MORTAL KOMBAT (2021) REVIEW | Whatever Happened to Johnny Cage? 

The funniest plothole is that the whole plot of this movie technically shouldn't have happened with Raiden around. The combatants are being attacked BEFORE the tournament even started, so Raiden has full jurisdiction to start zapping people out of existence

This just in: Kano actor Josh Lawson has been hospitalized due to major back injury after carrying the entire movie.

I’ve had this theory that the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike never actually ended, the writers are still on strike and Hollywood executives now just pull out random one word adjectives that coffee running interns write down, fold up and throw into a hat..

Scorpion and Sub-Zero are the most important characters in the movie. So... basically like most other Mortal Kombat material.

I am just happy to see Hiroyuki Sanada . I always liked him in the roles he had, even those 30 seconds in Avengers.

Ngl I hated the way the movie gives everyone superpowers. It felt like a story element that was only added in because they needed to explain how Cole, a new character created for the movie, can have superpowers. This whole movie felt like a two hour collection of bad ideas. That being said though, Kano is by and large the best thing about this movie.

Liu Kang just looked scared all the time, and what kind of friend throws fireballs at you?

Anyone else notice that the main character literally has plot armor as his power/arcana? As soon as it actives, he knows how to use it automatically and never looses another fight. It's almost like these screen writters are becoming self aware... or just lazy. Idk lol

It's a damn shame that Kano, a villain, was more of a main character than the actual main character.

Apparently the reason Johnny wasn't in the movie was because the producer said he didn't want a white male to have the spotlight. So what was Kano? Lol

When the hero is a Kreate-A-Kharacter

The rationale behind Cole's presence was pretty good in the Luke Skywalker kind of way - he's intended as an introduction to the setting so we can learn about it with Cole. But the directors totally misunderstood Johnny Cage. He's NEVER been the main hero in the games, other than one of them where he completely trashed the main villain 1v1. The stories have basically focused on Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and the various villains, which is pretty damn cool if you're looking for Asian representation because you don't have to do much. Johnny is the supporting character that people like because he's fun. He's (almost) a normal dude in this setup with literal gods and monsters, and he uses his B-movie action hero snark stuff to hide his complete and total pants-shitting terror at what he's actually doing.

The one time Raiden should definitely have consulted with the Elder Gods and simply doesn't.

The Reptile fight from the 90s version is still pretty damned cool. They did a decent job of syncing the fight to the music track for it (which I believe the kids these days would say that the Reptile theme from the 90s MK "slaps"). And I can confirm, that moment when Reptile appears was fucking awesome in the theaters, because it was unexpected. A good subversion of expectations - CGI monster, right? Guess again!

I did thought Kano was pretty funny in the movie, though I kinda wished Shang Tsung and Raiden had a bit more to do or had a fight scene at least

Yeah kicking Johnny Cage to the curb in favor of some new guy we’ve never heard of big mistake. Also not having the actual tournament in the movie just so they can set up sequels is disappointing. I’ll just watch the original movie instead .

they took johnny out because he was white... not my words that is the director talking.

As a friend has put it: "The film is bad because they put a useless character as protagonist, the protagonist Liu Kang as the mentor character and the mentor Raiden as a useless character."

Plus, why racebend Mileena?

For a movie about fighting, this had lack luster fights. It was full of quick cuts to hide the fact that the actors can't fight. If it was done by the team that did the Daredevil series, it would've been much better.

The 1995 Movie is better lol

Cole super power is plot armor😡😡😡

Can we talk about the baffling edits and the random effing teleportation to get characters where they need to be.

(Spoilers) As disappointing as the Milenna fight was, I think we all know that men and women are not treated equally in Hollywood the way they are in anime and manga. That said, watching a male protagonist wait for a female protagonist to show up to kill the female antagonist has long since gotten boring.

Soooo many flaws, and people argue this is a "prequel". Ok and? It still is a movie that needs a structure and it's called MORTAL KOMBAT that's focused on tournaments....oh boy....

Its just a matter of time before Thorias explodes on RU-vid...I really enjoy his flavor of cynical objectivity. XD

The move mortal kombat: scorpion's revenge covers his backstory instead of having him vanish from most of the movie. The opening to that is even more insane because what animation allows, they even have the x-ray attacks from later games. I would recommend watching that one if you want to follow on scorpions story.

