My Thoughts on "Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match 🐉🥊"
Well, I finally watched Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match 🐉🥊, another 2023 movie that I missed out on and didn't get to include in my 2023 New Year's Eve Recap. And what did I think of it? It was okay. Not bad, not good, just okay. I honestly liked Snow Blind 🐉❄️ a lot better, Snow Blind 🐉❄️ was a way better movie than this was. It even did the whole "cocky hero gets humbled" thing a lot better. Johnny Cage doesn't even really get humbled in this movie. He's still the egotistical dickhole that he was at the beginning.
However, despite me saying that, I actually didn't think Cage was that bad in this movie. I kind of expected him to be a lot more annoying than he actually was. But, he's still kind of annoying because of cocky and egotistical he is throughout this thing. And the worst part is that he's actually rewarded for his cockiness, for his narcissism, because they pretty much make him the Chosen One. Yes, this movie really did go for the Chosen One trope, I can't believe it either. They pretty much kept the same backstory for him that the reboot games gave him where he's descended from some ancient civilization or some weird cult, and he's like from a special lineage. That's why he has that glowing green power thing that he does when he's kicking or punching someone.
I was never really that crazy about that backstory. I felt that it made Johnny Cage more important than he actually was. I mean, he is an important character, but he's not the most important character. I just preferred him as a regular human like he was in the Original Timeline. Yes, he did have that same ability, but they didn't really explain why he had that ability. He just did, and they just left it at that. They didn't even make it seem like that power was good enough for him to be able to defeat gods. It just made him kick a little harder than usual.
The reboot games just gave him that weird backstory just so that they could have excuse to make him more of a superman. Like, they couldn't just have a regular guy with no powers on the roster, and he kind of already did have a power (kind of), so they just said, "Fuck it, we'll make him superhuman. We'll say that he's descended from some ancient civilization or some weird cult, and call it a day. We'll even have him defeat Shinnok, a literal god, singlehandedly and replace Liu Kang as the main hero of the franchise."
And because these animated movies mostly just take stuff from the reboot games, Cage Match 🐉🥊 just stuck with this nonsensical backstory and explanation for why Johnny Cage has powers. They even had him defeat Shinnok in the movie too just like he did in Mortal Kombat X. Which surprisingly didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but I still question why Shinnok even was the bad guy in the first place. Like, why is Shinnok the main bad guy again?
They already had him as the main bad guy in Battle of the Realms, why have him again? I don't hate Shinnok, but he's not one of my favorite villains in the franchise. There are other villains that I prefer over him. In my mind, Shinnok and his storyline in Mortal Kombat 4 was just a stepping stone to get the more exciting stuff in the Original Timeline like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Deception gave us the best villain of them all, Onaga. So, having Shinnok again, instead of having a different bad guy is kind of a waste. And even though Johnny Cage defeating Shinnok in this didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would, the fact that he did kind of reduces the threat level of Shinnok. It makes Shinnok look kind of weak and pathetic that he could be taken out by little ole Johnny. Like, why even have Liu Kang and Sub-Zero ❄️ assemble a team to defeat Shinnok, when Johnny can just defeat him all by himself? So, yeah, Shinnok was a pretty weak villain in this movie, even if he did have a cool voice.
And it's all in service of Johnny. We have to make Johnny look good, and make everyone else look lamer and weaker by comparison. Like, everyone fawns over Johnny in this movie at one point or another. If they aren't a bad guy, and if they aren't working with the Brotherhood of Shadow, then they love him. It's so ridiculous. This whole movie feels like a Johnny Cage circle jerk. It feels like a vanity project for a fictional character who doesn't actually exist in real life. Even Ashrah praises Johnny, like at one point she says that he's handsome, and then later on towards the end, she says that he helped her become more human, or see why humans are great and worth protecting, and then she kisses him.
