So, Now We Have Mortal Kombat · 9:53pm May 1st, 2021
Not sure if I like the new Techno Syndrome, but hey, new generation, new tunes. I'm gonna try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, folks.
The original 1995 movie came out less than a week after I turned 11, so I think I can be forgiven if I thought it was the greatest thing ever at the time. I watched it again a couple years ago and... yeah, it hasn't aged well. I still think it was one of the better video game-based movies specifically in terms of honoring the source material, which seems to be one of the things video game-based movies just cannot get right no matter what (I'm looking at you, Tomb Raider). You'd think this stuff would be easy to do, but apparently that is not the case. There's an old Game Theory episode out there that suggests some reasons behind this, if anyone cares enough to look.
What? 1997 movie? Stop making stuff up. There is no 1997 movie. Nobody wants to hear about your crappy fanfiction. Also, shut up.
I didn't find out they were making a new, rebooted Mortal Kombat movie until barely a month before it released. I faced the news with... I think I'll go with "cautious optimism". The trailers at the very least made it look like it might be a fun action movie. I'm an off-and-on fan of the games (played the 2011 reboot and X, but didn't try 11), so yeah, I figured I'd give it a shot. Just got back from the theater which had a whopping three people go to see it for my particular showing. And my verdict?
It's not bad. Not amazing, but not terrible, either. I think fans of the franchise will really enjoy it. It honors the games well, with familiar places and names and a slew of references if you're paying attention. It does a fairly decent job honoring the characters themselves, changing things up slightly but not enough to make them unfamiliar. I don't much care for the fact that they created an entirely new character to be the protagonist instead of someone familiar. I'm not sure what would tempt them to do that. Wouldn't you want your star to be a familiar face for the fans? I mean, seriously, the fandom wiki identifies 97 separate characters from the combined games and movies. All those people to choose from, and they just up and make a new one to star? WTF, guys?
Still, it's not so bad. We do get plenty of our favorites showing up. It just seems like an odd choice for me.
One way the movie really improves things compared to its predecessor: the fights were pretty solid. One of the things fans will take note of is the use of character moves from the games. I'm not talking specials, although those do show up, I mean the little things. Motions and tricks that you see in the games that only someone who has played them will notice. It really felt like the choreographers were trying to satisfy the fans, and this is one area I can appreciate. Oh, and yes, there are fatalities. Unlike the 1995 movie – which neutered the action to get that precious PG-13 rating and make it suitable to the younger audience that, back then, everyone thought was the only audience for video games – this version embraces the ridiculous and campy violence of its source material. And... yeah, sometimes it's pretty dumb. But hey, that's Mortal Kombat, right? Fans will love it.
I didn't appreciate the skill creep of the movie, though. This was most notable in the character of Kabal. Remember this guy? His whole shtick is being ridiculously fast. The movie does a great job reflecting this in his first fight. But then he gets into a rematch with the same character and... wait, why isn't he using his super speed anymore? Oh, sure, he's got the flashy purple effects, but we can visibly see his opponent keeping up. How? Why? Did he forget to take his vitamins that morning? I hate seeing this kind of thing.
But I suppose that's par for the course when you've got people resetting broken bones and continuing to fight like it's nothing, or the ones that take a dozen or so stabs with a knife and keep going. It's like there are certain, very specific things you can do that can kill people, but otherwise everyone is Wolverine. That being said, if you'e played the games then you know this is perfectly normal for them (X-Ray attacks, anyone?), and we know that death means nothing in this universe, games or movies (case in point: Scorpion), so if there's ever a sequel we'll probably see some of these characters return anyway. It's Mortal Kombat; it doesn't necessarily need to make sense.
I do like that among the bigger names they brought out some lesser known characters like Kabal, Reiko, and Nitara (does anyone even remember these guys?) and even left some more popular characters out, like Kitana, Jade, and Johnny Cage, which strongly suggests the intention of using them in future installments (don't think I missed that blue fan).
One thing I really didn't care for is Simon McQuoid's directing. The transitions were jarring at best, and sometimes the little things are skipped entirely to speed up the pacing and get to the "kombat". Funnily enough, very similar methods were used in the 1995 movie, like Johnny Cage walking in an orchard for no reason whatsoever and a Wild Scorpion appears, let's fight! A great example of this in the reboot is a scene, clearly intended to be reminiscent of a certain stage in the game, where Shang Tsung is sitting watching the ongoing fighting. Then the fight is over and BOOM, he's in the middle of the arena, and I was like "wait, how'd he get there so fast?" Sure, evil sorcerer dude probably has some tricks up his sleeve, but this kind of thing happens over and over again, often with characters who don't have crazy magical powers, so WTF? I get that it's already an hour-and-fifty-minute movie, but I'd take an extra fifteen minutes to not have whiplash.
I think my least favorite scene was, in fact, the pre-climax moment when the Outworld warriors attack. It's supposed to be a big fight among all the good/bad guys, right? So it makes sense to go from fight to fight. But there's that whiplash again, jumping us from two combatants to another two combatants to another two combatants then back to the original combatants and to a different set of combatants and ouch I think my neck broke. We all know there are ways to do this well. This is not it.
