{"id":233649,"date":"2021-04-23T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/no-flawless-victory-here-film\/"},"modified":"2021-04-23T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T23:01:00","slug":"no-flawless-victory-here-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/no-flawless-victory-here-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#No Flawless Victory Here \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#No Flawless Victory Here \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

\"mortal<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite all its blood and guts and fatalities, the\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em><\/strong> video game<\/a> series<\/a> has a certain silliness to it. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, mind you \u2013 the silliness is part of the fun, part of the charm of it all. After all,\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> is ultimately the story of characters punching and kicking each other for the fate of the world. Some of these characters are humans; some are robots; some are giant monsters with four arms; some are immortal ninjas; some are full-blown gods; it\u2019s a rich, goofy tapestry. To adapt that into a movie requires the right sort of balance, and perhaps even a certain degree of camp. Which makes the new\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> movie all the more frustrating. Here is a film taking itself so dreadfully serious that it forgets to let us have any fun. Worse than that, it\u2019s kind of boring.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em>, there\u2019s a rule written down somewhere that if fighters of an alternate dimension known as Outworld beat fighters from Earth 10 times in a series of tournaments, Outworld has the right to invade and conquer us. I\u2019m not sure the logistics of this \u2013 is it a legal matter that suddenly allows this dimension of monsters and sorcerers to gain access to our world? Can we fight it in court if we lose in battle? In any case, those are the rules, and rules were made to be broken. Rather than sit around waiting for humans to get their shit together, Outworld ruler Shang Tsung (Chin Han<\/strong>) decides to cut to the chase and send an assassin \u2013 Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim<\/strong>), who has the power to conjure up ice like Elsa from Frozen<\/em> \u2013\u00a0to bump off the prospective champions of Earth before the tenth tournament even takes place.
\nSo far, so good, I guess. It\u2019s all a bit rushed \u2013 we get a title card to explain what\u2019s going on here, and there are a lot of moments where characters give big speeches spelling out their motivations. That\u2019s to be expected, and as lazy as it may seem, it doesn\u2019t hurt the movie \u2013 at first. Nor does it hurt that director Simon McQuoid<\/strong> leans into the horror elements built into the mythology.\u00a0Mortal Kombat\u00a0<\/em>is full of monsters and bodily damage, and the very early moments where Sub-Zero prowls around our world like Michael Myers hunting down Laurie Strode are plenty effective, and even creepy. Taslim\u2019s Sub-Zero gives off real menace, but it\u2019s not enough to keep the film on its feet.<\/p>\n

What knocks\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> down again and again is its rushed, uninspired, and surprisingly dull script<\/a>. There\u2019s a lot of talk here about chosen ones, and the Earth fighters who are meant to be the champions against Outworld all bear a mark that looks like the iconic\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> dragon symbol. This mark is somehow both a birthmark\u00a0and<\/em> something that can be magically transferred to other people. Only\u00a0true<\/em> fighters can bear this mark, though. Or something like that.<\/p>\n

One such person bearing the mark is former MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan<\/strong>), a painfully lifeless character who has been invented specifically for the film. Cole is meant to be our avatar bringing us into the world of\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em>, which means he mostly spends the movie running around asking questions about what\u2019s going on and then occasionally engaging in fight scenes.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to those fight scenes, shall we?\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> has an R rating, which means it can lean into the gore that made the games so famous. And sure enough, the blood does fly. When people are hit here blood practically explodes from their bodies; more blood than anyone can possibly contain. Limbs are torn off; bodies are frozen; guts are spilled; hearts are ripped out. It\u2019s brutal stuff, so why does it feel so\u2026safe? There should be a gnarly aspect to all this carnage, and it isn\u2019t there. As for the fighting itself, it varies \u2013 some fights are staged quite well, where we can see every punch, every kick, every flip. Others are filmed in extreme close-ups that render the action incomprehensible. But the international cast here is clearly adept at fighting, or at least\u00a0movie<\/em> fighting.<\/p>\n

