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Mortal Kombat the first film still holds up.

Salty Rice

Salty Rice

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,612
Pancake City
Best video game movie of all time.

There is a reason people flipped their shit when they used a remix of the movie theme in the MK11 launch trailer.
 
Rogote

Rogote

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,606
Yeah it's an incredible film to me. It's good because it knows exactly what it wants to be and goes for just that. It doesn't go for any writing awards etc. It's just very entertaining fun action with incredible OST that also respects the source material in a way that no videogame film since did.
 
Chip Chanceworth

Chip Chanceworth

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,353
I too saw it with my dad when i was about 8, and nostalgia aside i cant fathom why people think its a good movie lol. Throughout the years amongst gamers i would always hear people speak fondly of the first movie and then follow up to shit on the second one as if its even up for debate. They're such trash movies. Granted im one of those weirdo's that likes the Street Fighter movie for the same reasons people claim to like the first MK movie. Its schlock and corny in a fun way.

Granted its been about 8 years since ive seen the MK movie, but now im considering watching it again. Was that 3rd movie/series any good? I recently saw it at walmart on bluray lol.
 
Vanta Aurelius

Vanta Aurelius

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,897
ATL
Helacious said:
I wish Ed Boon would greenlight another movie
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He has no control over when a movie gets greenlit. Warner Bros. owns the rights to MK as far as I know (and Midway before that). There's been a script tossed around in the wild for a while now. The same for Uncharted and Metal Gear, but we haven't heard a peep about either of those movie productions going anywhere in years.
 
Gundam

Gundam

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,801
I thought it held up a lot more than it did, but on my most recent re-watch, the third act is really slow and boring. But the first two acts are still absolutely fantastic and make watching the film all worth it.

It's unironically good.
 
Slappy White

Slappy White

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,208
I rewatched it for the first time in many years on Netflix not too long ago and thought it was still pretty good all things considered.
 

Deleted member 47347

User-requested account closure
Member
Sep 2, 2018
106
It was the best video games movie, at least until Gyaktuen Saiban (Phoenix Wright) was released. Both cheesy af.
 
Yautja_Warrior

Yautja_Warrior

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,770
United Kingdom
It's an entertaining bad movie. It's a guilty pleasure for me.

Looking back at it now though, it's weird how it become as popular as it did with fans, since it lacks the big thing that people loved about the games, blood & gore.

I guess it was the decent cast and some charm that made fans like it more, although it's a shame they didn't make it more violent too, that would have made it even better.
 
Silver-Streak

Silver-Streak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,010
DudleyBoi said:
He has no control over when a movie gets greenlit. Warner Bros. owns the rights to MK as far as I know (and Midway before that). There's been a script tossed around in the wild for a while now. The same for Uncharted and Metal Gear, but we haven't heard a peep about either of those movie productions going anywhere in years.
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Actually, for Uncharted they just recently announced they've started casting Sully's actor, and Tom Holland (of Spider-Man: Homecoming) is attached to play young Drake
 
Simo

Simo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,894
Michigan, USA
DudleyBoi said:
He has no control over when a movie gets greenlit. Warner Bros. owns the rights to MK as far as I know (and Midway before that). There's been a script tossed around in the wild for a while now. The same for Uncharted and Metal Gear, but we haven't heard a peep about either of those movie productions going anywhere in years.
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Oddly the movie has a director and writer attached for years now. I think they're supposed to be shooting in New Zealand too?

Ed Boon I guess took a look at the latest draft a couple of months ago.
 
Remapped88

Remapped88

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,049
USA
Not nostalgia at all but I still love it since it captured the cheesy 90's MK feel pretty well. So many memorable lines and the characters were pretty spot on......also Reptile Ninja form reveal/fight was amazing.

Armageddon though, I want to erase it from my memories.
 
Simo

Simo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,894
Michigan, USA
Yautja_Warrior said:
It's an entertaining bad movie. It's a guilty pleasure for me.

Looking back at it now though, it's weird how it become as popular as it did with fans, since it lacks the big thing that people loved about the games, blood & gore.

I guess it was the decent cast and some charm that made fans like it more, although it's a shame they didn't make it more violent too, that would have made it even better.
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By the time the film came out we were already on the third entry in games. I think for a lot fans by that time the novelty of the blood and gore wasn't what was bringing us back but the characters, lore and gameplay. The film obviously focused on the two formers so it was exciting to see that realized on the big screen in that way and how they incorporated the lore of the first 2 games into a movie.

Personally for me the movie changed perceptions of certain characters and even my favorites. Like, Sub Zero was always a top fave because of his ability and of course in the first game he had the best and most graphic fatality. That carried over a bit to MK2 but when I saw the film and the Johnny Cage/Scorpion fight I thought it was the most bad was thing at the time and changed my mains to Cage and Scorpion in MK2 and pretty much every title since...barring their availability. lol

Likewise with Liu Kang. The attract cinema mentions he won the first tournament and all that but I never really saw him as a major character or protagonist for the series for some reason. The movie changed that.

Again the film was so fanservicey that when the Reptitle fight happens with the game announcer...that was fucking cool. But when it gets to the end and you hear "BOW TO ME!" after all the cool shit that happened...me and my buddies were marking out and here shows up motherfucking Shao Kahn to wreck your shit!

...and the sequel fucking blew it.
 