Speaking of Ashrah, I actually liked her a lot in this movie. She was probably my favorite character in all of this. Should've been about her in all honestly. I would've taken an Ashrah movie over a Johnny Cage movie any day of the week. I don't like that outfit she wears for most of this. Those shoulder pads looked ugly as hell. And I don't like that they essentially made her Johnny Cage's love interest 😍, like come on. She deserves better than just being a squeeze for that egotistical jerk! I'm sure their relationship didn't last, if they even had a relationship after that kiss.
The narration implied that they didn't because Ashrah has actual important things to do, and doesn't have time to a trophy wife for Johnny Cage. Because Johnny Cage in this movie mostly just sees women ♀︎ as sex objects, as he's always looking another hot chick ♀︎ to fuck. He definitely thinks with his dick in this movie. Speaking of narration though, that's another thing about this movie. They had Johnny Cage do a voice over and narrate the entire thing. It's another way that this movie tried to turn him into the dollar store Deadpool. I don't like it when they do that with his character, when they just make him like a way less funny Deadpool, and this movie went there with him.
They even had him crack some fourth wall breaking jokes. This movie gets so meta sometimes that kind of gets a bit obnoxious. Like, at the end, Johnny talks about how they made him into a video game, but it got banned because of the violence wink wink 😉, and they show actual footage from the very first Mortal Kombat game from 1992. So, you're telling me that the Mortal Kombat games actually exist within this world? What? It was unnecessary. This movie did not need fourth wall jokes, and it didn't need to make Johnny into a cheaper version of Deadpool. The games don't need to do that either. The franchise in general just needs to stop making Johnny Cage like Deadpool.
Anyway, back to Ashrah. One thing that did surprise me about how they decided to depict her in this movie is that they have her working for Raiden ⚡️. You see, when she was first introduced in Deception, and they first unveiled her design, the fans thought that she was connected to Raiden ⚡️ somehow, or that she was a female Raiden ♀︎⚡️. Just like how they essentially made a female Sub-Zero ♀︎❄️ with Frost ❄️ in Deadly Alliance.
So, this is the first time that they actually had these two characters associated with each other in any way. Bringing it back around, and confirming what the fans speculated when Ashrah was first introduced. Or maybe the people who made this movie specifically looked at Ashrah and thought, "Hey, she kind of looks like Raiden ⚡️, why don't we have her work for him as a member of the White Lotus?" It could be that too. She still has the same backstory though. She's still a reformed demon from the Netherrealm, who became more human after she cleansed herself of her inner evil. I even think she redeemed herself using that same Kriss sword that she used in Deception. It's just that now she's a member of the White Lotus, and is the protégé of Raiden ⚡️. And in case you're wondering, no, Raiden ⚡️ does not participate in the final battle. He's only in one scene in this entire movie, and it's the scene where he talks to Ashrah, and she tells him about Johnny Cage.
They can't have him meet Johnny Cage yet, since this is supposed to be a prequel, I guess. They change so many things, and there are so many inconsistencies that it's hard to consider this movie a prequel. Honestly, they would've been better off just having this movie be purely stand alone, and be completely self contained, with no connection to the previous films whatsoever. That way, they could've actually had Raiden ⚡️ meet Johnny Cage, and have him contribute in the final fight.
I don't even know why they even bothered having all of these movies be connected in the first place. They don't even have strong continuity even when they are all connected. This movie is so stupid, it is so ridiculous, and nonsensical that you cannot tell me that it takes place in the continuity as Scorpion's Revenge 🦂🔥, Battle of the Reams, and Snow Blind ❄️🐉. Especially, Snow Blind ❄️🐉, Snow Blind ❄️🐉 is the complete tonal opposite of Cage Match 🐉🥊.
There are couple of celebrity voices in here. The two main ones being Jennifer Hale and Gilbert Gottfried. Jennifer Hale plays a character who's called Jennifer throughout most of this movie, until it's revealed towards the end that she's actually Sareena. Yes, that Sareena, the Brotherhood of Shadow assassin herself, or as I like to call her, the most overhyped Mortal Kombat character ever. Seriously, people love Sareena so much 😍, and they've wanted her to be a playable character in the main line fighting games, and I just don't understand why. What's so special about her? She really isn't all that remarkable of a character, especially compared to the other female characters ♀︎ in Mortal Kombat. And yet, people love her for some reason, and have always requested her be a playable character in the games. Anyway, they decided to include her in this movie because of the unearned popularity that she has.