Cole joins forces with\u00a0Special Forces soldiers Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee<\/strong>) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks<\/strong>), who both know all about the ancient rules of Mortal Kombat. Sonya even has a corkboard with news<\/a>paper clippings and lines of string tying it all together, like a loony conspiracy theorist chasing after the inexplicable. Little details like that are a nice touch, but we need more. We need\u00a0characterization, for one thing. Who are any of these characters?\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> has no interest in fleshing them out, probably because it thinks it doesn\u2019t have to. The game versions of the\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> players didn\u2019t have real character development, so why should the movie? Everyone is just sort of there, standing around, looking admittedly cool while waiting for their individual fight scenes. When they\u2019re not doing that they\u2019re fond of showing up and announcing their names, probably so people in the audience can lean over to someone next to them and say, \u201cThat\u2019s that guy from the games!\u201d
\nWhile Sonya wants to help save the world, Cole has his doubts about all of this, and he doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019s ready to fight. He\u2019ll have to find some encouragement, be it from the lightning god Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano<\/strong>), the fireball throwing\u00a0Liu Kang (Ludi Lin<\/strong>), or Kung Lao (Max Huang<\/strong>), who wears a hat that can conveniently turn into a buzzsaw. Also along for the ride, reluctantly: criminal Kano (Josh Lawson<\/strong>), the one character the film allows to be \u201cfunny.\u201d Unfortunately, Kano\u2019s constant stream of passive-aggressive one-liners fizzle, as do moments where he says groan-worthy quips like, \u201cPut a shirt on, Magic Mike!\u201d<\/p>\n

On the baddie side, in addition to Sub-Zero,\u00a0Shang Tsung has a motley crew including the blood-hungry Mileena (Sisi Stringer<\/strong>), the four-armed monster Goro (a digital creation voiced by\u00a0Angus Sampson<\/strong>), and the robotically enhanced Kabal, played by\u00a0Daniel Nelson<\/strong> but voiced by\u00a0Damon Herriman<\/strong>. Herriman opts to give Kabal a thick New Yawk<\/em>\u00a0wiseguy accent, which often makes him look and sound like drunken robot Bender from the animated series\u00a0Futurama<\/em>. It\u2019s a choice, to say the least.\u00a0As for fan-favorite Scorpion, well, don\u2019t expect too much of him. After an eye-catching, head-stabbing prologue, he disappears for most of the movie. Pity, too, because actor Hiroyuki Sanada<\/strong> brings a real dignity to the film that most of his costars fail to capture.<\/p>\n

If all of this sounds rather silly, that\u2019s because it is. But\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> refuses to admit that. It plays all of this as deadly serious and suffers because of it. Everything feels so mournful, so dour; funereal, even. If a film where a super-powered ninja turns a gush of blood into a frozen blood-knife can\u2019t even be\u00a0fun<\/em>, what\u2019s the point? It\u2019s one thing to take this material seriously. It\u2019s another to make the movie itself so damn serious.<\/p>\n

And to cap it all off,\u00a0Mortal Kombat<\/em> commits the sin that so many recent Hollywood adaptations of existing properties make these days \u2013 it\u2019s all set up. Everything that happens here can be written off as exposition laying the groundwork for a\u00a0sequel<\/em>, where the\u00a0real<\/em> kombat can begin. It\u2019s a ruse; a come-on; a side-show with a very loud barker out front. \u201cWe can\u2019t show you\u00a0that<\/em> stuff just yet, but come back next time and we might!\u201d The thing is, we\u2019re all suckers enough to probably fall for it.<\/p>\n

\/Film Rating: 5 out of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cool Posts From Around the Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n <\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#No Flawless Victory Here \u2013 \/Film” Despite all its blood and guts and fatalities, the\u00a0Mortal Kombat video game series has a certain silliness to it. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, mind you \u2013 the silliness is part of the fun, part of the charm of it all. After all,\u00a0Mortal Kombat is ultimately the story of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/mortal-kombat-review.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,1513,1570,45458,7598,8117,1553],"class_list":["post-233649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-action-adventure","tag-features","tag-mortal-kombat","tag-movie-reviews","tag-video-game","tag-warner-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}