The year is 2026, and Mortal Kombat 2 is finally upon us. As such, it led me to revisit Mortal Kombat, the 2021 reboot of the classic video game franchise. I wasn’t just revisiting it out of some completionist need either, because I definitely had seen the film before. I know I had. The pandemic years were kind of a blur, but I remembered enough to know I’d watched it, while somehow remembering almost nothing about what actually happened. That’s never a great sign for a movie, and it’s exactly why I wanted to give it another shot before diving into the sequel.
Perhaps part of the problem is that the 1995 Mortal Kombat still casts a surprisingly long shadow. As far as video game movies of the ‘90s go, it’s honestly one of the better ones. Put it up against Street Fighter, Double Dragon, or the original Super Mario Bros., and it’s really not much of a contest. Mortal Kombat comes out on top. Then, of course, it had a sequel, and much like Encanto doesn’t want to talk about Bruno, nobody who has seen Mortal Kombat: Annihilation really wants to talk about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation either, except to collectively respond with a simple, “No.”
Then we get to our lead character, Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan. Who the hell is Cole? I actually had to look this up because I genuinely didn’t know who he was. You might assume that’s because I’m blind, but blind people actually play a lot of Mortal Kombat. Fighting games are largely about memorizing button combinations, timing, and audio cues, so they’re far more accessible than many people realize. I also played plenty of the games back when I could see. As it turns out, Cole isn’t one of the longtime game characters at all. He’s an original character created specifically for the movie. That’s certainly a creative decision. I’m not convinced it’s the best one, but I respect them for trying something different instead of simply retelling the same story beat for beat.
The film actually opens with one of its strongest sequences, diving into the centuries-old rivalry between Hanzo Hasashi, who eventually becomes Scorpion, and Bi-Han, the warrior who becomes Sub-Zero. Rather than immediately throwing us into a tournament, the movie spends time establishing family, betrayal, revenge, and the bloodline that eventually leads to Cole becoming one of Earth’s chosen fighters. It’s surprisingly dramatic, and it immediately signals that this version wants to build mythology instead of simply delivering nonstop action.
That’s probably the biggest difference between the 1995 film and this reboot. The original more or less assumes you’ve played the games, introduces everyone, and gets straight to the tournament. This version wants to explain everything. It expands the lore surrounding Raiden, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Jax Briggs, Kano, and the rest of the cast, presenting their relationships as part of an ancient conflict that’s been unfolding for generations. The biggest surprise, though, is that despite being called Mortal Kombat, nobody actually enters Mortal Kombat. Instead, Shang Tsung sends assassins like Sub-Zero, Mileena, Reiko, Nitara, Kabal, and Prince Goro to eliminate Earth’s champions before the tournament can even begin. In a strange way, this almost feels like a prequel. The actual tournament is being saved for later, while this movie is focused on getting everyone ready for what’s coming.
Eventually, the setup gives way to exactly what you’d expect. The characters unlock their Arcana powers, discover their signature abilities, fatalities begin flying, and the movie happily embraces its R rating. Once the fighting starts, the story mostly steps aside in favor of spectacularly violent combat. Heads roll, spines are ripped out, bodies are sliced apart, and the filmmakers clearly understand that Mortal Kombat fans expect outrageous gore. Thankfully, they don’t hold back.
The cast is perfectly fine for what this movie needs. This isn’t the kind of project where Warner Bros. was going to spend a fortune assembling a roster of A-list stars. Instead, they found actors who looked believable throwing punches and delivering martial arts choreography. Mehcad Brooks stood out to me as Jax because I’d seen him in enough other projects over the years, while most of the rest of the cast were either less familiar or people whose names I only really recognized after looking them up. Honestly, that’s pretty much what the 1995 movie did too. It wasn’t about finding Oscar winners. It was about finding actors who were convincing enough to make this ridiculous premise work.
Even though I still roll my eyes a little at the decision to make the entire plot revolve around preventing Earth’s champions from even reaching Mortal Kombat, it’s impossible to complain too much when Mortal Kombat: Annihilation exists. That movie is so spectacularly awful that it has become the measuring stick for terrible video game adaptations. It’s genuinely one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, so almost anything clears that incredibly low bar. Yes, it’s funny that a movie called Mortal Kombat doesn’t actually feature the Mortal Kombat tournament. It just features a whole lot of fighting. Fine. I’m here for it.
Looking back from 2026, I actually think the timing changes how I feel about this movie. If I’d only been reviewing it back in 2021, I probably would’ve been harsher because it spends so much time setting up something that never happens. But now we know there’s a sequel, and that makes this feel much more like the first chapter of a larger story instead of an incomplete one. If this eventually becomes a full trilogy, I think this first film will age better because it’s doing the heavy lifting of introducing the mythology, the characters, and preparing everyone for the tournament itself. Had Warner Bros. never greenlit Mortal Kombat 2, though, this would’ve been a much riskier creative decision.
The audio description is excellent and easily one of the highlights for me. From that brutal opening Scorpion sequence onward, it keeps up with every punch, every blade strike, every fatality, and every gruesome moment without losing the rhythm of the action. Mortal Kombat is a franchise built around visual spectacle, and the audio description does an outstanding job translating that spectacle into something blind and low vision audiences can fully appreciate. It matches the film beat for beat, never feeling like it’s struggling to keep up with the chaos unfolding on screen.
On this rewatch, I definitely enjoyed Mortal Kombat more than I expected. There were occasional moments where I suddenly remembered I’d seen a particular scene before, but the movie as a whole never completely came flooding back to me. That tells me it simply didn’t leave the lasting impression that the 1995 film did. Still, the original was PG-13, while this one fully embraces the franchise’s ultraviolent identity. I’ve wanted Mortal Kombat to lean into that side of itself for years, and this movie finally does. Is it great cinema? No. It’s Mortal Kombat. Great cinema has never really been the assignment. Entertaining cinema is. Even if I question some of its storytelling choices, I can borrow a line from Maximus in Gladiator and simply say: I am entertained. And after more than 30 years of playing Mortal Kombat, I suppose my soul still belongs to this franchise.
Fresh: 6.8/10