Cole sucked. Fighting was meh. Sonya was a little Mary Sue with her powers. They killed all the good people. 65%

i believe there was an article online about an interview with a director and they said that they didnt wanted to put him due to politics or something

Mortal Kombat (2021) was largely filmed in South Australia, in outback towns not too far from where I live... I can understand why a lot of locations were dull. They were at Port Adelaide, and it's well known for ports, and warehouses. Also, Mount Crawford, a place I love to hike at, and it's largely a tree farm. They also hit up Coober Pedy, a hot lump of desert well known for it's opal mines. -I imagine one of the reasons they filmed here is because we've barely had any COVID here (since South Australia is pretty unimportant to the rest of the world), and since COVID started we've had only about 2 weeks of lockdowns.- Edit: I thought they might have filmed here to avoid COVID, but the filming in South Australia was done in 2019. My bad.

Cole should have been the next Sub-Zero. He even looks like him.

movie was a disappointment I literally thought cole was gonna turn into scorpion being his descendant but no his only power is literally plot amor smh

I kinda knew what I was going to get with a Mortal Kombat reboot: mindless, nostalgia-dependent entertainment based on a necessarily superficial tournament-style video game from the 90's. Not much to work with in the first place when the most relevant and meaningful dialogue from the source material is "Fight!" and "Get over here!" It's like trying to sculp a Renaissance statue when all you've got is a pair of thumbs and two crossed eyes. We're lucky this movie made any sense at all.

They did Goro dirty in this movie...

If they would have just made the Revenge of Scorpion movie live action, they would have had a much better film.

They massacred my vampire girl Nitara. They turned the only truely neutral playable character who is a mastermind of manipulation into a generic screeching bat lady who has about as much screentime as scorpion's wife.

I liked aspects of MK2021 but more ways than I liked it felt like a haphazard rated-R Power Rangers episode with a plot that never arrives.

Hiroyuki Sanada was wasted on this film, if they made a movie about his time in the netherrealm fighting oni training for the mk tournament I would have been happy.

Thorias Unlimited you forgot to mention the Wokeness of Mileena who is a clone of a hot asian chick but with Baraka's blood that created her. So is she supposed to be half black half Asian or just full-on black? I prefer her being pure Asian just with a darker tan/tone color and them crazy sharp teeth of hers. This little aspect I know has pissed off a lot of true Mortal Kombat fans like myself. They also should of had longer fight scenes for the many game characters of a lot of it was done to quickly to enjoy them characters. The fatalities was awesome. Oh and that new character is like how they do in many of the mortal kombat games that have a story mode It centers around them. This I knew was going to be a take on it. Like the character Shujinko who pushes the plot for the story mode in Mortal Kombat Deception. His ability is to mimic all the other fighters fighting styles.

You granted us Mercy with this review. Thanks for the heads up.

The Mortal Kombat shorts that came to RU-vid about eight years ago are pretty kickass.

Thorias you hit the nail on the head with your review. I couldn't agree more.

"I don't know what they spent all that money on". Cocaine, Thorias, cocaine

At least we got a "flawless victory". Also, the audience-surrogate character's power is plot armor. I can't see him getting killed off because he's supposed to represent the audience's reaction to things, and I've never seen an audience-surrogate character produce anything remotely realistic in those terms

Sonya was a trash character

This movie I thought was so disappointing

When coles ability was LITERALLY plot armor.😂

Thank you for this new review, Thorias. I do really like the original Mortal Kombat games. the original 1995 film & the late 90's tv series Mortal Kombat: Conquest. so I will definitely check this new film out. :)

When you said you were more a street fighter guy i just nodded. I definitely see it.........also could see you in actual street fights.

The freezing of the blood thing is from the games. That’s why it was creative. I have to laugh how they didn’t add Johnny Cage as protagonist due to being white and not wanting a white lead even though Liu Kang was always protagonist.

For me, it was a good movie to watch with the wife on Sunday afternoon at home to get her off my back about spending time together. It was fun, not good, not bad. Just fun

I'd bet they figured Cole could be the audience' eyes the way Liu was supposed to be in the 90's. There may have been they couldn't get the rights to Johnny as a character specifically, or they did not want to pay the royalties to JCVD as the character is canonically based off him. (I believe there was some wrangling which kept him out of the roster of a few games, until they settled the matter legally with the actor) The "plot armor" could be a tongue in cheek point out as "meta" but it's heavy handed. It might be their twist to work around the powers that Johnny canonically has in game (the "shadow" magic that he really hasn't gotten too far into lore-wise except for the last like 2-3 games specifically - he does eventually find out he's the MC from Jade Empire * relax, that's a joke, mostly) Since Liu is canonically "the chosen one" it would've made more sense to just use him for the audience' eyes or the narrator, and treat Cole like Talon (FNG nobody really liked all that much in 9, who was powerful in his own right, but basically a throw in for the sake of needing a plot to drive their "open world" attempt, never to be mentioned again) Maybe they should get Baraka to do some editing right quick? "So the story-telling is kind of shoddy in general" - yup. That sums up basically every game in the series pretty well. Wait... you played these games for the STORY? oh, you poor, silly deluded miserable b~~~ard.

