Bro the first movie was corny as heck and it was rated PG and the fights were goofy as hell. Gore does make it better cause the video games were like that.
oh you were being serious. MK is a corny game, man; It's not supposed to be taken seriously. The camp, faithfulness to the characters and ridiculousness of the first movie is what made it good. I know the gore is part of the game; I'm saying, if there was a choice, people would rather have lore and good fights than the gore. gore is the gimmick not the feature.
I didn't like Kano. Im not a fan of letting one character carry all the goofiness in a movie. Comedic moments can be shared by all. In the game most of the characters have goofy moments. Jax had a funny "Six tour's b****!" line in the movie. Everybody can be funny so one character doesn't become annoying. Y'all Really liked Kano? That dude was annoying.
I don't know. I would watch it, but its hard to say if it would be better. We all know the industry is allergic to being faithful to the source material. Feige from Disney Marvel is the only person on earth that realizes you just take stuff from the source and don't deviate too much and profit. Nobody else has figured it out yet.
This movie sucked hard, and I'm very much for cheap entertainment. That new character they added was such trash. Also, you wait the entire movie for the Scorpion payoff and he can't even beat Subzero by himself? Wow.
I would have given the movie at 10 if at the end the main character would have just looked at his wife and said “yea, I don’t speak Japanese”.
After watching this, now I know why Lewis Tan (Cole Young) was passed up by Simu Liu for Shang Chi. Lewis is a pretty boy for sure but his acting chops aren't there to play a DL kung fu super hero in Shang Chi.
Most video games shouldn't be made into movies, they would make far better TV shows where you have time to develop characters. Mortal Kombat is another mediocre movie.
This was my biggest problem as well. Spoiler Felt like the good guys went from 0 to 80 in no time. Particularly Sonya killing Kano then immediately having an arcana. It being MK I also have some minor expectations that there is a "tournament". Cole starting the movie losing cage fights then next he kills off Goro? A traditional boss? Uh what? No build up to that?
I saw the original 1995 version back in the theatre when it was out. I remember after the movie ended, and the techno MK theme played, a guy at the back at our theatre stood up and yelled "Mortal Kombaaaaaat...!!!" As somewhat cheesy the original 1995, it was more grounded. As grounded as these types of movies can be. tl; dr thoughts Even back then I was mixed on the 1995 version as I am on this 2021 version. MK2021 has relatively better action and more fan service. The action could still be better. But the acting in 2021 is wooden; some of the dialogue is borderline cringey... even by video game movie standards. --------------------------- Story: Story of 1995 version was similar to the game. A simple tournament, where Liu Kang the protagonist, the chosen one, and goes to Shang Tsung's island to do the tournament. Primary set in the days of MK1. For anyone that follows the game, as time went on, it was apparent that Sub Zero and Scorpion became more popular characters. Both graced the cover the the games (MK 9/10/11). So in the 2021 version, the audience goes through the story through Cole (Scorpion's descendant) as opposed to Liu Kang. Sub Zero also getting a much a bigger role; the primary villain. In the 1995 version, the chosen one was Liu Kang. Here in this movie, anyone with the MK dragon mark is one of the chosen. The symbol is passed around like AIDS, a little stupid, but it is what it is. Action: While I appreciated the old school editing in the 1995, where the edits wasn't bombarded with ADD cuts. The action choreo in 1995's was lacking even by standards in the 1990's. By lacking I don't mean gore, just mean by kung fu cinema standards. The other let down of the original 1995 was lack of moves and fatalities from the game. Few 1995 highlights at the time was Sonya finishing Kano with her leg grab. Liu Kang didn't do his fireball move until the very end of the final fight against Shang Tsung. Scoprion's rope spear was a snake like monster that came out of his hand; glad here in the 2021, it's just treated as an actual weapon (rope dart). The 2021 movie version; has more budget and special effects. Though many of the fights were short; among the game characters. In a 1 hr 25 min run time, we got at least ten fights. Few of them finished with in game fatalities. After 11 games, at least 2 fatalities per character, there were many to choose from, but I'm happy the ones they included in the movie were their classics. 1. Kano (mk1) vs. Reptile (mk2) 2. Sonya (mk1) vs. Kano (mk1) 3. Sonya (mk1) vs. Mileena (mk2) 4. Cole (not in the game) vs. Goro (mk1) 5. Liu Kang (mk1) vs. Kabal (mk3) 6. Kung Lao (mk2) vs. Nitara (mk4) 7. Kung Lao (mk2) vs. Shang Tsung (mk1, playable in mk2) 8. Jax (mk2) vs. General Rekio (mk4) 9. Jax (mk2) vs. SubZero (mk1) 10. Scorpion (mk1 ) vs. Sub Zero (mk1) There were definitely more fan service in the 2021 than 1995. The 2021's martial arts chroeo is still lacking. Comparing to movies like the Raid might be unfair, as action most movies aren't like that; not even other Indonesian MA films. Plus 2 of the 3 RAID lead actors are actual martial artists and choreographer themselves. The Mortal Kombat actors playing in the 1995 and 2021, are just actors. They do OK enough job to sell the action, but could be better. As much as I would like to have liked the 2021 version, the dialgoue and acting was enough to still prefer the 1995 (slightly more). MK (1995) B- MK (2021) C+ MK annihilation (1997) - D+. C is still a passing grade, After the build up; i was slightly let down by the actual movie. Still since I like the property, I hope WB continue to invest and consider a sequel.
Spoiler I agree with this. Side note: Ed Boon was consulted on the movie; so not sure what happened. Someone should tell the movie studio; that Sonay's projectile comes from bracers. It's a weapon she has on her wrist; not actual magic / arcana. Both Sonya (and now her daughter Cassie) in the game has a bunch of military tech. The writer cornered the lore into this discovering super power angle to explain away things.
Call me a snob, but fight scenes should have at least a good 7-10 seconds of cuts to give you a good idea of what they're doing. All I could think while watching is them taking those shots individually and pasting it all back together, like a budget youtube mashup. Not expecting Raid-level "workplace hazard for stuntmen detail", but I'd take three of those fights (CG enhanced) over the ten I didn't give a **** about. Was it just me or did Goro look like an upconverted-to-HD version of the MK4 model or a LoTR orc reject? Maybe I'm expecting Thanos level detail in 2021. I was wrong about nothing redeemable in the movie...the fatalities were decent if that's what you were waiting to see (straightup gore that didn't add to the fight). Wished Jax had a better powered up fight and fatality though. Yeah, Simus acting wasn’t great in Kim's Convenience but he seemed more relaxed to making jokes and having an everyman personality like starlord or peter parker. Simu would do better if that’s the angle they’re aiming for
Well. The fatalities were the only good parts of the fight. Before that it ooked like two morons slapping each other with air punches. There are you tubers out there with better fight choreography. The fights had no weight in them. I saw chris stuckmans review is spot on about the fights.
