‘Mortal Kombat’ delivers the violence

Posted on April 30, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

Until the recent releases of “Detective Pikachu” and “Sonic the Hedgehog,” there have been very few examples of even decent video games adaptations. The 1995 film, “Mortal Kombat,” based on the violent fighting game franchise, has been a movie I’ve long pointed to as one of the “better” ones, although admittedly, it is much more in the realm of guilty pleasure than actually being good.

So, the new R-rated adaptation of “Mortal Kombat,” which hit theaters and the HBO Max streaming service last weekend, had a relatively low bar to hurdle while simultaneously facing more than two decades of fans’ hopes for a better version.

Now that it is finally here, I can say the new “Mortal Kombat” is a solid video game adaptation that does justice to the game’s bloody action roots, but also suffers from a script that never seems capable of getting out the way of its own story.

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