Out of this world – The Advertiser reviews the South Australian-made Hollywood blockbuster Mortal Kombat

Patrick McDonald reviews the long-awaited Hollywood blockbuster Mortal Kombat – the biggest and most expensive movie ever shot in South Australia.

MORTAL KOMBAT (R)

Public release: April 21

Rating: ****

Heads explode, arms shatter and acid-drooling lizard warriors have their hearts ripped out with gory, gleefully graphic detail in Mortal Kombat, the biggest-budget film ever made in South Australia.

In other words, this ain’t your parents’ Picnic at Hanging Rock – one of the SA Film Corporation’s earliest successes – although it does show off the state’s remote locations as stunning, almost alien vistas.

Around 1700 spectacular visual effects shots created by Adelaide’s many internationally acclaimed studios, in particular Rising Sun Pictures, also elevate the film to international blockbuster standards.

Movies based on video games – with perhaps the notable exception of the first Tomb Raider film – have a terrible track record of disappointing critics and fans alike, and failing to translate to mainstream audiences at the box office.

Lui Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) in a scene from Mortal Kombat. Picture - Warner Bros.

Mortal Kombat succeeds where so many others fall short, in having a solid script and discernible plot, along with some sense of character development and background for the major players.

Surprisingly, this franchise reboot is also hilarious – intentionally so – thanks to the standout performance of actor Josh Lawson as the oh-so-Aussie fighter Kano.

Lawson clearly learned a few tricks playing iconic Australian comedian Paul Hogan in the TV biography Hoges and brings the same dry, laconic wit to this character – only peppered with so much profanity, vulgarity and political incorrectness that it had the premiere audience laughing out loud and even applauding his performance mid-movie.

Tadanobu Asano as Raiden in Mortal Kombat. Picture: Warner Bros

It opens in feudal-era Japan – where, ironically, the Mortal Kombat games have been banned since 1997 for excessive violence.

After a Chinese invader (played by Joe Taslim) with freezing powers kills most of his family, Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) unleashes his blade-swinging fury in the first of many blood-drenched fight sequences, before himself falling victim in a blaze of flames.

Thus begins a centuries-long tournament of good versus evil, and fire versus ice, between the warriors of Earthrealm and Outworld – set on the cratered ochre surface of Coober Pedy.

The story is as timeless as the settings: A team of underdogs must be assembled and undergo a series of tests and battles to discover their true powers and defeat the forces of evil.

Australian actor Josh Lawson as Kano in the SA-produced Hollywood blockbuster Mortal Kombat.

Cole Young (Chinese-English actor Lewis Tan) is a failed cage fighter whose principal power seems to be getting regularly pummelled, until his arcana (secret ability) is revealed as a magic golden shirt which absorbs the kinetic energy from his beatings and allows him to use it back against his foes.

Compatriot Jax (Mehcad Brooks from TV’s Supergirl) gets robot arms, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) eventually gets the arcana she desires, and Kano is finally sent back to gnome-man’s-land with a great sight gag.

This adaptation should entertain and satisfy gamers and action film fans alike – even if its R-rating means younger players won’t be able to see it.

Or will they, like its characters, find a way?