As already mentioned this article is decades late, Rambo has already had his character sold out in every piece of media he's been in after the first movie.
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Kotaku: Mortal Kombat 11 Cheapens Its Guest Characters’ Legacies
- Thread starter Deleted member 2172
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I think we can agree that the guest characters have had their own franchises ruin their legacies.
At the risk of being the asshole. I think it's more the presence of guest characters that makes MK feel cheaper. Not the other way around.
Has this been updated for that new Rambo movie where he lives out the fantasies of people who think that Mexico is essentially a Arkham Asylum, except a country?
I haven't seen that one. Is that titled Rambo V: The Hunt for Rambo's Legacy?
I think the bigger issue is that basically all their guest characters are boring zoner characters. I dont even need to see rambo to know he's going to be another zoner
I agree, actually. One or maybe 2 is fine. If you're going to have so many guests characters i think they should at least be video game characters instead of random movie characters
I agree, actually. One or maybe 2 is fine. If you're going to have so many guests characters i think they should at least be video game characters instead of random movie characters
You know?
but you said in your original post that it's not even the voice actor which it is
https://twitter.com/mortalkombat/status/1314309892820275200?s=21
Universal Soldier Dolph LundgrenExcuse me, UniSol Van Damme is the ideal.
Time Cop Van-Damme...
Spawn is mid-range/footsies with some pressure, Terminator is a straight up grappler/mix-up character, Robocop is a zoner/setup heavy character, Joker is a rushdown/trap character.
Hellboy in IJ2 was offense-oriented, TMNT were a mixture of many elements, Sub-Zero was the jack of all trades, Raiden was Raiden.
LITERALLY all zoners.
If I don't like it, they must be zoners. Because I don't like zoners.
Rambo's a character with multiple sequels and a children's animated series. His legacy was cheapened long before he was added to Mortal Kombat.
First Blood obviously won't be the only design of Rambo in the game if you've seen how they handled Terminator.
First Blood obviously won't be the only design of Rambo in the game if you've seen how they handled Terminator.
Exactly my thought. Rambo has long been a cartoon compared to the first movie.
To be fair, there are a lot of people who would try to use a gun at that range. And those people would be less smart than Rambo in this image.
One of the biggest swing and misses from Kotaku's editorial side ever. This would honestly work better as satire.
The fact someone was paid to write this is so amusing to me (and it's also impressive that kotaku still has enough of an audience to make enough money to pay someone to write this)
I can't take this article seriously when I've watched Rambo disintegrate someone with a mini gun on the back of a truck from if I remember right, point blank range. I genuinely remember being young and vomiting due to seeing that scene.
Mortal Kombat is child's play in comparison.
Mortal Kombat is child's play in comparison.
Absolutely terrible take and kinda insulting to the people putting in crazy hours to make these characters as fun as possible IMO.
I am not even a MK fan but it is very obvious they put an incredible amount of work into these cameos. Well, except that stupid looking kick maybe.
If you are gonna take this strict of a stance about media, you basically have to admit that the legacy was 'cheapened' the moment the first licensing/movie deal was signed.
I am not even a MK fan but it is very obvious they put an incredible amount of work into these cameos. Well, except that stupid looking kick maybe.
If you are gonna take this strict of a stance about media, you basically have to admit that the legacy was 'cheapened' the moment the first licensing/movie deal was signed.
I'm less hostile to the thesis statement than most seem to be, but I do disagree with the conclusion. It's commendable that the author sees the character as he was in the early stages, but probably less than 0.1% of the public sees Rambo in that light. He is what he is in the sequel films; a big, loud action hero.
It's like if someone put John Hammond in a game and someone wrote a piece lamenting that he's not an asshole in it (as he is in the book). The perception of a character isn't static.
It's like if someone put John Hammond in a game and someone wrote a piece lamenting that he's not an asshole in it (as he is in the book). The perception of a character isn't static.
I think of anything to criticize Netherrealm for, this really isn't it. All of these movie guest characters have been consistently bastardized by cartoons and/or multiple sequels that have completely transformed any meaningful narrative or nuance you can draw from them and just converted them into far more commodified action features. If First Blood was the only Rambo movie? I would agree entirely, but that point has long past. I know the horror characters were less prone to this criticism but I was seeing similar discussions when Robocop was announced.
This is one of the worst takes I've ever seen. Netherrealm has paid reverence to their guests in the best way possible. As a side note Stallone was the one who ruined Rambo and for that matter Rocky. He took two heartfelt genuine characters\stories and completely ruined them.
I mean, how many remembers John Rambo as this thoughtful character who is broken due to the violence he has seen and partaken in compared to how many who remember the Rambo sequels and John Rambo as a goddamn killing machine? Exactly.
I would want the chicken weapon and the wraparound gloves covered in fudge and candy too!
