Frankly, there is no world in which 2021’s Mortal Kombat is a must-own 4K release to anyone beyond the target audience to whom this film is so shamelessly devoted. I reviewed the film upon its simultaneous theatrical / HBOMax release in April and have linked to my full thoughts.

Since watching and enjoying the movie, I spoke with a friend more well-versed in the franchise and lore. He felt about the same, with the caveat that the storytelling in the film is somehow more needlessly convoluted than in the video games and that it also made worse use of characters than it could have. So take his meager recommendation for what it’s worth if you haven’t seen it.

I do own a copy of Mortal Kombat on 4K, though, which means I can rewatch the worthwhile fatalities over and over again if I so choose. Joe Taslim is still wasted as Sub-Zero, but I genuinely enjoy Lewis Tan’s made-for-the-movie character and his bizarre golden armor powers. All of it looks great off the disc, superior to the HBOMax copy I watched earlier this year. The special features are interesting but not exactly deep-dive material.

I stand by my original review: “Mortal Kombat succeeds at times because it’s so shamelessly devoted to being exactly what fans of the franchise must want — a violent, brain-dead fight movie stuffed with ridiculous lore and all of their favorite characters butting heads. There is not much to this. There probably doesn’t need to be.”

We’ll revisit in a few years to see if it becomes a cult classic like the 1995 version.