Alright ok lemme give like an actual proper review of MK 2021 now. Be wary of spoilers.
I'll start with the bad stuff first.
This movie unfortunately fails where a lot of videogame movies fail which is trying to streamline a story that has a lot of characters who aren't intrinsically tied to the main plot of the story. I don't ever expect a movie adaptation of a videogame to spit back the exact plot to me verbatim because often times the plots in video games, especially those in a franchise with ensemble casts is structured in a way to cater to storytelling through gameplay; game play that takes hours, days, depending on how many games in a series you are juggling. It's a genuinely difficult task to translate that in an entirely different medium like film.
That being said, I think they went a bit too far with the streamlining with tying everything together to this "arcana" plot device. It's super vague and seems to exist for the sake of plot convenience and not much else. I think part of Mortal Kombat's charm is having these clashing genres framed within this Asian inspired fantasy setting. You're throwing characters like Sonya, Jax and Kano into these magical realms, showing them powers beyond their comprehension so tying these characters directly to the main plotline in a neat little arcana bow feels a little weird and makes it almost too easy for them to fit into the world of mk. The Special Forces and characters related to them should feel a bit out of their element when entering this world and that doesn't really happen here. (Ironically enough mk X & 11 take the opposite approach which ends up leading to the same problem; they focus too much on the SF which bogs down the fantastical elements and again doesn't really leave room for the SF to figure out their way around it all since they apparently have a grasp on everything from the beginning.)
I think there was a missed opportunity for Sonya and Jax to act as surrogates for the audience and have us, through them, be introduced to the more fantasy side of mk, with maybe Raiden being the one to walk them and and the audience through this world (which also solves the problem of how little screentime Raiden got) which leads me to my next point.
Cole was such a pointless character. I get why he exists, to be an audience surrogate so exposition dumping doesn't seem so forced, but as i previously stated, other characters could have easily fit that role. He doesn't have much of a personality outside of "must protect family" and it really bogs down the movie to have so much focus on him. Him being a descendent of Hanzo was also a weird choice. I just think his story was entirely unnecessary.
I don't have much to say negatively about casting and acting. Ludi Lin as Liu Kang was unfortunately the weakest actor there in my opinion. I think they could have strengthened Asano Tadanobu's performance if they just had Raiden speak Japanese. Not much else to say there. Kabal was there I guess.
Lighting round of other stuff i didn't like:
feral reptile
weird pacing, it seemed like the characters were kind not doing much for a good chunk of the movie then suddenly every baddie appeared and starting wrecking shit.
WHERE is Raiden??? At least find a better excuse for his absence my god.
For fucks sake you really gassed up Lao this whole movie just to kill him come on.
Now for what I did enjoy.
I think the choice of having these birthmarks be what determines you going to the tournament is actually a better example of streamlining the story telling in a way that works. I'm not sure I entirely enjoy it's mechanics but it did keep in with the themes that surround Liu Kang and Kung Lao (Kung Lao being born into this destiny via his legacy while Liu Kang being an orphan who basically came from nothing found himself on this path.)
I really enjoyed the casting. I think most of the cast did a pretty fantastic job and anyone I can't say that for I think simply didn't get enough screen time for me to form an opinion on them. Performances that stood out to me especially where Josh Lawson as Kano and Max Huang as Kung Lao, especially since they shared that dinner scene where they both got to play off each other really well.
I know I said i didn't like Ludi Lin's performance, but I did enjoy his chemistry with Kung Lao. I think his performance was strongest when he shared scenes with Huang.
TL/DR I like the characters and their performances, the story they were put in was a bit of a mess. 5/10