Great review!

I still like the 90's Mortal Kombat better than this movie.

i agree with your assessment, it was subzero vs scorpion the movie seting up a mortal kombat movie next time around. its supposed to be a trilogy from what i hear, but i dont think it will make it that far

When I watched the movie, the fact the "main" character was not a real MK character was very distracting.

I feel like the movie would've been better as a tv series. GOT style.

I enjoyed the movie for the violence/fight scenes, the references and Kano. The story is odd though, following some parts of the game's lore and changing other parts. They should have picked one way or the other. The costume designs are the same. Kung Lao and Liu Kang look great, Reiko and Nitara are unrecognizable. Also so many iconic characters like Mileena and Goro are wasted. So it's fun but shallow, like Kong v. Godzilla.

Sub zero and kano was the highlights imo wished Scorpion was in it more Cole was an absolute meaningless addition overall I thought it was okay but nothing noteworthy

Just gonna say it, I preferred the original movie. The characters were more interesting and fun, the sets were better, the acting was better, and the music was way better. Don't care Scorpion, Sub Zero or Raiden were played by white guys. If the acting is really good and such or in the case of Scorpion and Subzero they don't talk or show their faces I don't care.

It's the treadmill consept they wanted you all ready for: Give me money, get in, so you already gave me money, to late door closes, your on the ride they made. Yahn Good job Thorias

Honestly this movie made zero sense, and in a story about a martial arts tournament that decides the fate of the world, that's saying a lot. First, why the hell did they just start training these fighters like a month before the tournament? Isn't this the kinda thing you'd want to do earlier? Apparently they can find people with the marks (as they found Jax somehow). The original tournament just invited the best fighters from earth, where this one requires specific chosen ones who have to unlock their powers (well except for Sonya who just gets hers instantly for some reason). So basically they're just cool with everyone getting murdered before the tournament even starts and Raiden didn't even do anything to stop it. Even when Shang Tsung outright murdered Kung Lao. At least in the original MK movie, you got the sense that there existed some kind of rules to the thing, this movie is a giant clusterfuck. I mean, I get that they wanted to play around with the characters, whatever it's a new adaptation... but it's still supposed to be a story about a tournament and the entire movie is just about assassinations before the tournament. Then all of a sudden someone points out that Raiden can teleport people and he's cool with using it to set up the other fighters. So why the hell not just teleport the enemy one at a time into a bunch of 4v1s? Or just toss all the rule-breakers into the middle of Antarctica so they can't interrupt the tournament. Rules are out the window anyway, and the plan is to just gang up on subzero at the end anyway? Why bother fighting any fights fairly? Hell just teleport Jax and Sonya to load up on machine guns and other military gear and blow the hell out of everyone. Apparently everything's legal and nobody gives a shit.

I watched the opening scene (ancient japan fight) thinking "finally a good MK movie" but it very quickly goes off the rails there only to get back on track in the very end final fight scene but only between the Scorpion and Sub-Zero. One can just cut out everything in between and the resulting 6 minute "movie" won't suffer for it at all.

I liked it, wasn't perfect but definitely a fan service film. Lots of nods, easter eggs. For people who are normies or not too familiar with the lore probably won't enjoy it as much as the MK fans will. Overall the fans rate it 88% on RT, where "professional critics" 56% which is actually high for critics and video game movie. I feel a lot of the critiques of this movie are misunderstood. The ups and successes of MK we have to consider here:it's getting 3 more sequels, owned the box office over opening weekend, is overall liked by majority of the fans and did all that with a pandemic, an automatic strike against it as "video game movie=will be bad" and having the option to be streamed on HBO Max(which will take away from theatre tickets naturally) not too shabby for a mere video game movie if you ask me. I look forward to the sequels. Sure it took liberties as do every adaptation now days but the positives outweigh the negatives overall.

