Matthew Reine
In the early 1990s, one of the most popular video games out there was Mortal Kombat, a fighting game featuring different characters, both human and non, vying for supremacy in the world’s deadliest tournament. There was really nothing like it during its time. It was ultra-bloody and violent as hell. It let kids and teens live out their harsh fantasies through 16 bit graphics. When the initial game hit the scene, people were hooked but it wasn’t until Mortal Kombat II’s console release that really put the series over the top.
Like most popular franchises, Mortal Kombat went beyond gaming, moving a bunch of merchandise and eventually making its way to the silver screen. In addition to a cartoon, live-action television series, and a live touring stage show, a feature film was also produced.
Like any kid, I was a huge fan of Mortal Kombat. My older brother used to rent the first game from Blockbuster (ah, memories) for the Super Nintendo all the time and he received Mortal Kombat II as a Christmas present in 1994 for which we spent hours on end playing. We were hooked and both of us wanted more. When I was in third grade, I was browsing through a gaming magazine and I saw an article hyping the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie. I was so pumped and couldn’t wait to tell all my friends that it was really happening. In 1995, the dream became a reality and the Mortal Kombat movie was released.
Now, a year prior, in ‘94, video game fanatics were treated to another film spawning out of another video game franchise, Street Fighter. While a guilty pleasure for many, the movie wasn’t well received (you can read more about it here). Not wanting to put out another mediocre adaptation of a popular game, producers attempted a more compelling film.
Mortal Kombat was directed by Paul Anderson. Now you’re probably thinking “the director of such classics like Boogie Nights and Magnolia directed the Mortal Kombat movie? Huh?” No, no, no. The movie wasn’t helmed by Paul Thomas Anderson, but Paul W.S. Anderson who is responsible for such “classic” films as Resident Evil, Alien vs. Predator, and the Death Race remake starring Jason Statham. Already this is off to a promising (yeah right) start. Of course, as a nine-year-old, I could care less who directed it as I just wanted to see someone’s head fly off their body.
Right at the movie’s opening sequence, we get the famous Mortal Kombat theme that every fan of the game remembers. The film opens with the main antagonist from the first game, Shang Tsung, killing the brother of Liu Kang, the most popular playable character from the first two installments, and consuming his soul. Under the guidance of Raiden (played by Christopher Lambert), Kang teams with fellow combatants, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, both with their own agendas, to enter Mortal Kombat and avenge his brother’s death.
Many characters in the games appear throughout picture and are even able to recreate some of their trademark maneuvers. Scorpion’s fire spit, Liu Kang’s bicycle kick, and Cage’s groin punch are just some of the little touches that fans of the video game can appreciate. Some of the characters are even introduced by the same voiceover from the video game (REPTILE!). There’s plenty of cheesy moments complete with bad mid-90s CGI and tacky one-liners but nothing too eye-rolling here in my opinion. In the end, Kang is able to defeat Shang Tsung and release all the souls he’s held captive over the years. He is briefly reunited with his brother and everyone returns happily to their home, Earthrealm. The film isn’t great by any means but 20 years later, I still find it fun to watch if just for Johnny Cage’s character trying to make the best out of some lame material. You can also tell that Anderson was a huge fan of the video game as he tried to instill as many callbacks to it as possible such as Johnny Cage leaving a signed headshot of himself as he defeats Scorpion which was his “friendship” finishing maneuver throughout the gaming series. It’s all so bad but entertaining at the same time. Let me get one thing straight: I don’t expect a film based on a video game (especially one as formulaic as a fighting one) to be any sort of modern-day classic. I don’t expect Gone with the Wind, here, people. Sometimes you need to accept things at face value.
Despite the film receiving somewhat negative reviews, it made a killing at the box office making Mortal Kombat one of the most profitable video game adaptations of all time. The experiment worked, right?
…then they made a sequel.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation followed two years later in 1997 and was a pretty big mess of a film. Now to be fair, the first flick did leave it open for a sequel as Shao Kahn, the main boss for the majority of MK games, appeared vowing revenge on the mortals at the former’s conclusion so we did know that another movie was on its way. Anderson was out as director and in his place, we got John R. Leonetti. Don’t recognize the name? Well, you know that horror film, Annabelle, the spin-off of the successful flick, The Conjuring, that was released in 2014? Yea, he did that. But before he tackled the horror genre, he gave the public a huge scare with this abomination. Here, our heroes have to save Earthrealm from an invasion by Kahn and the Outerworld by defeating his army and closing the portal connecting the two before the sixth day.
The characters of Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Raiden were re-cast among others with actors not nearly as charismatic and recognizable as the first. In addition, Cage, who was the highlight of the first movie, was killed off in the opening minutes here. Way too many characters were introduced and no semblance of any sort of coherency took place. The movie quickly degenerates into tons of fighting, horrible acting, and a disjointed story (Raiden and Shao Kahn are brothers? What?) Over the course of this 90 minute feature, they debut Khan, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Ermac, Motaro, Sheeva, Sindel, Sub-Zero II, Mileena, Baracka, Jade, Cyrax, and Nitewolf. Most of which only appeared to show audiences “hey, it’s that character!”
It received overwhelmingly negative reviews and pretty much crushed any hope of future MK films. While the first movie was an acceptable footnote in mindless, 90s action films, this film resorted to cramming as much they can without properly developing anything and relying too much on pointless fight scenes.
The one redeeming quality about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was its above average soundtrack which I bought when I was a kid. It introduced me to Face to Face, who became one of my favorite groups for a few years. It also contained a remix of one of the most underrated Megadeth tracks in my opinion, Almost Honest.
Mortal Kombat resurfaced in 2011 with a web series entitled Mortal Kombat: Legacy which was actually pretty decent and helped re-establish the MK name as a marketable brand in television and film. It served as a prequel to the original video game and detailed a lot of the backstory of certain characters. Notable actors included noted martial artist and the former Spawn, Michael Jai White as Jax and Star Trek veteran, Jeri Ryan portraying Sonya Blade. It ran for two seasons with a third season on its way so if you think Mortal Kombat doesn’t have life as an episodic series, think again! Hopefully someday we’ll get that excellent movie we always wanted.
Hey, Starship Troopers’ Casper Van Dien plays Johnny Cage in Season 2! That alone is worth checking this out.
