I would like to say, at the start, I didn't suggest Alex spend $3.79 renting this movie off Amazon Prime. All I did was ask if he'd seen that there was a new Mortal Kombat movie coming out and, once we got past him not remembering who Karl Urban ('cause he's playing Johnny Cage in the upcoming movie) is, mentioning it's Mortal Kombat II, and I didn't even know there'd been a first movie (assuming it wasn't being set up as a sequel to the '90s movie with Christopher Lambert.) At which point Alex insisted we watch this, and that's how I spent the hours of 2-4 a.m. two Fridays ago.
Once it started, I did vaguely recall reading something about a Mortal Kombat movie got everything backwards as far as Sub-Zero and Scorpion's history. Which I guess was referring to how this starts with Sub-Zero (still just Bi-Han at this time, played by Joe Taslim) attacking a famous ninja's home in an attempt to wipe out the guy's bloodline. Because prophecy, or "for the Lin Kuei," which he says a couple of times without explaining who or what that is. But he missed a baby. Can't go giving yourself a codename if you're going to make rookie mistakes! Then it jumps to the present, to focus on a fading MMA fighter, Cole Young (Lewis Tan), who's unaware he's the most recent member of the ninja's bloodline.
This is really a "getting the team together" movie. The actual tournament to keep "Earthrealm" from being invaded by "Outworld" starts in a month, and the movie never gets that far. Earth's side is still trying to find its fighters, while Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has decided the easiest way to win is make sure Earth doesn't have any fighters to participate. Apparently it's fine if all their would-be champions just happen to get brutally murdered before the tournament begins, and even if it wasn't, the "Elder Gods" are apparently too lazy to get off their asses and dish out punishment.
Wow, those in authority unwilling to uphold their responsibilities? The gods really did create us in their image.
So it ends up being the few fighters that have unlocked their "arcana" - Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) - trying to both train the others and keep them alive until the tournament. So it's a lot of Cole trying to figure out what drives him, or Jax (Mehcad Brooks) trying to adapt to losing his arms, or Sonya (Jessica McNamee) coming to grips with the fact she's not considered a champion, so even though she seems the most raring and ready-to-go, she can't fight. And then there's Kano, who Josh Lawson plays as a loud-mouthed, unscrupulous dick all the other characters despise. Which means he's the best part of the movie. He has a good delivery on a lot of his lines, and it's fun watching him get his ass kicked. Win-win.
I was curious if they were going to kill off Cole's wife and daughter, since they went to the trouble of showing they're a close family, and his daughter is actually the one in his corner during his bouts. Considering his ancestor lost his wife and one child, leaving him so vengeful he's spent centuries roaming the Netherealm, I figured they might go for history repeating itself. While the movie does tease that possibility, a lot, it never actually follows through. Which is fine. Different people, different era, different motivations.
It's kind of funny, for someone who hasn't really played a Mortal Kombat game since whichever one I had on the N64, to see Sub-Zero played as the Big Bad. Yes, Shang Tsung's his boss, and this is all his plan, but the story revolves around Cole and his ancestor, and Bi-Han's attempt to prevent the prophecy. He's the last of Shang Tsung's guys they actually beat, and it takes two of them. When Shang Tsung shows up spouting more threats, Raiden kind of casually zaps him back where he came from, which makes him look like a chump.
I'm sure Raiden is trying to push Earth's defenders by vocally doubting them, or by explaining all the things he can't do, but it does make him look kind of incompetent when the barrier he put up gets wrecked, his fighters start dying, and he's nowhere to be found.
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