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Mortal Kombat – Official Restricted Trailer

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Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Nephrite said:
@Swindle

Well, I have to disagree about 2021 film being more well-rounded and handling the characters better. I'd say the only charcater that was clearly handled better was Hanzo/Scorpion. Other than Hanzo/Scorpion, pretty much all other characters feel shallow to me and, except for Kano, don't really have much personality. Sub-Zero has a better costume and way more screen time than in 1995, but he is not any deeper as a character. Actually, there are a couple of things that really bug me this time about Bi Han/Sub-Zero:

If he killed Hanzo in 17th century, how is still alive in modern time?
Why is he showing up as Bi Han in the first part of the film, but later on wears a mask and calls himself Sub-Zero even though he had ice powers from the very start?
Why is he even working for Shang if we know he is from Earthrealm? This makes him the same as in '95, he's just another bad guy with no depth, just more screen time.

While I don't mind Cole, I think this movie could have been much better without him as more time could have been given to provide more info/background on other characters. Also, the problem with Cole as a sort of ''lead hero'' to me is that:

He pretty much serves as a tool to bring back Scorpion in action later on. Speaking of that, if Hanzo was presented as a loving family guy at the beginning of the film, why did he even end up in Hell? I don't think this was explained in the film.
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I think the overall issue is something that is unavoidable in any MK film at this point:
Too many characters. It just isn’t feasible to dedicate enough screen and story time in one movie to flesh these characters out to the degree that 25 years of lore has. Some characters are going to get the broad strokes, and I feel this film accomplished that better than the others. Each character was much more true to their video game nature, and even when questions weren’t answered, they still felt complete in this universe (with one or two exceptions).
I can personally never be on board with how the 95 film treated Scorpion/Sub Zero.
I’ve only seen this movie once, but I honestly don’t see how they could have expanded anything further and still kept it to a reasonable theatrical run time
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Pizza said:
Just by looking at the trailers I can tell Sonya has better fights than in the 1995 movie
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If you are a Sonya Fan, you will be happy with her representation in this movie. She doesn’t feel like modern Sonya, but a natural progression of 90’s Sonya.
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Nephrite said:
@Swindle
While I don't mind Cole, I think this movie could have been much better without him as more time could have been given to provide more info/background on other characters. Also, the problem with Cole as a sort of ''lead hero'' to me is that:

He pretty much serves as a tool to bring back Scorpion in action later on. Speaking of that, if Hanzo was presented as a loving family guy at the beginning of the film, why did he even end up in Hell? I don't think this was explained in the film.
Click to expand...
As far as Cole goes, I think he was kind of “the price of admission”.
Most people familiar with Mortal Kombat as a video game have no idea about the actual story lines. Cole was an easy in. He gave the characters opportunities to give lots of exposition, and having him be brand new in the universe saved the filmmakers from being burdened with sticking to the lore of established characters.
of course there were other options they could have went with, but judging this against previous attempts to bring MK to a mass audience - this worked fine.
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
One caveat:
This film is not some masterpiece of MK storytelling. My enjoyment of it comes from really liking what I feel they did right, and being able to live with the things I didn’t enjoy as much. Very similar to how I can enjoy the game story modes for what they are.
IMO, in comparison to all the other non-game MK adaptations - this film feels like it’s headed in the right direction. I think an “MK2” film is very likely after seeing this, that it will be even better, and that pleases me.
 
Kiss the Missile

Kiss the Missile

Red Messiah
@Swindle Considering the movie has been advertising how many fatalities are going to be shown, were there any characters whose potential you felt was cut short by an early death? Just in general, not looking for real spoilers
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Kiss the Missile said:
@Swindle Considering the movie has been advertising how many fatalities are going to be shown, were there any characters whose potential you felt was cut short by an early death? Just in general, not looking for real spoilers
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Yes.
we will have to see how permanent death is in this movie universe, but I was definitely surprised by one of them.
 
Art Lean

Art Lean

Kombatant
@Swindle, other than the early scenes with Scorpion and Sub Zero, are there many locations that look/feel like they're set in Asia? They've made a big thing about casting Asian actors, but curious as to whether they've tried to actually capture any of MK1 and MK9's locations and atmosphere I loved so much.

The soundstage sets in MK95 were all a bit cheap looking, but the on-location stuff in Thailand was stunning; the scenes on the beaches and the homage to the Courtyard were especially gorgeous, is there anything at all like that in the film?
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Art Lean said:
@Swindle, other than the early scenes with Scorpion and Sub Zero, are there many locations that look/feel like they're set in Asia? They've made a big thing about casting Asian actors, but curious as to whether they've tried to actually capture any of MK1 and MK9's locations and atmosphere I loved so much.

The soundstage sets in MK95 were all a bit cheap looking, but the on-location stuff in Thailand was stunning; the scenes on the beaches and the homage to the Courtyard were especially gorgeous, is there anything at all like that in the film?
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While there were some cool looking locations, they seemed inspired by the Deadly Alliance/Deception look.
 
Art Lean

Art Lean

Kombatant
@Swindle, without naming any names, are there any easter-egg character cameos that are a total surprise (like Nitara in Scorpion's Revenge) that no one will be expecting to appear?
 
