Mortal Kombat (2021)

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

Every review I read has a variation of this line...

"Fittingly, while there isn’t all that much narrative meat to it, it’s Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s tale that forms the spine of this film, from start to finish"

Not too worried about the character focus.

That is *technically* true. BUT. STRONG Emphasis on the "technically" part.

The rivalry between Hanzo and Sub-Zero does set the film in motion, and Sub-Zero is in it a lot. BUT, "Scorpion" is not in it very much, and his involvement is facilitated - and aided - by Cole.

Their plotline more or less starts the film and does run through the movie more than any of the other characters' plotlines... but there is not as much "Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero action" as people might think. It's basically just the Beginning and the End.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

The popularity between the two of them has always been pretty split down the middle though.

I liked the color blue, and thus a lifelong fan of Sub-Zero was born when the original games came out.
Scorpion is cool too though. Ninja with a flaming skull - what more could a 90's kid want?

Yeah, I'd never seen an overwhelming favoritism of either Sub-Zero or Scorpion, one over the other. Seemed pretty equally used in all the arcades I always used to go and play MK 1-3 at. I want to say I think I saw more of the "old pros" using Scorpion, but I'm not too sure.

[Leo656]

Sub-Zero was always my guy. Because I'm not very good at fighting games and so he's the easiest one to play as because he's cheap as hell.

I've come to like everyone well enough over time, though. But he's always my sentimental favorite.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by sdp

Liu Kang was definitely pushed as the hero of the franchise, you can see this in all the Mortal Kombat shows / movies in the 90s, he was also the canon winner of MK 4 IIRC. Sub Zero began the anti-hero route since MK3 when he "unmasked" and they gave him more of a backstory and scorpion was not even featured there.

Liu Kang is like Guile from Street Fighter - technically it is his story (for some of the games), but he is not the most popular characters even if pushed into light. Aside from story, developers almost never pushed Liu in marketing materials.

Who was canon winner of MK4 is kind of irrelevant, since Liu was canonical winner of all previous three MK games. It doesn't really make him more prominent or popular in eyes of regular people. Not to mention this fact was established in Deadly Alliance, the same game where he was killed.

Sub-Zero Sr. was an anti-hero in MK1 and MKM. Sub-Zero Jr was moving to the goodie side, since MK2. His unmasking in MK3 was to establish personality of his own, so people could finally figure out that he is a separate character from his evil brother.

Originally Posted by sdp

Heck the only reason Scorpion got a lot more attention was to have Sub-Zero have a better enemy.

I don't see it - Scorpion's story had nothing to do with Sub in MK3 (up until its end) and in MK4 their rivalry effectively ended. Even in MK2 Scorpion takes a vow to protect / not to harm new Sub-Zero as compensation for killing his brother.
So, ironically, their fabled rivalry pretty much never existed outside of MK1 and MK4, which was a mess.

Originally Posted by sdp

MK 5 is definitely when they tried to go a different direction, they kill Liu Kang, and give more focus to Sub / Scorp but it really wasn't until MK9 reboot that they pretty much stopped caring about Sub-Zero and made it all about Scorpion, even the studio's logo is just Scorpion now.

NRS didn't care about Sub, so much that both, he and Scorpion were featured on the game cover and on the title screen of MK9.


NRS generally favors Scorp, for him being the most recognizable character in MK, but saying that they don't care about Sub is not true.

[TigerClaw]

Here's a little taste of the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero fight from the new Mortal Kombat Movie.

[Slade]

Didn't feel like waiting, so I cheated and watched it today. All I will say is, Leo's basically batting a thousand. It wasn't horrible, but I wasn't blown away by it. Movie feels a bit lazy. Id give it a 7/7.5 out of 10. That might even be too generous. As far as Cole's big kill? Stupid choice. Idk, feels like there's a lot of stupid choices made here. It really could have been better.
There is set up for a sequel for whatever that's worth.

I missed a good bit of dialogue from no English subtitles and since it was cam, a chunk of scenes I couldn't see since it was too dark. So, I will def watch it again on HBO.