However, they changed her design significantly just so that she could more closely resemble Jennifer Hale. As a result, Sareena doesn't look or feel like Sareena at all. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell that it was her if they didn't say her name. I just hate what they did with her hair in this. They tried to do that white streak in her hair, but it just looks bad. It looks bad with that big poofy 80s hair that they gave her in this. Now, why did they make her Jennifer Hale in this? Why did they cast Jennifer Hale in this movie, and essentially have her play herself, and then have her play Sareena in some secret surprise twist role? Because this movie's an 80s homage, and Jennifer Hale was one of the biggest actresses of the decade. That's really the only reason why. That's straight from the filmmakers' mouths.
It would be like if they cast Heather Locklear as Sonya Blade, and they just had her play herself for most of it, and then do some stupid big reveal that she was actually Sonya the whole time. And the only reason I even know who Heather Locklear is because of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Return of Swamp Thing. I haven't actually watched The Return of Swamp Thing, I've just seen Brandon Tenold's review of it.
To me, there was no real good reason to have Jennifer Hale voice Sareena and have Sareena essentially just be her. She could've been voiced by anyone, and she probably would've all the better for it since she wouldn't be tied to an actual celebrity. Because it really seemed from watching the special features that they casted her because they wanted her.
It's not that they thought that she was perfect for the role as Sareena, no, they casted her just because they wanted her specifically to be in it. That's why they altered Sareena's design and personality just so that she could be more like Jennifer Hale. To justify paying the amount of money 💵 they did getting her to voice the character that clearly didn't care that much about. They cared more about Jennifer Hale, and having her name, having the celebrity, and they picked a random Mortal Kombat character for her to play just to so that she can have someone to play and so that she isn't just playing herself. But again, that's essentially what they did anyway.
So, it was all pointless. Sareena did not need to be voiced by Jennifer Hale. She could have been voiced by anyone, and they probably would've saved more money 💵 that way. Talk about miscast. She isn't even all that great in the role, like really she doesn't add anything to the role. The movie didn't benefit from having her in the role. If you are going to cast celebrities in animated films, actually make it worth it. Don't just cast celebrities in these roles just you want famous names to slap on the cover or put in the credits. Otherwise, just cast really good and qualified voice actors, people who voice act for a living, and spend their careers doing voice work. Like Tara Strong or Grey DeLisle could have easily voiced Sareena in this movie instead of Jennifer Hale. It probably would've been better for it.
Speaking of celebrity voice actors that don't really add anything and didn't really need to be in this movie, what about Gilbert Gottfried? What was his final role like? It was fine. I mean, it's Gilbert Gottfried doing his usual shtick. Not the most dignified final role for him, but it is certainly a dignified final role than being in an AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd) video. I said this before, but it would've been a lot more embarrassing for him if that AVGN video he did was the last thing he ever did before he died.
Similar to Jennifer Hale, I don't really think Gilbert Gottfried needed to be in this movie. It really seemed like they only casted these celebrities in these roles just for the sake of having celebrities, specifically 80s celebrities since this is supposed to be an 80s movie. The movie doesn't benefit from having in there, they're just there because they were famous in the 80s and they're just trying to be funny and cute because this movie's a comedy and they think they're so clever. They aren't. But, that being said, I didn't think Gilbert Gottfried was that bad in this movie.
I know that Gilbert Gottfried is not everyone's cup of tea, and he annoys a lot of people, or he annoyed a lot of people before he passed away, but he does an okay job with what he was given, even if he's just doing his usual shtick, but with more F bombs. I thought I was going to find him a lot more annoying than I ended up. I didn't expect him to play a villain though. I thought he was going to be like Johnny Cage's loud obnoxious wisecracking and foul mouthed sidekick, or just some random bystander who Johnny Cage bumps into along way like the tour bus driver. But, no, he's actually kind of a major character in this movie, he's a big part of Johnny Cage's backstory, at least the way he tells; unreliable narrator and all.
