As an exercise in pure, shameless fan service, Mortal Kombat (2021) certainly honors not just the 90s video game series it adapts, but also its cinematic predecessors. Shot and lit like a mature TV movie that just happens to be arriving in theaters and via HBO Max this weekend, Mortal Kombat does excel in two areas the franchise used to pull its punches in: this is one bloody, gory, fight simulation with some stupendous choreography. The film deserves a lot of credit for acknowledging this supposedly obvious fact, that what drove kids and adults to countless hours hunting for fatalities was the game’s visceral content and devotion to ultra violence. The previous films certainly took notes from the basic story of the games, but their PG-13 ratings felt like a total misfire, an excuse to dumb down the accessibility of the film’s appeal so they could sell more tickets and toys.