[TigerClaw]

It currently has a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yesterday I saw it at 60%.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mortal_kombat_2021

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Slade

Didn't feel like waiting, so I cheated and watched it today. All I will say is, Leo's basically batting a thousand.

I'm generally Right about 99.999% of the time, in spite of other peoples' bad opinions.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'm generally Right about 99.999% of the time, in spite of other peoples' bad opinions.

*ahem*


ten characters

[Leo656]

What, you need a lozenge or somethin' buddy?

Also, just for the record I DO expect to enjoy this movie, I just have some pretty big issues with it. But I think it should still be decent. I hope.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

What, you need a lozenge or somethin' buddy?

Also, just for the record I DO expect to enjoy this movie, I just have some pretty big issues with it. But I think it should still be decent. I hope.

No I mean, you weren't the ONLY one right about this movie, buddy.

[Leo656]

I never said I was! And I was only "right" in the first place because I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Spoilers. So it's not like I'm clairvoyant.

Oh, wait... I totally "predicted" that the ring wouldn't explode at that AEW PPV. Nevermind, I'm totally psychic!

[AquaParade]

Yeah, I think pretty much everyone called where this film would succeed and where it would fail. But it’s good to have fans.

[AquaParade]

For 7 minutes, we can all be Cybercubed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKfzjGJu5do

aka: the first 7 minutes are free to watch online.

[Allio]

Movie was ... kind of meh. Cole young is an original character right? He really just felt like someone shoehorned to have the “every man.” Action scenes were fine when cgi was involved.

[Leo656]

Yeah, I've seen a bunch of reviews and so far, as expected, EVERYBODY hates F*cking Cole. He's literally just there to take up space while the REAL (and more interesting) MK characters get pushed off to the side. As predicted.

Here's a particularly scathing review - 3 out of 10! YEESH! - that pretty much says exactly what others are saying in near-unanimous fashion, even people who liked the movie a lot more than this guy did:
https://411mania.com/movies/mortal-kombat-review/

So, there’s no tournament... It makes this movie’s premise more like a pilot for an ongoing television series than a gathering of the universe’s greatest martial artists in an epic battle for inter-dimensional supremacy.

This is commonplace in attempted blockbusters. They tend to dangle the carrot and tease the audience with the idea of what’s really desired and save it all for the next movie. The cool things are saved for the next installment that might never materialize. This movie wants to be a franchise starter, but the problem that the film spends so much time setting up future installments by neglecting the present cinematic experience at hand. So, there’s lots of obnoxious sequel-baiting in Mortal Kombat. Want to see this character? Want a tournament film? Maybe next time.

The largest problem with Mortal Kombat is the center of the movie, and there’s literally no getting around it: the protagonist Cole Young... All Cole Young does is take away valuable screen time and development from the characters the plot should feature.

Cole Young encapsulates a bigger problem for would-be Hollywood blockbusters, whether it’s video game adaptations, comic book superhero films or genre features. It has long been an execrable convention for films such as Mortal Kombat to force such cookie-cutter audience surrogate characters into their plots. The convention of a fabricated audience surrogate not only shows a complete and utter contempt for the very audience the story attempts to cater to, and more often than not serves to undercut the story.

Cole Young is the epitome of bad audience surrogate characters who are forced and contrived into a story where they don’t belong. What’s worse is that Cole Young is forced into a story based on a mythology that is littered with infinitely more interesting and compelling characters that would have served as superior protagonists. Yes, let a character serve as the window into a larger, weaving narrative that’s filled with oddball characters and concepts, but an existing character in an established mythology can just as easily serve as the window into that narrative.

(...)
Liu Kang and Kung Lao, two of the greatest heroes in the Mortal Kombat Universe, are present in the plot, but they’ve been marginalized at the price of serving the contrived journey of discovery for Cole Young... Liu Kang actually manages to be intriguing enough to describe an infinitely better premise for a new Mortal Kombat movie than the origin story of Cole Young. Ludi Lin and Max Huang are not great in the roles of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, but they do show enough that the movie probably should have been about them rather than Cole Young.

I swear to you, I did not write this review. But the fact is, even though most people who've seen the movie so far seem to like it a lot more than this guy does... they're all pretty much saying the EXACT same things he is, particularly about Cole. That's worth hearing out.

