1990 Mortal Kombat TV series (22 episodes) coming to DVD
 

Anyone remember this bizarre Mortal Kombat live-action TV series from 1998? I vaguely remember catching a few episodes. Apparently its coming to DVD:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/...w-comes-to-dvd

Apparently the show was a prequel to the live-action movies with Kung Lao as the main character. The show is notable because the villains win at the end, which explains why Kung Lao is dead in the first movie from 1990.

Cool, I remember watching this show back in the days, It had a lot of good martial arts scenes.

Here's Scorpion vs Sub-Zero.

It's not a prequel - it's a standalone thing, since a lot of things in MKC contradicted the movies.

Oo! I liked this show. I'll have to nab it. I liked the guy who played both Raiden and Shao Kahn in Konquest. Jeffrey Meek sounded a bit more sinister than Kahn in Annihilation. Brian Thompson always sounded like some crazy preacher to me whenever I had to watch Annihilation. I started watching Konquest again on youtube over the past couple of days, funnily enough. It'll be nice to own this show even though it does have a cliffhanger ending. Yeah, I know it's basically one of those junk food for the brain types of shows, but I can't help enjoying this since it's based on my favorite videogame series.

Sweet, gettin' it. I used to catch it, it came on after Nitro.

Yeah! lol I remember being glued to the TV most Monday evenings. I was one of those kids who couldn't concentrate unless I had background noise, so I'd always do my homework while Nitro was on and then stick around for Konquest. That actually made me look forward to Mondays.

The games too.

I thought that originally, the show was supposed to have been a prequel to Liu's generation of fighters. The current Kung Lao in the games is supposed to be a descendant and stuff (game wise) of the "great Kung Lao". I figured the show was supposed to have been focusing on the first Kung Lao, hence why I always thought it was supposed to have been a prequel series to the game and movie continuities. The movies pretty much covered events from Mortal Kombat 1 -3.

That aside, I did watch this in its original run. I was so excited for it! I still recall that feeling, and how I was sitting right there for the premiere. I then watched the first few eps and had a "WTH" look on my face because I played the games and stuff at the time. I also didn't care for Kung Lao's character, who was always my favorite Mortal Kombat character game wise. I never did finish watching this show. I couldn't handle it and felt it was terrible. I didn't even know they borught in characters like Noob Saibot (who had a vague storyline game wise at the time so the screwing up of his character can be forgiven) and Quan Chi.

I haven't seen all of the episodes, but I remember watching (now known to be) the last episodes on VHS that I rented with my cousin. We were awestruck by the fact that Shao Kahn won, and it was the best surprise ever!

I loved the show as a kid and when I re-watched it a few years ago it was as good as I remembered. Sure its a cheesy show but so is the MK storyline so when they took the Hercules/Xena cheesy show model and made it MK themed it was a match made in heaven. The show had interesting story arcs and episodes and started to really dwell into MK lore in some episodes. It made characters like Quan Chi and Shang Tsung awesome.

I recently watched like two months ago the new live action MK shorts made a few years ago. And while Legacy was fun it was all over the place and took itself too seriously at times and sometimes it worked great and sometimes it just didn't. MK works fine on a TV budget, I'd love to see another show like this one.

It was marketed as a prequel and nothing really contradicts the first movie, I don't really remember the second movie well enough but for the most part when I watched all the MK movie related shows/sequels I noticed very few contradictions. And counting the show takes place with the past with the Great Kung Lao it shouldn't affect anything from the movies.

The Mortal Kombat movie actually created a rather big universe over different media, there are small contradictions since everything bases itself on the first movie and ignores the rest but technically everything is "in continuity" since everything is in continuity with the first movie, and hell even the second movie contradicted some parts of the first film so in total we have:

MK:Conquest(live action prequel) -- MK:The Journey Begins (prequel Animated DTV) -- Mortal Kombat (film) -- MK:Defenders of the realm(sequel cartoon) -- MK: Annihilation (sequel film)

And yeah like I mentioned I re-watched all of these around 2007 and noticed few if any contradictions and surprisingly they benefited from each other. For example as bad as they are the Journey Begins gives a backstory for most characters in the movie even if the actual movie is a little bit boring those small details fleshes out the characters like Reptile/Goro, hell it even acknowledges the rivalry of Sub Zero and Scorpion and gives an explanation of them working together which works out since out of the blue they are now rivals in the second movie without much explanation and Defenders of the Realm while a generic Saturday morning cartoon also expands the MK lore in their episodes telling you more about the different realms and characters if you can put up with some bad dialog from time to time.

Except that Kitana and Shang Tsung died in the show, which don't really work with the first movie. Scorpion had different origins in "Journey..." and in MKC, as far as I remember. I bet there are some other things.
In general, every media adaption of MK was more or less a separate thing (except for the first two movies).

Well like I said I watched them all in 2007 so I don't remember 100% the details but I do remember finding it interesting that there weren't that many contradictions, sure there are a few but they can be overlooked, like I mentioned even the sequel to the first movie changed a few facts and the ending of the first film so we can be a little leniant with the other media.

Now I'm not trying to say they tried to make a connected universe however all the spin-offs were indeed made as prequels/sequels to the first movie so that's the reason they mostly match up since they're working with the same "bible". I don't remember Scorpion getting too deep into the origin of Scorpion in MK:C but I do remember it was also a little vague in Journey, could be wrong there. Kitana and Shang Tsung only died in the last episode which was supposed to be a dream/cliff hanger to get a second season which didn't work but come on, this is the mortal kombat universe, we can assume that they were revived somehow.

Cool. I used to watch but lost track of it. I love Mortal Kombat. It's the only fighting series I play. Have not seen Legacy yet though.