I don't think I'm even going to bother to talk about the plot holes. Because Hollywood has made it a point to lower our expectations for video game-based movies, we all anticipate that the plot will be weak and riddled with holes. It does hit the proper notes of a Mortal Kombat story at least, and since the Mortal Kombat stories aren't exactly Shakespeare, the fans should all be okay with what they get. That said, I was a little confused when Raiden claims he can't directly interfere with the conflict and then a later scene has a character ask him "I thought you couldn't interfere" when he did not, in fact, do so. Also, that whole Scorpion appearance at the end. Okay, sure, Scorpion vs Sub-Zero, fans are gonna fangasm. But there's that whiplash thing again: no, writers, having Scorpion declare "I've come back from Hell" does not serve as an explanation for how he got there with such perfect timing and zero fanfare. At least give him a flashy entrance instead of appearing on the set like he was there all along and we just didn't notice!
So, final thoughts. Is Mortal Kombat a good movie? Eh, depends on the audience. If you know nothing about the franchise, then it probably won't do anything for you unless you're an action movie junkie. But fans of the franchise will probably really enjoy it, warts and all. It's got the characters (protagonist notwithstanding), it's got the fights, it's got the special effects, it's got the references. The actors do a pretty good job with the roles and lines given to them. It doesn't necessarily have the atmosphere of a Mortal Kombat movie, but I think I can forgive that given this is pre-tournament and we haven't seen much at all of Outworld yet. Most importantly, I think it demonstrates how well the creators know Mortal Kombat; the plot devices, the character behavior, the weird directing, the characters healing normally crippling wounds in seconds (if that), it all feels like they were taken directly from the games. So much so that it kind of emphasizes how stupid those gameplay mechanics really are when looked at with any scrutiny.
If you watch this, you have to go into it not thinking "it's a movie based on Mortal Kombat", but go into it thinking "this is Mortal Kombat". When you do, you come to appreciate exactly what the movie's creators are doing and understand that it's a movie made by fans for fans. They didn't make this movie to appeal to film critics and the casual movie-goer, they made it for the players. And I think the players will really appreciate that. It may not be an amazing movie. It certainly won't win any Oscars. But they didn't care about the Oscars: they cared about the gamers.
I am okay with this.
Who cares about the Oscars these days no good movie really wins them anymore.
Sounds fun. I was a little sceptical when I first heard about it, but if they've avoided the trap of trying to make sense of the game world and make it "realistic", then all the better.
That said, nothing can top the '94 Street Fighter movie, purely because of Raul Julia and "quick! change the channel!"
Yeah, It's a fun action flick. But yeah, they could have made Johnny the protag, he'd make a good audience surrogate
The soundtrack alone justified that movie, even if the movie didn't justify the soundtrack. You could throw together any kind of scene with Fire playing and it would be awesome (shame that Scooter went downhill after that). Not really a fan of the new Techno Syndrome 2021 version like you said, it's too busy and too remix-y. How's the rest of the soundtrack?
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Supposedly the reason we got an original character of Japanese/American descent as the lead is because of a studio mandate. They didn't want a straight white cis male lead. This (if true), I imagine, was done to appease the "woke" crowd because that subset of people definitely exist and definitely love to yell about "Oh look, Hollywood casting yet another straight white cis male lead for their $multi-million blockbuster, freaking typical" every time this happens, even though it's becoming generally less frequent. While fans (and even the director I'm sure) would have preferred someone like Cage to be the lead, studio be like, "Can't let you do that, Star Fox."
So we have Cole.
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I partially disagree on the "realistic" bit, but wholeheartedly agree that they shouldn't try to take away from the game world. There should be ways to achieve both. For instance, did they really need every character to be Wolverine? Not really, they could have made an awesome Mortal Kombat movie without that. It's pretty hard to include it and not have non-MK fans rolling their eyes, and if they hadn't I'm pretty sure most MK fans wouldn't have cared so long as the rest of the film properly honored the source material.
But they did include it. I get why they did, and I don't begrudge them the decision. But by making it and other such decisions, they had to have known they were going to be turning off a large portion of their potential audience. All I'm saying is I don't think that sacrifice is necessary.
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It was okay. Nothing particularly amazing, but nothing bad. Honestly, the 1995 movie's soundtrack was better.
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I don't understand. Are we talking about the character or the actor? Because if they wanted a character that wasn't cis white male, the cast of the games left them with plenty of options to choose from, including the original lead character Liu Kang. Or Jax. Or Kitana. Or Jade. Or Scorpion. Or Sub-Zero. Or Kung Lao. There were so many options. And if we're talking actors... well, then cast them as whatever race they happen to actually be in the game, obviously.
That reasoning makes no sense whatsoever.
This seems a missed opportunity. The games already exist for the gamers. The movie is an opportunity to draw in new people. To forge something interesting out of the old pieces.
I don't like the Marvel movies, generally. But they did do that correctly. They took this labyrinthine mess that was the comics and turned them into something with a much wider appeal.
And the two styles aren't even mutually exclusive.
I'm a fan of Castlevania (the games). I've played many of them, and was deeply invested in them in high school. And Castlevania (the Netflix series) still appealed to me. It did something different, changed various elements around. But it was a stronger story for it. (Well...not season 3.)
And Logan is my favorite of the Marvel movies. It takes a lot of very specific elements from particular comic storylines. But it spins an interesting plot out of them, without limiting itself to just fans of the original comic. Same with lots of the DCAU animated movies.
But I appreciate your analysis, because it still tells me that this movie ain't for me.
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Shame, it's my favorite aspect of the movies. I'll probably sit this one out then. Cheers.