And on top of that, he's a villain, a demon from the Netherrealm, who had cozied up to Johnny, groomed him, and manipulated him into becoming a movie star and signing onto Ninja Mime (this fake movie that they set up) as way of luring him into the Brotherhood of Shadow, so that he can be sacrificed and his blood 🩸 can be used to free Shinnok from the Netherrealm. That's the plot of the movie basically. Johnny Cage is working on a movie, so he can finally his big break and become the movie star he always to be. But, it turns out the whole thing was a setup by the Brotherhood of Shadow to capture him, take him to their mansion, and sacrifice him in order to release Shinnok from the Netherrealm so that he can ravage Earthrealm 🌎.
That's another thing that I noticed is that throughout the movie, when characters talk about the Netherrealm, they just say Netherrealm, "Like, she's from Netherrealm" or "We need to send him back to Netherrealm." It's not Netherrealm, it's the Netherrealm, get it right you guys. Netherrealm has always had "the" before it since the beginning. The only time that Netherrealm didn't have a "the" in front of it is when we talk about Netherrealm Studios, the studio that currently owns the Mortal Kombat franchise and produces all of the games, ever since Midway went under. It's just a tiny nitpick, but it kind of bugged me that they kept saying Netherrealm instead of the Netherrealm.
There are other Mortal Kombat characters that appear in here, but most of them are brief cameos. Like, Moloch and Drahmin, two characters that were introduced in Deadly Alliance, appear for a few seconds, and then are never seen again. Like, they show in the final battle because of that portal that the Brotherhood of Shadow opened up. We see them front and center, but we never actually see them fight. We don't see their dead bodies. They just straight up disappear.
Why even show them at all if you're not even going to use them? Just have easter egg? Come on. I might be speaking for myself here, but I would like to think that Mortal Kombat fans expect more than that. If you are going to include these characters in these movies, then use them, have them do stuff. Even if it's just in the background, or a few seconds. Don't just show them for a single frame, and then never show them again. That's stupid. It's pointless, it's a waste of time. It's a waste of time, and it's a waste of animation.
Snow Blind ❄️🐉 did this too where put Drahmin in there for a brief cameo, but at least there, we actually sort of saw him fight, before Kenshi or Scorpion 🔥🦂 killed him. I don't remember which of those two characters in that movie killed him, but one of them killed him. Again, all I can say is that if these animated Mortal Kombat movie insist on including Drahmin, then at least give him something to do. Make him an actual major character, a major villain. Don't have him be a cameo. Because I like Drahmin. He was one of the cooler characters introduced in Deadly Alliance and the 3D era as a whole.
Jataaka and Kia get a little bit more to do in this movie, like they are actual villains, actual major characters in the movie, but they both killed right away. And they both die in very humiliating ways. Kia dies from getting run over by a bus 🚌, and Jataaka dies from being lit on fire 🔥, and then getting decapitated by Johnny doing a spin kick. The bus driver who drove the bus 🚌 that ran over Kia even mistakes her for a pigeon. How the hell do you mistake a 5 foot woman ♀︎ for a pigeon? That's way too much blood 🩸 for it just be a pigeon. I don't know, all the human characters in this movie are kind of stupid, like they're all idiots, Johnny Cage included. I would've liked it if they lasted a little while longer all the way to the end. At least, Jataaka got a little bit more time to shine, she's only other character in this movie that I liked and that I felt was done justice. I like what they did with her way more than what they did with Sareena that's for sure. And for her to die in such a demeaning way at the hands of Johnny Cage is kind of annoying to me.
