Did you know that Mileena was in the Mortal Kombat movie? You probably heard it first when it was announced that Sisi Stringer would play the loveable mutant hybrid who has a pension for blood, but then you forgot while watching the 2021 film because MILEENA DOESN’T DO ANYTHING! Look, I get it, not every character is going to get their moment to shine. To their detriment, Mortal Kombat has a huge roster filled with rich and colorful characters. It’s baffling that the filmmakers opted to create a new and bland guy to carry the franchise, but that point has been beaten like a drum so no reason for whining anymore about that. I never expected the focus to be on Mileena, especially since she’s on the villain side, but I was also surprised at how small her role is.
One of the biggest mistakes made was actually before production, and that’s executives choosing to not add Kitana to the film. Without Kitana, there is no Mileena. Personally, speaking, I’m not someone who believes that adaptations don’t need to exactly follow the source material. Stanley Kubrick went crazy by vastly veering away from Stephen King’s The Shining and that turned out to be a classic. The Stephen King television series that exactly followed his original source material? Not so much. Todd Philips made it clear that Joker wasn’t based on any of the stories from the comics or television shows and that turned out great! It’s not impossible to steer away from the original source material as long as the film understands the characters and worlds that they breathe in. The Shining and Joker do, and Mortal Kombat does to a certain extent, but it’s disappointing to see one of the more prominent characters essentially there for “reasons”. Adding Kitana would’ve given the story more sizzle that would’ve allowed a little more depth into both her and Mileena’s character.
However, fine, Mileena’s backstory of being created by Shang Tsung as an evil clone isn’t incorporated into the film, but another part of the problem is that she really doesn’t have much of a personality of her own. The reason Kano stands out so much is due to the fact that the film plays to his strength, which is his snarky and prickish attitude. Even Kano snacking as the intense back-and-forth between Shang Tsung and Raiden was going highlights his personality. This also goes for Sub-Zero and Scorpion, who barely talk throughout the feature. As I previously stated, I understand that this isn’t Mileena’s story thus we wouldn’t get much of her story since the focus isn’t on her, but other than her fight sequence, she doesn’t showcase what made the fans fall in love with her. Her sick and depraved nature never comes out in her dialogue as she’s clearly subdued in favor of other characters. If you closed your eyes and heard Mileena talk, it wouldn’t be hard to mistake her as an ordinary girl with some weird vampire-like teeth. Mileena is cruel, sadistic, unhinged, and a bit flirtatious. Who wouldn’t want a woman with razor-sharp Tarkatan teeth to say “I’ll chew off your flesh and gnaw off your bones” to them in the morning? Jokes aside, the film doesn’t play off the evil clone’s personality, and given how dry and unnecessarily serious Shang Tsung is, I guess the filmmakers didn’t want her to outshine the big bad.
When it comes to the video games, Mileena is a great character. It isn’t just her unique fighting style and twisted dialogue that makes her one of the best, but the story surrounding who she is. In Mortal Kombat 11, Mileena simply wanted to be loved, but as expected, Kitana wanted nothing to do with the evil genetic experiment. Mileena would end up killing the 10,000-year-old princess and assumed her identity, having a daughter and family that loves and respects her. I know this going to sound weird, but the live-action movies tend to focus on the fighting aspect as important character development is often thrown to the waste side. If Mortal Kombat 2 can final a nice blend of action and storytelling, then the film would be better off then it’s counterparts. Mileena is dead, so I don’t expect her to be in the upcoming sequel, but hopefully the series will allow character personalities to shine better. It doesn’t have to be some character driven piece that goes into depth on every prominent MK fighter. That’s impossible given the amount of talent involved. But given the way that Reptile or Kabal was allowed showcase who they were even with extremely limited screen time, let’s hope that approach is shown better in the sequel.
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