I would want the chicken weapon and the wraparound gloves covered in fudge and candy too!
"While just appearing in a game like Mortal Kombat 11 does the character a disservice, the most egregious example of Mortal Kombat 11's misunderstanding of RoboCop comes during one of his Brutalities, round-ending finishers during which the game unleashes its most heinous violence. In the movie, RoboCop becomes RoboCop after police officer Alex Murphy is gunned down. It's a brutal scene. Murphy's hand is blown off by a shotgun, then his arm. His attackers reduce him to a bloody torso before shooting him in the head. Even as a cyborg, RoboCop is haunted by memories of his death. So, naturally, Mortal Kombat 11 turns this sequence into a Brutality, allowing RoboCop players to inflict the same violence that led to his creation."
This is the kind of shit a high schooler would think is profound content for an essay.
Yeah, Robocop can enact a version of the Alex Murphy murder as a Brutality. Because it's supposed to be a fun reference for fans of the movie, and they don't particularly care about whether it's consistent with Alex Murphy's emotional state in that film, lol. One of his Fatalities is also horribly unfaithful to that movie, because Robocop and the ED-209 would never work together like that!
This is the same series where a barrel of toxic waste turns one of the bad guys into a wheezing mutant who explodes into green juice on impact, a little kid becomes a drug kingpin, and one of the climactic battles ends with a robot getting knocked onto it's back like a turtle and being unable to get up.
It's a silly cameo in a fighting game that itself takes place in another reality. Does the writer know that the guest characters' legacies also include the sequels to their own movies? Because Rambo sure does kill a lot of dudes in those sequels.
This is the kind of shit a high schooler would think is profound content for an essay.
Yeah, Robocop can enact a version of the Alex Murphy murder as a Brutality. Because it's supposed to be a fun reference for fans of the movie, and they don't particularly care about whether it's consistent with Alex Murphy's emotional state in that film, lol. One of his Fatalities is also horribly unfaithful to that movie, because Robocop and the ED-209 would never work together like that!
This is the same series where a barrel of toxic waste turns one of the bad guys into a wheezing mutant who explodes into green juice on impact, a little kid becomes a drug kingpin, and one of the climactic battles ends with a robot getting knocked onto it's back like a turtle and being unable to get up.
It's a silly cameo in a fighting game that itself takes place in another reality. Does the writer know that the guest characters' legacies also include the sequels to their own movies? Because Rambo sure does kill a lot of dudes in those sequels.
Phrases like "going Rambo on people" essentially entered the lexicon as meaning to go on a badass killing spree, lol.
What in the god damn fuck did I just read where a videogame ruined Rambo's character and not every Rambo movie after the first one
Exactly. I haven't seen the Rambo movies in probably like 20 years, but the ones that are mostly remembered, and the ones that have become part of the pop culture consciousness, are the sequels where Rambo goes HAM with violence.
They're just goofy cross overs, most of these characters have already had their "legacies" cheapened. Rambo is far away from the character he was in First Blood. If you can ignore every other Rambo film to argue for the character's legacy you can probably ignore his appearance in a goofy fighting game.
This is my dream also(imagine the moves and weapons), but you know they'd most likely go for the safe bet of Die Hard's John McClane.
Then again I also think Commando Arnold, Total Recall Arnold, or Last Action Hero Arnold is way more hype than Terminator.
MK is built on the cheesecake, excessive violence of the 80s. The games are basically Bloodsport with magic. There's nothing at all random about the characters they choose. They all fit in perfectly thematically with the franchise, and the work that NRS does makes them all fit in with the gameplay, too.
Robocop isn't random, fits right in with Sektor and the Lin Kuei ninjas. Kano could be a villain in a Rambo movie. A killer robot from the future doesn't make sense in a franchise that has had time travel fuck everything up over multiple games?
You can not like the guest characters, but I really don't see how any of them are random.
As many have already mentioned, It's a bit late to accuse the MK appearance of cheapening the First Blood character when we've had 4 (So far) fully blown action movie sequels, a children's cartoon series and numerous other video game appearances.
Also while the blog post says he's based on the First Blood appearance he has the bright red headband, bow, and longer hair from the sequels.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I do fully understand people not liking these guest characters in MK game, But I love them. As someone who grew up on 80's action movies, I especially like this games ones.
Since the MK franchise was basically built off the back of 80's action movies with people like Van Damme, the Terminator, and Cynthia Rothrock being inspiration for original characters I think they kind of fit too.
Also while the blog post says he's based on the First Blood appearance he has the bright red headband, bow, and longer hair from the sequels.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I do fully understand people not liking these guest characters in MK game, But I love them. As someone who grew up on 80's action movies, I especially like this games ones.
Since the MK franchise was basically built off the back of 80's action movies with people like Van Damme, the Terminator, and Cynthia Rothrock being inspiration for original characters I think they kind of fit too.