About 5 minutes in... Wracking my brain as to why Sub-zero didn't just...hang out and wait for Scorpion to come home. 🤔 It's not like he wasn't coming home, or likely to be far away. Wife, son, and baby were all there... 🤨 About 22 minutes 30 in. Apparently Sub-zero can teleport... 🤨 I'm starting to regret watching this... About 26 minutes in. Why is Mileena black? 🤨 32 minutes in. Reptile... ...is an enormous reptile. 🤷 34 minutes in... "Kano wins". 🤦 About 38 minutes in. Who travels to a desert plateau (to find a long lost temple) in the middle of nowhere...with no supplies? 🤨 52 minutes. Apparently monks and priests have elite cyborg technology. Not to mention the completely not visible tools to implement it. 1 hour 17... Jax's goofy arms apparently upgrade all by themselves when he believes in himself. 1 hour 26. Some very dodgey fire CGI. 1 hour 27. With no training at all. Sonya unlocks her powers, knows what they are, and how they work..to rescue Cole. Who is inexplicably having problems fighting Mileena. Also. Why does Kung Lao's hat bloop away with everyone? 1 hour 29-ish. The Scorpion reveal... ...was actually pretty neat. But Sub-zero gets sporked through the arm. And can still use it. 🤔 1 hour 30. Stimpy-zero gets stabbed in the ribs with a kunai. And still can fight just fine. 😑 1 hour 32-ish. Scorpion speaks to Cole in Japanese. Cole was raised as an orphan on the streets of Chicago. Not a ton of native Japanese-speakers there... 😐 1 hour 33. Cole stabs Ice Cube directly in the chest. Ice T is STILL fighting. 🤷 1 hour 34. Ice Ice Baby takes another kunai to the chest. Cole still totes understands Japanese. 🤷 Around 1 hour 35. Scorpion has taken his mask off and put it back on about 15 times in the last 5 minutes. And still speaks in Japanese to Cole. 😂 1 hour 36, so very tired. The moment I realized why I felt no investment in Cole or his family. He looks nowhere near old enough to have a daughter that age. I had initially thought she was his sister. 🤔 1 hour 37-38 Sham Wow poofs all the bad guys smushed by the heroes, basically saying "death is only another portal". So. It basically meant nothing as "there will always be another to take their place". Too bad a bunch of good guys are kind of still dead, right Raiden? Right? 🤔 Cole's family seems pretty chill about all the weird sh*t they're seeing with Mr. BBQ hands, Electro, Frosty the Snowman, Robonegro, etc. 🤨 1 hour 38-ish. Mastersequelbation. And over 10 minutes of credits!!! Whew. What a not-good film.

Super Fan here, saw it in the theater. Given how used to things I am in Hollywood, I let the plot rework slide entirely. Even so, in its own element, I think we are barely getting a sequel. I can't decide if I like it or hate it, and I've watched it multiple times. I'll watch the next one if there is one, but my hopes are middle of the road.

And then there was Shang Tsung's outdoor throne that was on the edge of a cliff for some reason. Meanwhile the animated film, Scorpion's Revenge, not only balances the first tournament but also the feud between Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Honestly, that scene were Liu King repeatedly low kicks kano made me genuinely laugh (while PTSDing over my best friend doing it to me EVERY DAMN TIME)

I thought this was a fair review.

I love the original 90s movie its just good fun

What I don't get is, how is Subzero this centuries old person when his younger brother is the next subzero? Bi han dies and becomes Noob Saibot, so is his younger brother gonna be really old or what? Seems like a really dumb change.

They absolutely wasted major characters Kung Lao Goro Nitara Kabal Milenna They were just done dirty! Truly interesting and major characters treated like toilet paper. Kano absolutely carried this movie on his shoulders He was foul mouthed, disgusting, and straight up hilarious. The Sub-Zero and scorpion fights are absolutely amazing. And I can't believe people think Kano is actually dead? Has it really taken everybody this long to point out that Kano did not have his signature cybernetic eye? Hopefully the sequel will actually have them all fighting In the Mortal Kombat tournament. Plus I'm kind of interested In what they do with Noob Saibot And The New Sub-Zero.

You are completely on point

Since the MK reboot Johnny cage became the main character, but if you know the lore of the old days he was very much not. Also the whole tournament aspect hasn't been the main focus of the story aside from the 1st and 2nd game. From MK 3 onward it was literally a war due to the fact that Shao Khan was breaking the rules. Later Quan Chi and Shang Tsung just teamed up and started murdering people. I said all that to say that the mortal kombat tournament isn't the focus as much as combat between mortals is

One thing is as someone who plays the game I actually feel that they could easily fit in more backstory if they cutout the bull crap. The games did amazing when it came to character progression and helping the player know a lot about a character in a short period of time. In MK9 for Johnny Cage’s opening chapter we quickly realise he is cocky and sceptic of all that is happening around him as he mocks the proceedings. We also find out that he has a good heart however after he refuses to kill Baraka and Reptile as well as helps up Sonya. This and the core plot of the game is established within the first 10 minutes and more information is given with each character chapter. Movies should actually look at the games for time management and plot structure. Each character is important to the plot because each gets a chapter. While there is an overarching story their are individual character plots. The 90’s movie did this well.

