Friday, April 23, 2021

Mortal Kombat

 

















                           Finally, my favorite fighting game of all time has finally got the respect it deserves or did it? I'm confident in saying that yes I said it a bunch of times but of all games I've played in my life time besides any of the Star Wars game that I can point at and say I love this hell more than the Super Mario Bros more than Sonic and boo me all you want because once I tried playing the original Mario on the classic NES I was about the destroy the controller and sonic well I can't say the same because well let’s just say I need to care more about my health moreover my blood pressure. But Mortal Kombat was one of those games I remember seeing at a young age and though wow this looks cool especially with my two favorite characters Scorpion and Sub-Zero, than in my teenage years I finally picked up the latest PS2 MK games and that's when my love of the mythology grew much more especially when I started to practice more and challenged my brother and sister even though my brother and I are even par but my sister is well kind a lackey. And through the course of the years I was always excited to see each game they develop and always watched the 90's original film because I'm a nineties kid, though times I need a good laugh when it comes to watching the sequel. So with this latest film I had my suspicions but the more I watched the trailer the more I was intrigued. Especially when I can look at an actor like Hiroyuki Sanada and say that man is no longer the "that guy" actor to me that man is officially Scorpion in my book even though sure he did fight Hugh Jackman in the Wolverine but that's nothing compared to playing in iconic character like Scorpion. But hey, enough talk it's time to talk Mortal Kombat. 
                           Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is a former MMA champion and a famously man, whose life is turned upside down when a mysterious ninja named Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) comes to kill him. Until Jax (Mehcad Brooks) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) save him and tell him that he has been chosen for a special tournament called Mortal Kombat in order to fight the forces of evil led by Shang Tsung (Chin Han). Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and his champions Liu Kang and Kung Lao (Ludi Lin and Max Huang) along with Cole, Jax and Sonya they must win this one Kombat before all hope is lost. Though Cole realize that he's a direct decedent Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), now Cole must reach into his inner soul to prevent the end of the world from happening before it's too late.
                            Now this film alone I can finally admit and say that the original Moral Kombat film has now officially been dethroned as the best video game adaption film of all time, unfortunately that's a bit of in overstatement but hey, just thought I at least state the fact I guess. Although that being said there were some things I did love about the film and there were some things that I wasn't a big fan of. Mainly yes it has a lot to do with the story of the film and I'll give a few examples, the idea they portray in the film where all of the fighters have a special arcana that they can unlock I just found a bit on the eh side of it for many reasons I grew up with the game and I know that all of these characters were born with their special abilities like Sonya basically constructed her special ring arm blasters and Jax's hands were destroyed and that's how he's got his famous robotic arms and the same with Kano who is really a thug/cyborg dealer I mean sure both Sub-Zero and Scorpion where born with their abilities and they at least got those characters right but I just feel like using so much of the story time to have a training session of how to unlock each characters special movie is to me bit of a unrealistic for me to accept when it comes to the source material. In terms of characterization everyone was fine except for Raiden and Liu Kang mainly because I didn't like the idea of Liu Kang being the side character in this story when he's clearly the champion of the first victory of Mortal Kombat and yet he gets pushed aside for this Cole character, to be the hero I concept I wasn't a whole fan of and the same with Lord Raiden's character, I also didn't like how he's too critical with his selected fighters when he at least should know the Armageddon is at stake, but then at the end he at least excepts them, which is fine I guess but he's supposed to play the leader and that I couldn't take serious at all. Now everything else about the movie was amazing especially when it comes to the fight scenes and I got to say they did an exceptional job with some of the action sequences and the most recognizable special movies and fatalities the performed in the film. Though to be honest I believe the true scene steelier deserves the best credit with the film’s success and that was Hiroyuki Sanada's performance as Scorpion and for a man whose sixty years old and knows how to fight I have to give him huge props, furthermore he did an exceptional job playing Scorpion aka Hanzo Hasashi really well and really embodied the character especially when it comes to his kunai spear sequence he does in the opening of the film, and I swear when the music intensified and we finally see Scorpion on screen I was just overjoyed and that I was doing a small round of applause. The same goes to Joe Taslim who also does in exceptional job as the original Sub-Zero aka Bi-Han just in case anyone gets confused there's two Sub-Zero's, the original is the main villain to Scorpion while there's another whose a good guy. Okay so, back to topic Taslim does a great work as playing the evil ninja to Scorpion and I loved the fact that in this story it was really Bi-Han that killed his family and not just some illusion to make it look as assumed moreover I like the idea that Bi-Han is evil throughout the story furthermore loved how both Taslim and Sanada do tremendous work in choreographing the fights to make it more real and intense in every sequence especially when I've heard that these two were really fast and the camera crew couldn't keep up with them, for which you know right there that this was going to be great, all that a side I did find them not understanding one another in terms of Japanese and Chinese languages a bit weird, with both men in the story didn't understand what they were saying for which fine I guess but deep down, oh well. All and all the film was enjoyable from start to finish, really had a blast of a time seeing this movie in the theaters, with a few grimes of the story a side this was a great time to watch furthermore am looking forward to watching this on HBO Max. So, vaccine or not please, make the time and go see this film, at the movie theaters. Now I'm going to start playing more Mortal Kombat right this second.
  

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