This movie also introduced a new character, kind of, named Chuck. I say kind of because he's not really a new character at all, but I'll get to that in a moment. He's Johnny Cage's assistant and he's like super obsessed with him. He idolizes him and he believes everything he says. Johnny Cage could be telling him complete lies, or could embellishing his story with fake details, and he'd still believe him. He even listens to him when he's giving him horrible advice. Johnny Cage gives Chuck some really bad advice, about women ♀︎, about the movie business, and just about life in general.
But, Chuck just blindly follows him and believes everything he says like a little puppy 🐶. He's a fanboy that became his assistant. I found Chuck to be pretty annoying at quite a few points. But, at least, he's still kind of a good person, who's genuinely trying to do the right thing. He's a better person than Johnny that's for sure. Let that sink in. He's a better guy than his hero. But then, at the end it turns out that Chuck is not actually a new character. He's not a character who was created specifically for this movie as I initially thought going in. He's actually a reimagined take on an old character. He's Mokap, a joke character that was first introduced in Deadly Alliance, and is widely considered by most of the fanbase to be one of the worst characters in the entire franchise. Yes, they really did make him Mokap. I don't really know why, but they did. But whatever, it's not that big of a deal.
Lastly, I'll talk about the 80s thing, the thing that this whole movie was based around and was sold on in the marketing. After watching it, I can confidently say that this movie did not need to take place in the 80s. This movie really could have been set in any decade, there was no specific or necessary reason why it needed to be set in the 80s. Even the reasons the filmmakers gave for why they decided to set the movie in the 1980s were pretty weak.
Like, yes, Mortal Kombat was inspired by 80s cinema like Bloodsport 🩸, Big Trouble in Little China, Lionheart, The Terminator, Robocop, Predator, the original Star Wars trilogy (The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are the only ones that were released in the 80s), and by more general film trends in the 80s like the ninja craze 🥷, but it is still fundamentally a 90s franchise. The first few games came out in the 90s, and the 90s are the decade that the franchise is the most associated with. 1995 was the year of Mortal Kombat because of the live action movie, the animated tie-in movie, the third game, the animated series, and that live stage tour, among other things. People don't associate Mortal Kombat with the 80s, they just don't.
I said this before in the note above my review of Snow Blind ❄️🐉, but it's just like Transformers. Transformers is an 80s franchise, it started out in the 80s, and people associate it the most with the 80s. So, even if all the 80s nostalgia in Bumblebee 🐝 was overdone and obnoxious, it still made sense why it was set in the 80s since that's where the Transformers franchise came from. It wouldn't have made much sense to have a Transformers movie set in the 70s or 60s, or the Victorian era or the 40s during World War II like they initially planned when they plotting out these different spin-offs and prequels for the failed Transformers cinematic universe they were trying kickstart with Transformers: The Last Knight.
Those were real, they did actually try to make a Transformers movie set in the 1800s and one set during World War II. That's why they put that World War II flashback scene in The Last Knight. It was put there to set up that future prequel film that would show Bumblebee 🐝's time fighting in World War II against the Axis and the Decepticons, who were in cahoots with the Axis (specifically the Nazis). Those prequels and that whole cinematic universe didn't pan out for a variety of reasons, but I have feeling that even the people making them realized that setting a Transformers movie in either of those two time periods really didn't make a whole lot of sense.
To go even further against the filmmakers' arguments for setting this movie in the 80s, what if you had a video game franchise that was started in the 2000s, and yet it was inspired by movies from the 90s. Would that make it a 2000s franchise or a 90s franchise? And would that be enough of a justification to make a movie based on that video game that was set in the 90s? Or would make more sense for it to be set in the 2000s, the decade it actually started in, the decade that it's entrenched in, and the decade that it's the most associated with? I would go with the later answer than the former.
Personally, I would've preferred if this movie was set in the 90s. Not just because Mortal Kombat is a 90s franchise and it would've made more sense for this movie to be set in the 90s, but also because I'm just sick of the 80s. I'm sick of the 80s being overrepresented in movies and TV shows, I'm sick of 80s nostalgia being everywhere, and I'm sick of people (mostly Boomers and Xers) fawning over the 80s and calling it the best decade. The 1980s truly is the most overrated decade of all time.
