It’s all as goofy and as badly acted as one would expect yet there’s a certain schlock appeal in how it’s presented, McQuoid mercifully avoiding a grittier, more grounded take on the junky material and keeping things sprightly and mostly lacking in self-seriousness. While it doesn’t have anywhere near the same crowd-pleasing verve of Godzilla vs Kong, there’s just about enough low-rent entertainment here to pass the time, especially if that time is late and it arrives after a night of medium-to-heavy drinking. Anticipation has therefore seemed more intense than expected, a hope that what seemed like an unwanted relic could somehow be exactly the sort of big dumb thrill that many of us might be looking for at the moment. The gory, red-band marketing campaign has also been quick to separate the reboot from the films that came before it, with the much-criticised PG-13 rating now replaced with a hard R, director Simon McQuoid suggesting he was just a few cuts from the film being lumbered with the dreaded NC-17.

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.

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.

Mortal kombat movie release date