Johnny Cage is in the end teased for a next movie, if it ever happens..

I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay for anything extra the way everyone was paying an extra 30 for mulan. Love your Channel :)

One scene that really drove me crazy. Cole drives away to protect his family, goes to Sonya's house and then his family for the next two or so scenes are just left out in the truck waiting for Cole - no get them to safety at a hotel or hide them in Sonya's house. The flow of the movie has it feel like they're just out there waiting in the truck.

Good video thanks

So Scorpion was reduced to a stand?

in a movie about mortal combat, there is no mortal kombat. yep... someone had idea about fighters with superpowers, and ceo said: "lets stick the name mortal kombat"! feels like what happened with the predators movies.

It didn't seem to get my blood pumping like the first movie.. maybe it's the music? Liu Kang didn't feel as manly this time around. Like he was soft and passive compared to the 90s movie. I did like they had a Sub Zero and Scorpion fight, although they didn't really seem to give Sub Zero that much of a background. I felt let down.

They Definitely paid the popular Asian actors 80 percent of that budget lol XD

What happened to Johnny Cage!?, racism .. that's what happened to Johnny .. because according to the director we can't have a WhItE gUy As ThE mAiN cHaRaCtEr!!!

ICE DOESN'T CAUTERIZE

I can't believe they jobbed Goro like that, like wtf he's supposed to be a final boss type of guy, also why wasn't Lu Kang the main character like in the 95 film instead of this "OC" was kind of strange At least Kano was pretty fun, one of the few characters with some personality and Charisma

So basically what I have heard is Kole was a character inserted by the studio, the writers apparently never wanted this character. Which if true explains everything and hurt the film badly.

Before I watch your review, I couldn't finish this movie. It's not good. The dialogue was terrible, the action was meh and overall I was bored. I would not recommend this movie that I couldn't even finish. That said, I will finish watching this review.

"Mortal Cuckombat" a movie about a tournament that never was.

I keep saying this, but when Kano is fighting Liu Kang in training, and the inexperienced fighter is spammed with sweep kicks: the writer(s) completely understood the game. Agreed with your assessments: the sets and the music were kinda ... cheap.

Your review is unfortunately what I expected. When there 97 are characters to choose from in Mortal Kombat and you need to create a new character as the protagonist, then it’s not a great start.

I have heard that at least one of if not more characters have signed multi movie contracts dependant upon results of this movie (up to a total of 5 films) check me on that just in case. But if this is anywhere near true, would this film be a decent pre cursor for a series? And do you think they played it cautiously in that even though there is no mortal combat tournament on out world that this movie can stand alone in the event of it not doing well enough?

After watching movie I was like "eeeeehh... I preferred the original movies." "Could have cut Jax from the movie and not miss anything." Lmao 😂 dam isn't that the truth. Dead screen time

I saw it yesterday and I did like it, but since am not very into its lore I really can tell if they were true to it, but I did enjoy the fights and the references to the game moves and lines.

I saw it. I'm pretty much of a mind with T. Good enough to watch once.

Here we go. A sarcastic viewpoint about the new movie. This is gonna be good!

I purpose to the table, that we put Film industry to Restaurant condition, a 3$ fee with option for tipping. This way they get the hourly wages covered, but creative applications get paid on separate conditions, as in meeting mine.

Liu Kangs powers - Master martial artist, Shoots fireballs from fists. Sonya - Shoots beautiful purple blasts from her fists. Kano - shoots laser beam from his eye. Kung lao - Master martial artist, Teleports, has the coolest hat in the world. Cole - Dude has a freaking orange long sleeved shirt, plus worst MMA fighter ever. Like how can this guy really survive mortal kombat.

Cole Young was pointless, boring character that the movie didn't need. Take him out and basically nothing of value is lost form this movie. Kano was the most enjoyable part. If they had kept the story in the era it started in and made it an origin of Sub Zero's and Scorpion's feud movie it would have been much better, IMO.

Soul Calibur II should also get a movie 🍿 adaptation.