Here's a MUCH more enthusiastic and positive review... which nonetheless seems to echo almost all of the same sentiments, just not getting quite so hung up on them. Dude likes the movie, but admits to all the exact same flaws as the other guy.


SO. Sounds like a real mixed bag, where individual mileage may vary greatly based on individual Wants and Expectations.

Pros:
- Scorpion, Kano, and Sub-Zero all steal the show.
- Lots of gore and Fatalities.
- Tone and presentation feels like MK.
- Some good to GREAT fight scenes.
- Some deep cuts and fanservice moments.
- Sets up a much better sequel that we hopefully will get to see.
- Even people who hate it say that it's better than "Annihilation" by a hundred miles.

Cons:
- No tournament.
- MK "rules" out the window (Bad Guys trying to kill the Good Guys before the Tournament, which pretty much ignores the established lore entirely and kind of lessens the entire point of there BEING a tournament in the first place).
- Useless "audience avatar" character takes up too much space while "real" MK characters either pushed to the side or absent entirely.
- Liu Kang and Kung Lao, the "real" stars of the mythos, are bit players in service to F*cking Cole.
- Most of Scorpion's involvement was already shown in the trailers.
- Most anyone who isn't Kano, Hanzo/Scorpion, Sub-Zero or F*cking Cole either gets very little to do OR isn't very well-acted, which stands out against the ones who steal the show.
- There's always a chance that the Much Better Sequel won't even happen, leaving this movie to ultimately be little more than a giant f*cking c*cktease. Didn't the MMPR reboot's failure teach studios to stop doing this kinda thing?
---------------

Taking it all in... I am still looking forward to it, and I do think I'm going to like it. But ALL of my fears from the Spoilers have been verified, by the fact that people who like AND hate the movie all agree on the same exact problems with it, and simply differ on to what degree those things ultimately matter.

However, another thing they all seemingly agree on is that if ALL you care about going in is blood, gore, Fatalities and fights, and could honestly not care less about the lore or the fidelity to "authentic" Mortal Kombat... you should come away well-satisfied. But if you, like me, care just as much about the mythos of MK as the mayhem - "Lore before Gore", as Jahns puts it in his review - then you very well might have some BIG problems with this movie's execution and choices, even if you like The Other Stuff a lot.

I don't plan to watch it while I'm sick, so I might have to wait until Saturday or Sunday or whenever I kick this infection. But I definitely am looking forward to seeing it as soon as possible.

Even if some parts annoy me... it CAN'T be as bad as "Godzilla vs. Kong". I hope.

[Coola Yagami]

....... There's....no.... Tournament???


THERE'S NO TOURNAMENT???


YOU ****ING IDIOTS!!!!! YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!! ONE. JOB!!!!!!

Oh **** this movie all to hell. I'll still watch it but **** it all to hell. Assuming there's a sequel there better be a tournament or I won't even bother watching the third one.

[sdp]

only the first game was a tournament, well i guess 2 in a half assed way as well. Not being a tournament can work since the games have ignored that aspect. I do think Cole if not handled correctly would be a bigger issue.

Originally Posted by Leo656

Y
- There's always a chance that the Much Better Sequel won't even happen, leaving this movie to ultimately be little more than a giant f*cking c*cktease. Didn't the MMPR reboot's failure teach studios to stop doing this kinda thing?

Power Rangers 2017 is great, now it did take a very different direction and I don't love all their choices but it was a fine movie. The tease with the green ranger? That was cool and a great way to do it, I definitely wouldn't have wanted him in the first movie without a set up of the original team first.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by sdp

only the first game was a tournament, well i guess 2 in a half assed way as well.

Exactly, and where's the best way to start? At the beginning. Make the ****ing tournament, build up on the aftermath in sequels. DO THE ****ING STORY RIGHT.

[Leo656]

I wasn't even aware that was a "secret" by this point. I'd read that in some puff piece about the movie way before I ever read any Spoilers. I thought everybody knew. The director's even been talking about it, like "Yeah, this is Part 1 of 3... we hope."