Jedi2016

Jedi2016

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,836
I don't remember the CG being very good to being with, but that part definitely doesn't hold up.

The rest of it's pretty good, though.
 

Deleted member 7462

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,877
It's fun, most of the fights are enjoyable, and it hits "campy B-movie" perfectly. It's a good movie in the sense that it is good at what it's trying to accomplish. It's not Schindler's List or The 400 Blows or Barry Lyndon, but that's okay.

Maligna said:
wha.. What?

In what world is this a bad fight scene!?

(Obviously I'm talking about when they teleport to hell and actually do hand to hand Kombat)
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No fight where Johnny Cage friendships Scorpion is all bad.

Seriously, the CGI is aged poorly because, you know, it was CGI in the early '90s. Jurassic Park also looks like shit (though not as much as MK because of the bigger budget). That's okay, though.

Anyone who hates on the fight choreography (minus the Sonya fight where the actor had only been playing Sonya for a bit after Cameron Diaz had to drop out, so it was all simplified) is not correct in their assessment of such, IMO.
 
SweetVermouth

SweetVermouth

Banned
Mar 5, 2018
4,272
OP please explain how you can have a Mortal Kombat movie without a single drop of blood? That movie was always overrated.
 
sibarraz

sibarraz

Prophet of Regret - One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
18,154
The game from which the movie is based is a parody of a c tier martial arts movie, that's why the movie is so great, because in the end is very close to the source material
 

Deleted member 37739

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 8, 2018
908
It was hammy as hell and I still love it. I mean, some of the one liners: "This is the part where you fall down..."
 
LogN-

LogN-

Member
Oct 30, 2017
314
I saw this movie when it came out in theatres and went opening night. I still enjoy today, it's cheesy and campy just like the franchise. Christopher Lambert as Raiden was such a terribly great decision it's unreal.
 
SiG

SiG

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,485
I just finished watching it again.

Yeah, people who were born past the 90's will have different standards by now, but IMO it was the simplicity of the storytelling and like what Tfritz mentioned, the movie does a lot by having very little. I'm not sure if it's because of Paul W.S. Anderson's frugality with the direction, or Jogn Tobias and Ed Boon's intervention(?), but it was for the longest while the movie adaptation that felt truest to the source material and atmosphere.

Also with regards to its lack of gore: It manages to side-step it with Scorpion's death and Reptile's in that "it's not really considered R-rated if it's not human" variety. It still has a lot of impalement, and oddly-enough Shang Tsung's "soul-sucking" scenes sort of show flesh being ripped from muscle and bone...before promptly "sucking" those as well (I guess it's suppose to represent the entirety of their souls somehow?). I guess it kept the feel of violence happening which was why many felt like giving it a pass in that department. And as other said, its more of a rounding up the plot of the first two games.

tl;dr - MOOOOORTAAAAAAAAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
 
Kapryov

Kapryov

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,158
Australia
It's my favourite video game movie, I saw it at the cinema when it came out.
It holds up fine.

Also the score features Buckethead on guitar, which elevates it above many other movie soundtracks.


Edit: Actually I remember Reptile being disappointing back when it came out, but the rest of the movie made up for it. Reptile was my favourite character as a kid and it felt like they got him wrong.
 
Kayotix

Kayotix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,312
It's decent for a video game movie.

That second one is just plain fucking trash though. Man It just horrible....
 
Stiler

Stiler

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
6,659
It's a fun movie that was made to please the fans of the game and didn't try to change a ton in order to appeal to some outside mass audience who didn't know or care about MK.

It knows what it is and it sticks with that and has a lot of fun doing so. Lots of great one liners, memorable action, cheesy to the max but wears it proudly on its sleeve.
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

Member
Oct 30, 2017
19,089
The first MK movie is cheesy in a good way, yeah. Very enjoyable.

Unlike MK Annihilation, which is cheesy in a tedious and uncomfortable way.

Also...

That one shirtless ninja that Sub-Zero froze and broke into pieces is seared into my memory. So hot.
 
Thrill_house

Thrill_house

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,678
So damn cheesy but I love it. I can't remember one kid that didn't like it when it hit vhs years ago. As others have said, dumb fun movie
 
Billy Awesomo

Billy Awesomo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,769
New York, New York
The movie still holds up as a great video game movie... with that being said the CGI is awful, if they every remaster this movie or something they should redo all the CGI (this is one movie where I think getting the "George Lucas" special edition treatment would be good and not like a Johnny "get over here" Scorpion first type thing). Also the sound track was dope for back then and it's still awesome now. All the fight scenes were awesome. Art needs to be DLC in new MK game!!!! lol (I still love this movie and the 2nd one was hot flaming garbage that stunk like butt)
 
Manu

Manu

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
17,191
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Billy Awesomo said:
The movie still holds up as a great video game movie... with that being said the CGI is awful, if they every remaster this movie or something they should redo all the CGI (this is one movie where I think getting the "George Lucas" special edition treatment would be good and not like a Johnny "get over here" Scorpion first type thing). Also the sound track was dope for back then and it's still awesome now. All the fight scenes were awesome. Art needs to be DLC in new MK game!!!! lol (I still love this movie and the 2nd one was hot flaming garbage that stunk like butt)
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For all the crappy CGI in the movie, my favorite bad special effect is still the fact that when Scorpion takes off his mask, his head actually grows bigger because of the prosthetic skull they used.
 
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