Configuring one's expectations before settling down to watch the latest big (and small) screen adaptation of Mortal Kombat is something of a process. The largely wretched game-to-movie subgenre carries with it little-to-no hope at this stage, even the so-called "best" examples are seen as just about tolerable, and the last two attempts to translate Midway's long-running fighting game failed to justify why watching these characters battle it out would be preferable to playing as them instead. As popular as the game still is (the most recent iteration has sold over 8m copies worldwide), transporting it to film is still a rather dated prospect, almost 25 years after the last version, the result of a torturous period in development hell. So while the odds might seem stacked against it, the film also arrives at an opportune time, as cinemas are opening up again and audiences are craving bigger, gaudier events to lure them back. Just weeks after their record Godzilla vs Kong success (a hit proving that after a year of misery, appealing to our basest, silliest instincts is a surefire win right now), Warners is using the same hybrid release for Mortal Kombat, chucking it up on HBO Max and out in cinemas at the same time.