The verdict is in: Mortal Kombat is a pretty fun movie.
Critics and fans alike are praising it for not taking itself or its story too seriously,
but even in that spirit, some aspects of its story suffer from plot holes that can't easily
be brushed aside.
"Mortal Kombat" begins at a dire moment: Outworld will invade if Earthrealm loses one more tournament.
At the same time, an ancient prophecy states that Earthrealm will see new champions arise
"by the rise of Hanzo Hasashi's blood."
With this looming prophecy about Hanzo Hasashi's bloodline, Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung wants
to eliminate the remainder of Earthrealm's warriors before the tournament so it isn't
possible for Earthrealm to win.
The only problem with that plan is that none of it makes sense.
Shang Tsung's conversation with Mileena about the plan is pretty telling — she worries
that Raiden may discover their breakage of "rules set in stone by the Elder Gods," and
he responds that they didn't "win nine straight tournaments by following the rules."
Later, when he invades Lord Raiden's temple with Sub-Zero and Mileena, he is confronted
by Raiden, who notes that "It is forbidden to claim victory until the tournament begins."
Shang Tsung replies with the assertion that the other Gods will be, quote, "too lazy"
to stop him.
There are problems with this logic.
First, Shang Tsung acknowledges they've managed to cheat enough to win nine times in a row
without thus far getting caught.
Why doubt their ability to do so now?
On the other hand, killing Earthrealm warriors outside Mortal Kombat won't win the right
to invade Earthrealm.
Basically, Shang Tsung inexplicably takes a much more complicated, brazen path towards
cheating than just fighting in the tournament like he had before.
It's not like his winning record needs the help.
And if he's going to cheat anyway, why now?
Why not earlier, between tournaments when Earth's marked defenders would be teenagers,
or even younger?
None of it quite adds up.
Liu Kang says that his charge is to gather all the champions of Earth.
The trouble is that he's extremely bad at his job.
We become aware through conversations between Sonya and Cole that she and Jax had long been
aware of a number of marked champions.
We're also told that many of those champions are dead, since Liu Kang notes "there are
not many of us with the markings left."
The series of events that brings our group of champions together is due to Sub-Zero finding
Cole first, bringing him, Jax, and Sonya together -- but not without first almost killing Jax
and Cole.
Meanwhile Cole, Sonya, and Kano make their way towards the temple of Lord Raiden because
Sonya just happens to be part of a group who has connected all these dots, and Kano happens
to know the location of Lord Raiden's temple.
When they get there — no thanks to Liu Kang — he seems surprised to see them, saying,
"At last!
Finally, you have come to seek out Raiden's temple."
Despite the apparent urgency of needing to gather all the champions of Earth for an all-important
Tournament that's about a month away, Liu Kang was seemingly content to just sit around
and wait on the off chance it all worked out.
For someone charged with bringing together Earthrealm's champions, at no point did Liu
Kang find, bring, or train any champions.
Meanwhile, other marked champions seem to be dying all the time, and we have no evidence
he intervened at any point to gather or protect them.
The entire reason it all worked out is because Cole was saved by Jax, shepherded by the unmarked
Sonya, and guided by the untrustworthy Kano (who isn't even supposed to have the mark).
So If Liu Kang really is supposed to be gathering the heroes of Earthrealm, he's absolutely
and completely terrible at it.
When Sonya Blade, Cole Young, and Kano arrive at Lord Raiden's temple, Liu Kang and Kung
Lao immediately take to training them.
Cole, Kano, and Jax each have the dragon mark.
With Jax recovering from his minor arm injury, the more experienced warriors take to training
Cole and Kano.
The issue: Kano from the get-go is a rough, disrespectful, power-hungry narcissist with
a criminal background.
They train him with the rest of the warriors until they discover his arcana — and he
easily becomes persuaded by Shang Tsung's forces with the promise of more power.
He compromises the defenses of Lord Raiden's temple, and engages the heroes in combat with
the arcana they helped him attain.
Here's the complication with training anyone who enters the temple: warriors can absolutely
change sides and betray Earthrealm with their powers, helping Outworld's conquest of the
realm.
With a small number of fighters, losing one to the other side is a pretty big change in
the balance of forces.
Why, then, train literally anyone as soon as they enter, especially if they seem like
a shady character?
When Sonya Blade meets Cole, the first thing she wants to know is if he has the dragon
mark.
When she, Cole, and Kano arrive at Lord Raiden's temple, they're reminded repeatedly how important
the marking is.
Raiden reinforces to Cole how without his arcana — which one needs the Mark to get
— he's really of no use to the fight.
Liu Kang repeatedly reiterates how you're a liability without being chosen and having
your Arcana.
Mileena even refuses to kill Sonya because, without the mark, she has no value in the
scheme of the struggle between realms.
With all this in mind: why is Sonya even there?
She's a great character and a pivotal part of the plot but, in terms of the story, it
doesn't make sense.
She's let into Raiden's temple, and though Kung Lao does forbid her from actively training
with the others, she's still basically involved with the entirety of the conflict with Shang
Tsung.
She's even pulled by Raiden into his void to prepare for the team's final battle plan,
which happens before she duels Kano, kills him, and finally gains the mark.