It is not the best decade I can tell that much. The best decade is actually the 1990s, with the 2000s coming in at a close second. It's really a toss up for me between those two decades. Speaking of which, if I really had my way, and I could choose any decade for this movie or any other Mortal Kombat movie to be set in, it'd be the 2000s. After all, that was the decade of the 3D era, the era of Mortal Kombat that I grew up, and the era that most of the characters in this film are actually from. Ashrah is a 3D era character, so is Moloch, so is Drahmin, so is Mokap, and so is Shinnok, Sareena, Jataaka, and Kia technically.
Yes, I know those last three were introduced in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero ❄️, and that's not a 3D game and isn't considered apart of the 3D era, but Shinnok ended up being in Mortal Kombat 4, and both of those games were released the same year, 1997, the same year the second movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was released. Plus, there's likely a lot of people who never played Mythologies, and so 4 was their introduction to Shinnok, Quan Chi, and to the Brotherhood of Shadow, including three female assassins ♀︎, Sareena, Jataaka, and Kia, even if none of were playable in that game like Shinnok and Quan Chi were. Okay, Shinnok was technically not playable in the initial release of 4 (the one that played in arcades), but I think he might have been made playable in the re-release for the Sega Dreamcast, Mortal Kombat Gold. So, in a way, Shinnok and the rest of the Brotherhood of Shadow characters (except Noob Saibot and Quan Chi) are 3D era characters.
So yeah, I didn't really care for this movie that much. Johnny Cage wasn't as annoying or as irritating as I was worried he would be, but he's still pretty annoying and obnoxious. He's kind of a self-absorbed jerk in this movie. I know they tried to add this whole backstory to him to where he was bullied as a kid in school, and that's why he learned martial arts and why he has this thing about hating bullies. And that sucks, being bullied does suck, it didn't make him anymore likable. He's still a self-absorbed jerk even if he was bullied in school as a kid.
Being bullied doesn't automatically make you a good person. Jerks can be bullied too, in fact, a lot of bullies were themselves bullied at one point in their lives and that experience of being bullied led to them becoming bullies. He's just overly cocky and it doesn't feel earned. He isn't even a true movie star by the time the events of this movie take place. He's an obscure and struggling actor who isn't very well known yet. So, why he is so cocky? Why is he so egotistical and so full of himself? Why is he such an asshole?
I said this before in the note above my Snow Blind ❄️🐉 because there is this fine line you have to walk, there is balancing act you have to do whenever you write Johnny Cage. You want to make him a funny character, you want to be a parody or a satire of self-absorbed and narcissistic Hollywood movie stars, but you don't want to go too far with it to where he's just unlikeable and he's just obnoxious and you just want him to get off the screen.
That's what's ruined a lot of depictions of Johnny Cage throughout the years, they make him too obnoxious, too stupid, and too much of a liability that you even question why the rest of the Earthrealm warriors 🌎 even bother keeping him around. Like, why does Raiden ⚡️ think that he's good enough of guy to defend Earthrealm 🌎 along with the likes of Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax, and Kung Lao? And I just don't think that this movie reached that balance with that balance. They kind of went a bit too far in making him obnoxious and unlikeable.
Because he is supposed to be the hero at the end of the day, we are supposed to like him. Everyone, who isn't a bad guy, likes him. But, I found myself not really liking him. It's not even one of those things where he starts off as an asshole and then gradually learns, and by the end, he redeems himself, he eats some humble pie, and he becomes a better person. He really doesn't. He's the same guy at the end of this movie that he was at the beginning. He didn't actually learn anything, other than he's actually superhuman, and he is as special as he believed and as special as everyone told him he was. That just inflated his ego even more.
He's just budget Deadpool in this movie, he's Deadpool with sunglasses 🕶️. And Deadpool's already kind of an irritating character anyway, especially the Ryan Reynolds take on the character. I am not seeing Deadpool & Wolverine when it comes out this year, there's no way. You can't make me. People are actually saying that movie's going to save the MCU, give me a break 🙄. That thing's already dead. What's there to save?
