MotW: Mortal Kombat

It took some time for me to get around to watch this one, but it just came out on my regional Netflix so it was less of a hassle to watch it. Couldn't say I was surprised since it turned out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be. Here's my thought on it:

"Making a film adaptation for Mortal Kombat seems impossible to me. It is a game series that lives on its aesthetic of executing the other player in the most creative and shocking ways possible, it is pretty awesome. So how does this translate to the big screen? It just plain and simple does not translate. There are not any fatalities in this movie. There are characters who say the word "fatality", but it is not remotely the same thing here. People die of punches to the head, breaking necks off screen and other non-bloody ways. This is Mortal Kombat for fucks sake, we want to see violence and gore, but I get it. In the 90's it was mostly kids and teenagers playing these games so the movie needs to be more kid friendly, and this is where this whole concepts dies. It is not possible to make a kid friendly Mortal Kombat movie and have it be good. Paul W.S. Anderson did his best and while it is sort of fun to get all of the game references such as the theme song, fatality, flawless victory etc. It still is just a mess of a movie, but it could have been much worse I guess. Anderson loves leaving his movies on cliffhangers so I was not surprised when this movie also ended with one. I found this movie slightly enjoyable and entertaining. The characters are well cast, but the special effects are god awful since they have aged horribly. Overall I think the Street Fighter movie is worse." 2/5