Games

‘Mortal Kombat’ Misses the Tone of Its Source Material

The new Mortal Kombat movie is another in the long line of video game movies that misinterpret what makes their source materials fun.
Screenshot from Mortal Kombat, Jax shoots a shotgun point-blank at Subzero, who freezes the bullets as they exit the gun.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

For all the attempts Hollywood has made, there’s still a surprisingly low number of good video game movies, and the new Mortal Kombat movie isn’t bucking the trend. While the movie does a passable job at replicating the game’s ultraviolence, a bloated plot with one too many origin stories drags the action down. Largely missing the series’ tongue in cheek humor, it’s a movie that attempts to make a video game story “serious” when the game itself is really anything but. We discuss Mortal Kombat, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…, and more on this episode of Waypoint Radio.

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