But yeah, this is the "set-up" movie, a Prequel. Not "really" Mortal Kombat; because "Mortal Kombat" is what the TOURNAMENT is called - the tournament that this movie doesn't have. So right off the bat, it should have been called "Mortal Kombat Begins", or something. The entire point of this one is, "Shang Tsung figures that if he just kills everyone before they even HAVE the Tournament, Outworld wins by forfeit and gets to take over Earthrealm." So his guys just go off and try to kill everyone first. Everybody is fighting just to survive long enough to even GET to the Tournament, which is what the next movie will be about (if it happens).

Which... kinda isn't how it works. Aren't those kinda shenanigans explicitly forbidden by the Elder Gods? Wasn't that actually a PLOT POINT in the 1995 movie? ((Checks)) YEP! Raiden: "Your sideshow freaks attacked my fighters. That is expressly forbidden before the Tournament!" The very plot of this movie disregards one of the most fundamental pieces of the MK lore. OY! That's pretty cringe. I'll be blunt, I don't have a huge problem with a Prequel movie - although by default it means that title needs fixin'; you CAN'T call it "Mortal Kombat" if the Mortal Kombat Tournament never takes place! But when you get something so basic wrong right out of the gate, it kinda makes it look like you did all of your "research" on the franchise just by watching a YouTube clip of Fatalities.

And honestly... I kinda get the feeling that that's exactly what they did for this. Just like the creators of "Godzilla vs. Kong" listened very strongly to the people who said, "I just wanna see the monkey punch the dinosaur, and that's ALL I care about," I get the sense that the people who made this movie made it ONLY for the people who jizz their pants over the gore and the Fatalities, but don't care about anything else. The "So long as someone gets their spine ripped out I'm going home happy and soaked!" crowd. And I get that; it's just kinda disappointing.

Because as hard as it might be for some people to believe, a ton of MK fans DO care about the lore and want to see it represented well. Moreso even than gameplay, I feel that MK's lore and mythology is what makes some people prefer it over Street Fighter. I know that's always been the case with me; I play both, but I'm fairly crap at either so I don't have any strong character or gameplay preference. But what that guy said in the video I posted above echoes my own sentiments about MK word-for-word; it was the blood and guts that got my attention with the first game, absolutely, but what KEPT me coming back, to the point where I've played almost every game in the series despite not even being in any respect a "fighting game guy", was its awesome characters and epic, well-told (if sometimes messy) mythology. The characters, the relationships, the events, the rivalries... at some point along the way, I gradually realized that I wasn't even playing the games specifically to see the blood n' guts stuff anymore, I sincerely wanted to see where the story went next. The rest was just an awesome bonus.

And I do know that some people, maybe even a lot of people, just plain don't care at all. "So long as the characters look recognizable and Sub-Zero freeze-uppercuts someone, or someone gets cut in half, that's all they need to get right, everything else is negotiable." I get that; I just don't really agree with it. And I think it's unfairly dismissive of everything that's been established, the stuff that the "hardcores" - the people who are gonna want to watch this movie more than once - DO want to see. Yeah, get the Fatalities right, but get The Other Stuff right, too. Balance it. It's not actually all that hard. So many of this movie's "mistakes" are rather easily fixable, and that's what makes them frustrating.

I'm mostly just venting. It's not honestly all that "Make or Break" for me. I just wish that if they put the work in to get the costumes and the Fatalities so close to perfect, they could at least pay lip service to the "rules" of the universe they're adapting, and get the lore more properly respected as well as the violence. Because it would be very easy to do and it would give the "purists" a lot less to be annoyed about. That's all. Some people DO care. More than some may think.

A prequel is fine (fix that TITLE, though, dammit!). "A few changes" to the story is fine, if they're not really BIG changes. Making sure the costumes and Fatalities are near-perfect but saying "Eh, we can just wing the rest of it because nobody cares anyway"... that's not really "fine", that's reductive.

I do hope it does well, because at the end of the day it seems like the REAL MK movie we want STILL hasn't been made yet. And unless this one gets a great response, it won't be. That was kind of a bonehead movie on their end. The Good Guys spend most of this movie training to fight in a Tournament we never actually get to see them fight in. That's... yeah.

I expect the action to be great. Story... could've had another pass.