MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage—or why Outworld’s Sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt him down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies from Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana—the immense power from within his soul—in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?
For in-depth thoughts on Mortal Kombat, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Mortal Kombat comes to Blu-Ray sourced from a scaled down 4K intermediate to fit the 1080p format. The resulting image is truly spectacular to behold. While certainly not as flawless as the 4K UHD likely is (there was a mixup and I could not gain access to this), there is a great amount of depth and clarity to the picture with subtle details coming through clearly. There is some really cool production design featured in the film with the various supernatural locations, which you can really appreciate with this transfer. There are a variety of landscapes presented here with each location providing something exciting to explore. Every location is handled with the precision of a finely authored disc. The film employs a muted color palette for large portions of the movie, but there are bursts of color such as the crimson red of blood. Skin tones all look very natural and provide a good amount of facial detail in close ups. Black levels hold up well with very little in the way of black crush or noise. The few instances of compression artifacts or banding are likely cleaned up on the 4K UHD Blu-Ray, so if you are capable you should likely go with that option.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray comes with a stellar Dolby Atmos audio mix that is completely enveloping and ready to get your walls shaking. This is an incredibly active track that provides all manner of bone-crunching sound effects and an atmospheric score to keep you on edge. There is a ton of activity in the low end that pulses through you in the most sinister of ways. Dialogue is clear but perhaps mixed a little more quiet when compared with the competing sounds. This is not an insurmountable issue, you just might have to click your volume up a couple of notches. There is nearly always something going on in the surrounds, but there is never that much difficulty hearing what everyone is saying. The height channels are used to interesting effect in some of the fights and finishing moves. All of the sounds are coming from the appropriate directions, and there are absolutely no technical issues with the track. This one is all encompassing in the best ways.
Special Features
- Deleted Scenes: Four scenes totaling four minutes of unused material is provided here including a longer Kano story on the plane, Sub-Zero confronting Shang Tsung and more that is worth a look.
- From Game to Screen – Making Mortal Kombat: A nearly 22-minute piece in which key members of the cast and crew share their memories of the video games, discuss the evolution of the storylines in the game, delve into the challenges of adapting the material for the screen in a way that makes sense and pleases fans, and more light insights that make for an enjoyable enough supplement.
- Mortal Kombat – Fan Favorite Characters: Eleven brief featurettes are provided totaling 17 minutes that breaks down each character very briefly with insights from the cast and creative team.
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- Cole Young
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- Sonya Blade
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- Kano
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- Sub-Zero
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- Jax
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- Lord Raiden
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- Scorpion
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- Shang Tsung
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- Liu Kang
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- Kung Lao
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- Mileena
- Fight Koreography: A nine-minute featurette which touches on some of the fights in the film with insights from director Simon McQuoid, second-unit director/stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner, fight choreographer Chan Griffin, and others. This is not the most involved piece, but some of the tidbits are fun.
- Into the Krypt – Easter Eggs of Mortal Kombat: A four-minute look at the material the creative team put into the film for fans of the series. There are some things you may have caught on the first go-around, but there is a lot of new stuff to discover.
- Anatomy Of A Scene: Seven brief featurettes totaling twelve minutes are included here which give an overview of some key moments in the film from shooting to post-production.
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- Hanzo Hasashi v. Bi-Han
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- MMS Fight – Cole v. Ramirez
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- Sonya v. Kano
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- Scorpion v. Sub-Zero
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- Reiko v. Jax
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- Kabal v. Liu Kang
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- Mileena v. Cole
Final Thoughts
Mortal Kombat is not quite the homerun fans wanted it to be, but there is something still a lot of fun about watching this franchise brought to life in such a visceral way. The characters the story decides to focus on would not necessarily be my first choice, but the journey is passable enough to string together the bloody altercations. With some fine-tuning, a sequel could be something that fans could really cheer about. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray with a top-notch A/V presentation and an impressive number of supplemental features. For a passably entertaining, bloody fun time this film gets the job done. Recommended
Mortal Kombat is currently available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
