Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat was one of the most popular, and controversial video games of the 90s, so naturally, in 1995, New Line Cinema released a live- action film adaptation. When the film was being advertised, several people were either excited for it, or skeptical due to Street Fighter being a total stinker, and since the film was rated PG-13, which meant the violence and gore from the game had to be toned down to appeal to the then-young MK fan base. Thankfully, all expectations were surpassed as Mortal Kombat actually turned out to be, believe it or not, a good video game movie. Upon its release, the film was, surprisingly, a box- office success, making it the first video game adaptation to be successful both financially, and with fans, despite mixed reviews from critics (although Gene Siskel gave the movie a thumbs up). To this day, it is considered one of the better game to film translations. Now, it's time to find out why that is the case.

The film succeeds by sticking to the plot of the first game while incorporating elements from Mortal Kombat II. The plot itself is very similar to Enter the Dragon (which I consider to be the greatest Martial Arts film ever made), but with a supernatural twist to it, which is rather refreshing, and helps it stand on its own. Unlike Street Fighter where the focus was on Guile instead of Ryu and Ken (the original protagonists of that franchise), this movie centers mostly around the Mortal Kombat game's original protagonist; Liu Kang.

All of the characters from the first Mortal Kombat game (as well as a few from MKII) are present in the film, and are given appropriate development, and screen time. The casting is also spot-on. This is one of the few adaptations of a video game, comic book, and cartoon show (at least one of the few I could think of) where all of the actors are cast perfectly. Christopher Lambert, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa are especially great as Rayden and Shang Tsung (respectively), they deliver the right amount of...

So, after years of lethal "Mortal Kombat" competition "Outworld" is poised to complete it's tenth victory over "Earthrealm" entitling it to take it over. It falls to defender "Rayden" (Christopher Lambert) to recruit three warriors who might just be able to thwart the ambitions of his nemesis - the sorcerer "Shang Tsung" (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). The three he selects would not have been the obvious choice. "Liu Kang" (Robin Shou) and "Sonya Blade" (Bridgette Sampras) are driven by the need for vengeance of their own whilst the outwardly shallow "Johnny Cage" (Linden Ashby) is an actor just out to prove there is more to him than his acting. Can they defeat the champions of "Outworld" and their own demons? It is only 100 minutes long, this - but somehow it seems so much longer. The story takes far too long to get going, the character establishment introduces us to three people that have axes to grind, but they are not particularly interesting or characterful - and neither is their dialogue. The nature of the fight scenes is repetitive and shows a startling lack of imagination as does the really drawn-on look of the special effects. Lambert makes only the briefest of appearances as the guru in the white suit; indeed the star of the show is probably Tagawa who hams up wonderfully as the baddie. The narrative does try to combine action, adventure and mysticism - but neither the writer nor the director have anything like enough flair to make this anything other than a predictable, candle-lit, martial arts flop.

I had not seen this in at least 10 years and with the new Arrow Video release I bought and gave it a watch and while nothing amazing with some stilted acting and dialogue (beyond the lines from the game), but it is a lot of fun and enough cheesiness to make it re-watchable. Overall really enjoyable. 3.25/5

Adapting video games to movies has always been a rough ride, but the 90s gave us a relic that shaped a whole generation. However, taking off the nostalgia goggles exposes a lot of flaws. Revisiting this first attempt to bring arcade fighting to the big screen shows that simply staying true to the game's premise isn't enough to make a solid film. Once you strip away the childhood affection, you're left with technical and narrative holes that time hasn't forgiven.

The movie suffers from a major identity crisis from start to finish. Director Paul W.S. Anderson can't seem to pick a lane, bouncing awkwardly between overly serious melodrama and unintentional slapstick. Without nostalgia to protect it, it feels like an uncohesive, poorly written mess that just throws superficial references at the screen to get a cheap pop from the audience. It survived back then mostly on its marketing, but it completely fails as a legitimate movie for adults today.

It also heavily disrespects the original lore. Fan-favorite rivals like Scorpion and Sub-Zero are reduced to voiceless henchmen, completely ignoring their fascinating backstory. Other legendary fighters are treated as disposable punching bags just to make the heroes look good, turning the fights into lazy, empty spectacles. Sonya Blade gets it the worst. She starts off as a badass, independent Special Forces agent but is slowly downgraded into a tired damsel in distress who has to be rescued by the guys. Her fight scenes lack the energy of Liu Kang's, totally wasting the franchise's toughest female character.

Anderson also drops the ball on the action. He struggles to build tension or maintain a good pace, resulting in choppy editing that cuts away right when a scene needs to breathe. His lack of experience with martial arts really shows—the camera angles are usually wrong, and the confusing edits try to hide the actors' slow, stiff choreography. The mud fight between Sonya and Kano is a perfect example of this, lookin...