Gabbo Esparza

As a massive fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise, I actually had fun with this movie. Is it perfect? No. The plot sort of slows down during the 2nd act, only to whoosh by in the 3rd act. But other than that, this is not a bad way to start off a potential Mortal Kombat cinematic universe. The acting and dialogue won't win awards, but the cast do fine with the material given. At best, a lot of the characters generally come off as identical to their game counterparts in terms of look, personality, and overall backstories. The visuals look great for a low budget, but at the end of the day, you're watching Mortal Kombat for the action and gore, and it truly delivers on that aspect. Sure, the fight scenes aren't exactly John Wick or The Raid (then again, 1995's fight scenes weren't exactly Jackie Chan or Jet Li, and they were still great), but they are entertaining and appropriately brutal. When it comes to Mortal Kombat movies, definitely better than Annihilation, but is it truly better than the 1995 film? Sort of debatable, but I still enjoyed the film for what it was, and I wouldn't mind seeing more films if they improve on this.

Definitely the best video game movie, and while it may not be saying much considering that most video game movies are bad, I still love this film. Sure, the acting and writing aren't Oscar material, and the special FX are pretty dated by today's standards, but the casting is spot-on, the fight scenes are well done, the production design and photography are stylish, the soundtrack is awesome, and it actually follows the game in terms of plot and tone (minus the lack of gore). A childhood favorite of mine too.

One of the best bad movies you will ever see. Sure, it adapts the game very loosely, and for a movie called Street Fighter, there is a severe lack of actual street fighting... But it's campy fun, and Raul Julia as M. Bison makes the film worth watching.