Not exactly a knockout.
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4/23/2021
A quarter-century has passed since Hollywood first adapted the arcade classic
Mortal Kombat, with a film that launched newcomer Paul W.S. Anderson into his career making bad but extremely profitable movies full of CG mayhem (and a side career flummoxing those casual moviegoers who confuse him with two similarly named but slightly more brilliant auteurs).
This year the newcomer is Simon McQuoid, whose version of
Mortal Kombat ditches original character Johnny Cage but revives most others dating back to Midway’s 1992 game. A B-movie that would benefit immensely from some wit in the script and charisma in the cast, it’s not as aggressively hacky as P.W.S.A.’s oeuvre, but it runs into problems he didn’t face in 1995: Namely, the bar has been raised quite a bit for movies in which teams of superpowered young people have fights to save the universe. While gaming die-hards may enjoy this riff on familiar characters and kills,
Mortal Kombat movie hits HBO Max and movie theaters April 23, bringing Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and a dozen other classic (and not-so-classic) kombatants back to the big screen.
Mortal Kombat, directed by first-time feature filmmaker Simon McQuoid, also makes a big swerve: The movie introduces an entirely new original character to the mythology named Cole Young.
Cole’s introduction to the Mortal Kombat franchise was controversial from the start, when his character was revealed in early casting leaks, but he plays an important role in the new film. He effectively replaces series veteran Johnny Cage as
Mortal Kombat’s audience insert. Like Cage, he’s in over his head, but Cole does not enter a mystical multidimensional tournament for ego-driven reasons. Cole is a failed mixed martial arts fighter who unwittingly finds himself the target of forces beyond his understanding and must fight for Earth alongside Liu Kang, Raiden, Jax, and Sonya Blade.
Almost 30 years after “Mortal Kombat” changed the fighting game landscape forever, a reboot to the film franchise based on these brutally violent games arrives in theaters and on HBO Max for 30 days. Here’s the important thing for fans to know: it’s as R-rated as the games themselves. For the first time really, the truly gruesome appeal of “Mortal Kombat” makes it to the big screen, complete with some combo fighting moves pulled directly from the games, certain character-based catch phrases, and even a few famous fatalities the finishing moves that included spines being ripped from bodies through the top of your opponent’s head. There are some showdowns that will appeal to people who have played all of the “MK” games (which includes yours truly, believe it or not), including match-ups that involve now-classic video game characters like Sub-Zero, Kano, Raiden, and many more. While the film comes to life in ways that video game flicks often fail to do in its action sc
What We Want from a Mortal Kombat Sequel
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Mortal Kombat is now out in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, and it s no spoiler at all to say that this new reboot is just the first installment of a planned series of new
Mortal Kombat franchise, while scriptwriter Greg Russo made it clear to Comicbook.com that he indeed has a vision for the
Mortal Kombat sequels: I wouldn t be doing my job as a writer if I m not always thinking, where can I go? Right? Where can I build this out? Russo said. So in my mind, yeah, I know where I would go in subsequent films.
Mortal Kombat review: A reboot that nails the neck-snapping kombat polygon.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from polygon.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.