Given the rules that are continually reinforced, and the strict messaging that people without
arcana are a liability, Sonya's deep involvement with Raiden's group of warriors makes no sense.
When Cole meets Sonya, they have one strange guest tied to a chair: Kano.
Sonya explains that he had just been caught after killing the fate-chosen champion they'd
previously been looking for, thus securing a mark for himself.
At this point, Jax had already gained a dragon mark, but Sonya had not.
Regardless, Sonya knows through her research the importance of the marks for signifying
Earth's champion defenders in the Mortal Kombat tournament, and that the tournament is pivotal
in protecting Earthrealm.
She knows the stakes are high, that not having a mark impedes her ability to fight for Earth.
And she also knows that killing a mark-bearer transfers the mark to the victor.
Sonya had all this knowledge while maintaining the upper hand on a criminal scumbag like
Kano who had just killed a champion of Earth.
Also, at this point, Sonya isn't aware that he knows the location of Lord Raiden's temple.
There is no clear reason to keep him around as a prisoner who killed one of Earth's champions,
especially when the stakes are so high and he has the mark that would allow her to protect
the Earth instead of him.
Heroes are often written to avoid killing out of some kind of personal moral code, but
this is "Mortal Kombat," and Sonya's background as a soldier is a testament to her willingness
to kill threats when necessary.
With all of this in mind, capturing Kano rather than taking his mark was an inexplicable choice
for her character to make.
Moreover, had she killed him, Earth would have had one more champion against the apocalypse
— and one less enemy of humanity.
The new "Mortal Kombat" film introduces a further innovation to the "MK" universe, beyond
the creation of Cole Young: arcana.
The dragon markings mean you're a chosen champion, and chosen champions spend the movie struggling
to activate their arcana: in other words, their unique power.
Arcana is unique to the individual — it can be Kano's laser eye, Liu Kang's fire powers,
Cole's brass armor and weapons, or something else entirely.
It's unpredictable, powerful ... and woefully unclear.
Liu Kang informs Kano, Cole, and Sonya of the importance of having a marking and finding
your personal arcana.
As he explains to everyone, "If you fail to discover your inner power, you will never
defeat your opponent."
He even directly addresses a comment to Sonya -- but it's terribly unclear why he's even
talking to Sonya because she can't discover her power and doesn't have a mark.
Later, Liu Kang clarifies that the fighters' inner power comes from the arcana, and that
the point of their training is to unlock that power.
How does that work?
Well, there's a variety of competing explanations.
He first explains that they'll discover their arcana by training in the fight pit.
Later, he clarifies that the arcana's activation must come from their soul, and whatever it
is that drives them.
Later still, he says that "Pain is the ultimate catalyst" towards finding the arcana.
This all effectively means that the warriors' arcanas all manifest in random and very individual
ways, making it seem like a pointless thing to train for.
Liu Kang seems entirely convinced that arcana manifests from pain in the process of training
in the pits, but that's not what activates arcana for almost any character.
Cole's emerges from his daughter's strength bracelet.
If she didn't make that, would his arcana be entirely different?
Furthermore, the relationship between getting the mark and getting the arcana is seemingly
random.
Liu Kang kills a child trafficker on assignment and gets his arcana immediately in the process.
Sonya gets her mark and her arcana by killing Kano.
Kano got his from his ego being wounded.
Cole is born with his mark and no fights nor dangers activate his arcana until his family
is in danger.
Jax kills someone to get his mark ... and doesn't get arcana until his arms are ripped
off, he's supernaturally given new arms, and Sonya's endangered.
Why is the emergence so randomly timed, and the form so arbitrary?
And why does Liu Kang think it's related to fighting when it isn't?
As far as protectors of Earthrealm go, Raiden is quite inconsistent.
In Hanzo Hasashi's life, Raiden doesn't intervene when Bi-Han kills him, and he allows the assassin
to kill much of his family.
But then he shows up to collect Hanzo's infant daughter to protect his lineage, and keeps
his kunai to facilitate Scorpion's later emergence when Earthrealm needed it most.
Basically, Raiden continually asserts he's "not allowed to intervene," despite the fact
that he keeps intervening anyway.
The biggest inconsistency, however, is when Shang Tsung and his fighters arrive in Raiden's
temple in force, and Raiden essentially pauses the fight to pull the Earthrealm defenders
into the void between realms.
Some of them, anyway.
Due to Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung's counterattacks, he doesn't manage to immediately teleport
Cole or Kung Lao, the latter of whom gets his soul gruesomely consumed by Shang Tsung.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Kang and Cole are teleported away.
Jax asks Raiden why he couldn't save him, to which Raiden replies, "Elder Gods are forbidden
from engaging in one realm's war against another ... it is my job to protect Earthrealm but
I cannot save every soul within it."
But he literally did just engage in the war by teleporting people away to regroup, in
a tide-turning move that proves to be extremely successful.
Raiden intervened so much that he managed to save every other Earthrealm champion.
He even pulls Kung Lao's Razor-Rimmed Hat into the teleportation lightning at the last
second, just not the warrior himself.
Poor guy.
"Flawless victory."
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