The only way I can review this is the pros, cons, similarities, and differences between the game and the movie.
Similarities:
1. The characters from the game series make appearances. Some of these include Kano, Sonya, Rayden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, and Goro.
2. Scorpion has his iconic "Get over here!" accompanied by the blades that stick out from his hands.
3. Each character for the most part have relatively similar backgrounds when it comes to the movie and the game.
4. MK theme was present in a few fight scenes. The kick-ass theme song that sticks in your head was used in the opening credits and the closing ones.
5. Three words: Johnny Cage's nutshots.
Differences:
1. Little to no, and I mean NO, fatalities are present in the movie. There is a lot of MK-like action throughout but the one thing that truly made the games awesome is completely left out. To fill you in if you haven't played the games, fatalities are pretty much an attempt (and success) at you being able to brutally murder your opponent in as gruesome style as possible.
2. No blood. I understand that New Line is trying to make the movie more appealing to wide varieties of audiences, but Mortal Kombat without blood isn't Mortal Kombat. This is probably the reason why no fatalities are involved.
Pros:
1. The movie has some damn good action scenes in it. They were simply entertaining to watch and each fight didn't drag out for a long excessive period of time.
2. The acting wasn't mediocre like I believed it would be. Like so many other game-to-movie crossovers the major appeal is to display the perception of how games "should" be made. I put 'should' in quotes because it fails most of the time, but Mortal Kombat managed to put all of that behind it and made a pretty good movie.
3. Paul W.S. Anderson. Again he has managed to do an awesome job with these video game adaptations. Although it was after, his best work I believe was with the Resident Evil movie seven years later. Personally, I think he's best when it comes to adapting, which is a rare cause when it comes to these types of movies. For example: Uwe Boll. Worst director of all time and he always managed to ruin some pretty good games (House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Far Cry, Postal).
Cons:
1. The CGI. Oh my lord was this film's CGI terrible. I mean it was just simply AWFUL. Goro looked like it was animated by a first grader. The visual scenery is great and all the money probably went towards making that aspect look real but they completely ignored this very one distracting aspect.
2. The costumes weren't bad, but they weren't as good as I would have expected. I like how Reptile was a ninja, but Rayden doesn't look anything like he does in the games. An argument can be made that he was in mortal form during the video games to compete in the tournament so that's why they look so differently, but I object to that because he looks just so ridiculous.
3. Like I stated before, no blood is present. It's understandable that the attempt was made to make it PG-13 and all but if this could be remade with more blood...a lot more blood, then it could be made better. That's not something I would usually say, but hey, it's Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat is all about brutality.
Despite the cons and differences it doesn't make this movie any less enjoyable to watch. It's all around pretty good, could have been better, but I'm still fine by what I received.
Similarities:
1. The characters from the game series make appearances. Some of these include Kano, Sonya, Rayden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, and Goro.
2. Scorpion has his iconic "Get over here!" accompanied by the blades that stick out from his hands.
3. Each character for the most part have relatively similar backgrounds when it comes to the movie and the game.
4. MK theme was present in a few fight scenes. The kick-ass theme song that sticks in your head was used in the opening credits and the closing ones.
5. Three words: Johnny Cage's nutshots.
Differences:
1. Little to no, and I mean NO, fatalities are present in the movie. There is a lot of MK-like action throughout but the one thing that truly made the games awesome is completely left out. To fill you in if you haven't played the games, fatalities are pretty much an attempt (and success) at you being able to brutally murder your opponent in as gruesome style as possible.
2. No blood. I understand that New Line is trying to make the movie more appealing to wide varieties of audiences, but Mortal Kombat without blood isn't Mortal Kombat. This is probably the reason why no fatalities are involved.
Pros:
1. The movie has some damn good action scenes in it. They were simply entertaining to watch and each fight didn't drag out for a long excessive period of time.
2. The acting wasn't mediocre like I believed it would be. Like so many other game-to-movie crossovers the major appeal is to display the perception of how games "should" be made. I put 'should' in quotes because it fails most of the time, but Mortal Kombat managed to put all of that behind it and made a pretty good movie.
3. Paul W.S. Anderson. Again he has managed to do an awesome job with these video game adaptations. Although it was after, his best work I believe was with the Resident Evil movie seven years later. Personally, I think he's best when it comes to adapting, which is a rare cause when it comes to these types of movies. For example: Uwe Boll. Worst director of all time and he always managed to ruin some pretty good games (House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Far Cry, Postal).
Cons:
1. The CGI. Oh my lord was this film's CGI terrible. I mean it was just simply AWFUL. Goro looked like it was animated by a first grader. The visual scenery is great and all the money probably went towards making that aspect look real but they completely ignored this very one distracting aspect.
2. The costumes weren't bad, but they weren't as good as I would have expected. I like how Reptile was a ninja, but Rayden doesn't look anything like he does in the games. An argument can be made that he was in mortal form during the video games to compete in the tournament so that's why they look so differently, but I object to that because he looks just so ridiculous.
3. Like I stated before, no blood is present. It's understandable that the attempt was made to make it PG-13 and all but if this could be remade with more blood...a lot more blood, then it could be made better. That's not something I would usually say, but hey, it's Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat is all about brutality.
Despite the cons and differences it doesn't make this movie any less enjoyable to watch. It's all around pretty good, could have been better, but I'm still fine by what I received.