Also I love Annihilation. It's so unfairly hated on. I don't get it. It stayed true to the games. There's some corny moments but whatever. Such a nitpick. Both movies were great.

Honestly the only things I remember about the show were that it was on after Nitro, Meng and Wrath were in an episode and that's it. That said I'll probably end up buying it. Now if they released the animated series on dvd I'd be a happy camper.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest. I seen the entire thing a few years ago. I actually really enjoyed it, it's a guilty pleasure.

Rle of thumb: if it's not spelled outright - then it's not canon.
As it stands now MK-MKAn-Journey, DOTR and MKC are sort of different universes.

It was atrocious, compared to the first movie.
Bad effects, too many characters, rushed plot, bad costumes.

Seconded, third, fourth, and fifth! I saw the second film in theatres. I was so excited about it, especially seeing the making of it and the hype for it that year. I then went to the movie and I was so disappointed with it. The first movie had its flaws (like the lack of real fatalities and stuff), but the second movie...yeah. All of what you said.

The first one is one of my favorite "cheesy" movies ever (It's really not at all that bad, though, some of the CGI notwithstanding), but the second was a HUGE drop in every category, especially acting and effects. I don't see how anyone but an apologist could think otherwise. It's just poorly done. Other than being another MK movie, it really has no value. Definitely one of the single worst movies I've ever seen; it's not even good ironically. It practically looks like it was made for TV, on a TV budget, but they put it in theaters last-minute because "Why not?"

Annihilation's CGI was bad and some of the acting is dumb but I still think it's a good MK movie. It stayed true to the games.

There were so many characters because Shao Kahn cheated and brought all his villains to earth. It made sense at least.

Yeah but all they had to do was have everybody's costumes match and make sure someone threw a high kick to keep it "true to the games". That didn't exactly take any work on their end.

That's kinda true I guess. I was talking more about the story though.

I just don't see the huge disparity between Annihilation and the first one. They're both pretty out there. Annihilation was bound to be more so with the more outrageous characters based on MK2 and MK3.

I just think the entire thing is Amateur Hour. It just doesn't look or feel like a "real" movie, but the first one does, even if it's not Award-winning.

I can be more forgiving of TV shows having all the same flaws, though, because by definition they're going to be inferior.

The story was fine, the execution was poor and Shao Khan came across as a whiner with daddy issues.

Yeah, really! What a p*ssy that guy was. Couldn't stand it.

I also disliked the walking black stereotype that was Jax and didn't care for Raiden either. Lambert came across as cooler to me.

Psssh, like that's hard. Christopher Lambert is cooler than F***in' Everybody.

He was the Highlander, you know.

i'm excited! i love all things Mortal Kombat

Well if you want to get anal about it then yes they are canon because they're all sequels/prequels to the movie.

I suppose Shao Kahn could have been portrayed a little better but all these complaints sound like nitpicks to me. I mean I don't consider Annihilation a fantastic movie...I consider it a good MK movie.

I like both movies for the fights and seeing the games play out in live-action.

Oh and Jax is kind of a stereotype in the games too. Just saying.

Have they ever released that Mortal Kombat Live Tour thing on DVD/VHS? I vaguely remember commercials of that in the mid 90s. Never got to go to that show because they didn't have it in my part of Arkansas back in the day. It'd make a nice bonus feature on the Konquest DVD if it doesn't exist elsewhere. Did anyone here get to attend? If so, was it such of a much or not worth adding to a boxset?

MK is actually a nice series for you mate, considering Kenshi is a blind warrior. It's not often people with disabilities are given someone to relate to in shows, games, films etc.

I went. Not memorable, I guess is all I can say.

I personally liked James Remar's voice better.

No, it was not true to games. Games themselves were more or less good. Anihhilation was ****, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
No amount of reaching will help to explain why those "many-many characters" popped out of nowhere and then dissappeared without even being mentioned. The "plot" was all over the place. Acting was horrible all around. Production qualities...there were none.

Nope.
First movie, was genuinly decent. Second was bad and boring. And not even "so bad its good" like "Street Fighter" Van Damm flick.

They are based off of a movie, but calling them sequesls and prequels is sort of strange.

It was a fun little series, and we were huge WCW and MK fans back then, it was fun seeing the wrestlers cameo. It went well with Hogan promising wrestlers roles in movies and TV shows back in the day as part of his Hollywood gimmick. I have to admit I had a thing for Taja back then.

As fashionable as it's become to hate the guy, you'd be amazed how many people in the business don't. Even guys he "wouldn't put over" or never even worked with. Know why? Because like you said, everyone in his gravity sphere got rich.

A lot of the stories people spread are exaggerated. I've spoken with some of the guys who are supposed to hate him for one reason or other, and it's mostly BS. He greased the wheels for a ton of people, and most of them do know/appreciate it.

I'm not 100% if this was on MK or an episode of Charmed, but I coulda sworn someone summoned a demon and it just so happened to be Buff Bagwell. And this was still during the Hollywood Hogan era.

Pretty sure that was Charmed. Think there were a few others on that episode too. I never saw it but it was on WrestleCrap.

Yup, it was Charmed alright. I don't remember the episode but I remember my fiancee pointing them out while we were binge watching her DVDs. Funnily enough, Jeffrey Meek, the guy who played Raiden and Shao Kahn in Konquest also appeared in Charmed for a little bit during season 5. Or maybe six. Been a while. I think he was a demon.

Konquest was ok. The acting was forced and hokey but the fight scenes and story made up for it. Not as good as MK 1 but miles better than MK2:Annihilation.
I remember watching it on channel 26 along with the Crow series some 15 years ago.

They kept switching the date and time for the episodes so I never got to finish it. I guess I'll pick it up and see for myself. I wish it was releasing on Blu-Ray, actually... I already have the movies and Legacy on Blu-Ray.