Being that is only the day after the premier on HBO Max / Theaters, the reviews for the new film are generally mixed with both positive and negative reviews across various platforms. A lot of Twitter followers have been both bashing and praising the film too. The general concesis on Twitter is that it was missing Johnny Cage, it didn't follow the actual story or that it was a pre-MK1 film that took elements from MK1 and got lost when it tried to put Cole as the hero of the film. On a side opinion noted if this was a pre-MK1 film then Goro would be in the next film and what happens to him never would have.
Rotten Tomatoes so far out of 166 reviews it has a 56% positivity on the tomatometer and 89% fan response.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mortal_kombat_2021
Metacritic gives it a Metascore of 44% and user score of 6.5
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mortal-kombat-2021
The harshest review of only 20 metascore comes from AZcentral the Arizona Republic which called it: "Welcome to Mortal Kombat: It's violent and stupid and there is more where that came from." Yet when you read the article it sounds as if the critic doesn't know this world that too well.
IMDB so far has it a 6.6 out of 10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293429/
The closest Budget of the film was reported lastly at $95 million and has earned a global box office so far of $19.5 million. Keep in mind that this is only the 1st post release day and it took Godzilla VS Kong a little less than a week to earn its reported earning of $325 million so we will have to wait and see when the film is officially done in theaters its real total budget.
https://m.the-numbers.com/movie/Mortal-Kombat-(2021)#tab=summary
My review below
The film has good points here and there but has many more flaw points too. Everyone everywhere praise Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada in their performances with Josh Lawson stealing the entire show. The fight scenes are indeed cool and awesome but there is a lot that really will make you go, why did the film cut to that scene or wait what happened again. Look and design of some of the characters like Reiko and Mileena are probably the worse designs of the film. Yes the teeth will be there but when you see these 2 characters in the film they really stick out as bad design flaws when compared to any version from any of the games. Some will argue with Kano's design too but when you watch the film it will not really be that bad and fits within the film nicely. I myself had a problem with Kano missing his eye piece but honestly when Josh Lawson does and his mannerisms make you completely fine with it being missing in the film. If this truly was a pre-MK1 film as many has said then there are major problems with the setups of the ending of some fights as well as the story in the film. There is a slight flaw even with the Sub-Zero and Scorpion feudal Japan story when you see the fight they have at the end of the film. It will make it seem that Quan Chi had no part at all in that feud.
In retrospect do what I did and do not go in 100% knowing the story as some of us major fans here know. Doing that will ruin your enjoyment of the film. Fight scenes are primarily the best aspect of the film. If you wanted an MK movie with gory Fatalities and a lackluster story that tried to stay true to the source material you will walk away feeling satisfied. If you wanted to see a revamped MK 1995 story or something close to the story of the games then you will feeling less than satisfied. I believe this film could have been a lot better but I do believe the director and writer focused too much on trying to bring the blood and fatalities to the big screen and the story got lost in the mix.
