Jake Weston writes:
There were many video game movies before Mortal Kombat, but Mortal Kombat was arguably the first that tried to stay true to the source material. Mortal Kombat literally looks like someone filmed the game. The movie uses the same color palette, features almost every character from the first game, and follows the same basic plot. Every generation, the Elder Gods put together a fighting tournament, the titular Mortal Kombat, pitting fighters from the Outworld against fighters from our realm. Should the Outworld win ten consecutive times, their emperor Shao Kahn will invade and conquer Earth. Our three heroes, Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Sonya Blade (Happy Gilmore’s Bridgette Wilson) are summoned forth by Raiden (Christopher Lambert) to represent Earth in the fight against Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and the rest of the Outworld contestants.
The Mortal Kombat screenwriter wasn't happy about the changes made to his script.
Join us as we take a look at the facts behind the "Mortal Kombat" movie and its journey to the big screen. To quote Linden Ashby's Johnny Cage: "Let's dance!"
Sure, we had some absolute garbage movies in the 90s, but we were a few short years away from Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. Now, we have cinematic hits like Warcraft, Sonic, and Detective Pikachu.
I don't mind the fighting, but I think for a movie to be accepted it needs to change things around. Its the first game where I'm saying this simply because this is also a game built to be a game, and not some cinematic masterpiece .
For example the first change I'd make is have it revolve around one character and one enemy. Mortal Kombat : Sub Zero or MK: Scorpion. Have it tell the whole back story to that character and the enemy, as every character is an enemy to someone else. Sub Zero would develop into what he is, and so on.
Next thing I would do is cut out the "importance" of fighting. Like the youtube series always pushed for a fight, they always randomly fight...it gets kinda stupid at times. Let it build correctly and fight in the correct scenes, the entire movie doesn't need to be fight after fights....