Release: Mortal Kombat III

 

Mortal Kombat III

Genre: Action/Fantasy

Director: Gareth Evans

Writers: APJ & Chad Taylor

Based on the video game series

Cast: Iko Uwais, Jet Li, Ronda Rousey, Scott Adkins, Patrick Wilson, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Julie Estelle, Isabel May, Robert Carlyle, Byung-hun Lee, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Natascha 

Budget: $90,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $135,069,711

Foreign Box Office: $187,000,002

Total Profit: $99,912,824

Reaction: This third Mortal Kombat film has the best reviews and best box office numbers of the trilogy. It's nice that this one appears to be peaking at the point most franchises start to lose a bit of financial momentum.

"Mortal Kombat III is a big, entertaining swing that fully embraces the franchise's mythology, delivering Elder Gods, revenants, time travel, and plenty of brutal action. The film's greatest strength is its sense of scale, with standout sequences involving Reptile, Scorpion, Noob Saibot, and Liu Kang's showdown with Shinnok, while Cassie Cage brings unexpected emotional weight to the story. The downside is that the plot is often overcrowded, with several characters and ideas not receiving enough development before the film races to the next set piece. Even so, the action rarely disappoints, the stakes feel appropriately epic, and the film succeeds as a crowd-pleasing Mortal Kombat adventure that understands exactly what fans want." - Lionel Krankst, Fresh Apples Entertainment 

"Mortal Kombat III is gloriously excessive in the best way, leaning fully into cosmic fantasy, brutal action, and unapologetic fan service. Gareth Evans stages kinetic, bone-crunching fights—particularly Liu Kang’s battle with Noob Saibot and the blood-soaked Goro showdown—while APJ and Chad Taylor smartly expand the mythology without losing the series’ pulpy charm. The addition of Cassie Cage gives the film emotional stakes, and Johnny Cage finally becomes more than comic relief. It’s messy and overloaded at times, but hard not to enjoy." - Cooper Wilson, The Earl Hays Press

"While Mortal Kombat III delivers plenty of spectacle, it often mistakes escalation for storytelling. The film piles on time travel, revenants, Elder God politics, and multiverse lore to the point that character arcs frequently get buried beneath exposition and setup. Several supporting characters—despite a stacked cast—feel more like collectibles than people, and the script occasionally rushes through major emotional beats that deserve room to breathe. The action is undeniably strong, but the film sometimes feels more interested in cramming in mythology than telling a focused story." - Paul Onkean, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore