighters of the others. Above all, however, the game was much more brutal. The excessive fatality moves, in which opponents were torn to pieces, were legendary.
It was all the more surprising that in the film version, of all things, this brutality was greatly reduced. This opened up the possibility of appealing to new target groups. At the same time, however, it risked alienating existing fans. It turned out differently. Not only did "Mortal Kombat" become a box office hit, leaving the films of "Super Mario Bros." and "Street Fighter" behind despite a lower budget. The film even became a fan favourite. While contemporary critics did leave much to be desired about the crude story of world-spanning tournaments, today people look more favourably on the work. For some, it is even one of the best video game adaptations of all time.
Whether one has to go that far is, of course, debatable. Titles like "Ace Attorney" or the first "Silent Hill" are my personal favourites. But it is undisputed that "Mortal Kombat" has a certain charm that the often cheaply produced video game adaptations sometimes lack. Not that the film pursues any significant ambition. The game's story has always been harebrained. There are no profound characters to be found here. Dialogues and acting talent are not necessarily at the highest level. However, everyone here is aware of this and takes advantage of the situation as best they can. Moreover, this is combined with humour without immediately becoming a parody. For example, when a US actor wants to prove that he can actually fight instead of just pretending, that is funny. It's worth watching, for one thing, for the fights, which are more closely modelled on Hong Kong films than Western action films usually are.
Despite regular special effects, you can tell that people know what they're doing when they fight, rather than just setting up in front of a green screen. And the locations are also quite nice to look at, from the temple of the Shaolin monks we visit at the beginning to the more fantastically laid out places where everyone fights later on. Together with the music, this makes for a thoroughly enjoyable atmosphere. While these are timeless, other points are of course getting on in years. The special effects are more than 25 years old and come from a rather cheap production. The humour, too, is not necessarily the freshest, but rather to be enjoyed today with a certain nostalgic perspective.
But if you enjoy the mixture of fantasy, action and a grotesquely mixed cast, "Mortal Kombat" is still good to watch. Unlike later video game adaptations by the infamous director Paul W.S. Anderson, the fateful brawl is so cheesy and funny that you don't nod off from boredom, but at times gaze spellbound at the nonsense that presents itself before you.