So, I didn't like Johnny Cage in this movie. I didn't hate him as much as I was expecting to, but I still kind of disliked him. This movie convinced me that Johnny Cage does not work as a protagonist, at least the way he's written here. He works better as a supporting character, and he works in smaller doses, when he has more characters to bounce off instead of just a fanboy assistant (who turned out to be Mokap) and Ashrah. Like, he needs a Liu Kang, or a Sonya Blade, or a Jax, or even a Kenshi to pounce off of. He can't carry a movie by himself. I really hope that Karl Urban's take on the character is way better in the second reboot live action movie, Mortal Kombat 2, whenever that movie comes out.
I cannot honestly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to get into these animated direct-to-video Mortal Kombat movies. If you want to start getting into these Mortal Kombat Legends movies, get Snow Blind ❄️🐉 instead. Snow Blind ❄️🐉 isn't perfect, it has some issues too, and I cover them in my review, but it's still a whole hell of a lot better than this movie. Like, I'm actually willing to watch Snow Blind ❄️🐉 again, whereas I'm not with Cage Match 🐉🥊. This was a one time watch for me, I don't think ever watch this movie again, unless I did an audio commentary for it or something. But, just on my off time when I'm kicking back and I want something to watch for the sake of entertainment, I won't watch it. I'll watch something else. At least this movie was short. It's only 80 minutes long, which is 1 hour and 20 minutes. So, at least it went by fast and didn't waste that much of my time.
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Update (Monday February 19, 2024):
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Oh, I completely forgot to mention that this is technically a Christmas movie 🎄. It takes place on Christmas 🎄, or it takes place during the holiday season like in December. There's Christmas decorations 🎄 everywhere, there are people dressed as Santa Claus 🎅, and every character talks about Christmas 🎄 at one point or another. Even the Brotherhood of Shadow specifically chose December 25 to sacrifice Johnny Cage to Shinnok because of its significance. It even snows at the end 🌨️ after they defeat Shinnok and the Brotherhood of Shadow, and Johnny remarks about how they're getting a white Christmas 🎄❄️ that year.
Why is this movie set during Christmas 🎄? I don't really know. Maybe because Lethal Weapon and Die Hard are both set during Christmas 🎄 and they're both 80s movies? I will say that Cage Match 🐉🥊 does feel a lot like a bad Shane Black movie. It feels like Shane Black's rejected B material. Like, it feels like one of Shane Black's signature buddy cop or buddy detective movies that he's mostly known for writing (and also directing in a few cases), but it was one of the scripts that he wrote and just tossed out in the trash 🗑️ because it was that bad. But then, some dug it out of the trash 🗑️, and decided to make it into a movie, and make it a Mortal Kombat movie by adding all these Mortal Kombat characters and lore.
That's what Cage Match 🥊🐉 feels like for most of it, especially the section of the movie where Johnny and Chuck are trying to look for Jennifer (who turns out to be Sareena later on in the movie), and then caught in the middle of the conflict between the White Lotus and the Brotherhood of Shadow. The scene where Johnny meets Ashrah for the first time, while she's fighting Kia inside of that mansion, and then the mansion blows up 💥 from that bomb feels like a scene from a Shane Black movie. It feels like a scene from the first Lethal Weapon. They never explain who planted that bomb BTW. I assume it was Kia, but her and other Netherrealm demons seem sort of ignorant of modern human technology, so how would she even think of to plant a bomb inside of Jennifer's mansion?
Or maybe, it could be that the people who made this movie knew that this movie would get a November or December release, which it ended up getting, so they just decided to set it during the yuletide. That's a possibility too. Either way, I really don't know why this movie was set at Christmas 🎄, and I really don't think it needed to be. Like many things in this movie, it could have been set at any time during the year, it didn't even need to be set during or around a holiday, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. I doubt that this movie would be on people's lists of Christmas movies 🎄 to watch during the holiday season, including Mortal Kombat fans.
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