Mortal Kombat

So, after years of lethal "Mortal Kombat" competition "Outworld" is poised to complete it's tenth victory over "Earthrealm" entitling it to take it over. It falls to defender "Rayden" (Christopher Lambert) to recruit three warriors who might just be able to thwart the ambitions of his nemesis - the sorcerer "Shang Tsung" (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). The three he selects would not have been the obvious choice. "Liu Kang" (Robin Shou) and "Sonya Blade" (Bridgette Sampras) are driven by the need for vengeance of their own whilst the outwardly shallow "Johnny Cage" (Linden Ashby) is an actor just out to prove there is more to him than his acting. Can they defeat the champions of "Outworld" and their own demons? It is only 100 minutes long, this - but somehow it seems so much longer. The story takes far too long to get going, the character establishment introduces us to three people that have axes to grind, but they are not particularly interesting or characterful - and neither is their dialogue. The nature of the fight scenes is repetitive and shows a startling lack of imagination as does the really drawn-on look of the special effects. Lambert makes only the briefest of appearances as the guru in the white suit; indeed the star of the show is probably Tagawa who hams up wonderfully as the baddie. The narrative does try to combine action, adventure and mysticism - but neither the writer nor the director have anything like enough flair to make this anything other than a predictable, candle-lit, martial arts flop.