The problems with “Mortal Kombat” (Warner Bros.) go well beyond off-kilter spelling.
- In fact, director Simon McQuoid’s feature debut — a reboot adaptation of a series of video games previously brought to the big screen via a couple of movies dating from the mid-1990s — is, by turns, brutal, ponderous, and silly.
- Working from a script by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, McQuoid charts the exploits of Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a mixed martial arts fighter whose languishing career becomes the least of his problems after he gets mixed up in a prolonged cosmic smackdown. The struggle pits the underdog forces of planet Earth against those of a realm called Outworld.
- Under the guidance of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), a self-identified “god,” Cole teams with, among others, a duo of special forces veterans, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jackson Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), and an ill-tempered, potty-mouthed mercenary known as Kano (Josh Lawson) to take on Outworld’s warriors, led by sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han).
- The bloody mayhem that results includes the demise of characters — some human, others monstrous — by incineration, dismemberment, and reduction to a pulp. The fact that Cole is primarily motivated by the desire to protect his wife, Allison (Laura Brent), and daughter, Emily (Matilda Kimber), whom Shang Tsung has targeted, is a feeble offset to such savagery.
- When they’re not too busy crushing heads or sawing opponents in half, the supposed good guys promote a convoluted mythos that, besides false deities, also involves the ability of certain chosen individuals to activate their inner energy, called arcana, and thus marshal a characteristic superpower. Once so enhanced, it’s quickly back to the slaughter with greater gusto than ever.
- The film contains nonscriptural religious ideas, excessive gory violence, gruesome sights, a couple of mild oaths as well as pervasive rough and some crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
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