T

TeamCage

Noob
I liked the 2021 movie, and I think it's better than the 95 one. The latter will be more rewatchable, though.

Good:
  • Everyone knows that the movie opens with Hanzo vs Bi-Han. It's the best scene in the movie. All the other fights are edited frenetically.
  • Bi-Han is a monster. It should be obvious that he dies at the end, but even then it was a double-team.
  • I liked the costumes. Kabal being the best, both ninjas were good. Special mention to Lao's costume, especially the hat
  • Hanzo's/Scorpion's portrayal
  • Easter eggs referencing the game's lore
  • Surprisingly funny. Mostly Kano, who was the most fun character in the movie
  • SFX were pretty good considering the budget constraints. LK's dragon being the best
  • Having Lao be cocky rather than stoic

Not so good:
  • Sadly no techno soundtrack except sort of at the end
  • Raiden was written in a way that the audience likely interprets to be incompetent, rather than bound by rules set by the Elder Gods. From the poor security around his temple (the good guys have a harder time finding it than the bad guys, and they certainly would have had a harder time entering it) to the way he treats his champions to costing Earthrealm her only death, every single victory of Outworld except Bi-Han killing Hanzo can easily be pinned on his ineptitude.
  • Some bad guys are fatality fodder. Reptile actually got a better showing than the trailer suggested.
  • Cole was very mediocre with an uninteresting "arcana"
-Pacing, writing and a little bit of worldbuilding. On the latter two. I get that characters need to fight, but Jax hoisting an assault rifle and following Bi-Han into close quarters instead of firing from afar or legging it with Cole was poor writing. Would have also liked to see other fodder Earthrealm champions be hunted and killed to show stakes
- If you're a Nitara or Reiko fan, look away. Everyone else at least gets to do something. I get the necessity for fodder, though
 
Swindle

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
Art Lean said:
@Swindle, without naming any names, are there any easter-egg character cameos that are a total surprise (like Nitara in Scorpion's Revenge) that no one will be expecting to appear?
Click to expand...
There was one that was a surprise to me, but I didn’t watch all the promo material after the first trailer...so not sure if they would be a surprise for everyone.
 
Art Lean

Art Lean

Kombatant
New feature on the martial arts, with lots of behind the scenes shots and new clips from the film (especially for the poor souls like me who have to continue waiting for at the very least another 9 days):

 
Steven Farmer

Steven Farmer

Noob
At the risk of coming off like spam, the fact the producer cut out Johnny Cage because of being white then he retracts and tries to save face and say it was because he needs his own movie is so cringe I had to make a video about it.
 
Kindred

Kindred

Let Be Be Finale Of Seem
Steven Farmer said:
At the risk of coming off like spam, the fact the producer cut out Johnny Cage because of being white then he retracts and tries to save face and say it was because he needs his own movie is so cringe I had to make a video about it.
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Do people actually believe Johnny was cut because hes white?
It was so evidently an attempt to be woke that backfired, hence why they backtracked.
Them saying he deserves his own movie also feels like a lie to appease the JC fans because he obviously doesnt (according to the games at least)

From a character POV it wouldnt make sense for him and Kano to be in the same first movie of the series. Other than the fact that the number of characters in the movie is already bloated, added to that the fact that they both would be used for comedic relief and you have a useless addition to anybody that doesnt know anything about the MK universe. People have to realize that the largest audience they are aiming for this movie arent MK fans

The one thing I am curious about is the idea of replacing Cole with JC. But then does that mean that JC will become the main character of the series? Why not Sonya? Why not Jax? "Why not my character" would be the question on many fans' minds. By creating a new character, you avoid this issue altogether. While also giving the opportunity for fans to discover a new, potentially cool character (like they did with Shujinko)
 
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Art Lean

Art Lean

Kombatant
As I've said before, we've had the Liu-meets-Sonya-meets-Johnny trifecta origin story of them arriving at the tournament told almost identically four times already; we had Mortal Kombat 95, MK The Journey Begins and MK Scorpion's Revenge in televised media form, whilst we also had MK9 do the exact same story and characterisation in game form during its story mode, so to be honest at this stage I am actually excited to see something fresh done by taking away one of those characters for a new dynamic.
 
Steven Farmer

Steven Farmer

Noob
Kindred said:
Do people actually believe Johnny was cut because hes white?
It was so evidently an attempt to be woke that backfired, hence why they backtracked.
Them saying he deserves his own movie also feels like a lie to appease the JC fans because he obviously doesnt (according to the games at least)

From a character POV it wouldnt make sense for him and Kano to be in the same first movie of the series. Other than the fact that the number of characters in the movie is already bloated, added to that the fact that they both would be used for comedic relief and you have a useless addition to anybody that doesnt know anything about the MK universe. People have to realize that the largest audience they are aiming for this movie arent MK fans

The one thing I am curious about is the idea of replacing Cole with JC. But then does that mean that JC will become the main character of the series? Why not Sonya? Why not Jax? "Why not my character" would be the question on many fans' minds. By creating a new character, you avoid this issue altogether. While also giving the opportunity for fans to discover a new, potentially cool character (like they did with Shujinko)
Click to expand...
Why do they need Cole at all? Sonya or Jax are enough for a POV character
 
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