Mortal Kombat (2021) Movie Discussion Thread

[Trustful_Whale]

People with scars get magical powers and recruited to a school for the gifted and talented.

So when is Harry Potter joining the tournament?

Kano already made that joke.

 

[Courante]

Jesus christ Max doesnt even like it, and he always struck me as a industry friendly "influencer."

 

[Xelz]

Kano already made that joke.

Lol, did he? I began checking out about halfway into the trailer park.

It would’ve been way better if Kano’s magical power was curling into the fetal position and flying through the air.

Also, I sincerely hope that future MK titles will replace Goro’s lair with Cole’s detached garage.

 

[NaCl man]

It was what I expected. It was fun but the fighting was really short. Liu was a bit of a bitch (not the actor but the way they wrote the character) Kano was top teir. Fun movie i liked it

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Lol, did he? I began checking out about halfway into the trailer park.

Right before the triple sweep joke Kano says to Liu Kang "no Harry Potter shit, alright?", lol.

 

[NickDaGreek1983]

Funniest moment for me was when things got serious (Shang and CO entering Raiden's temple) and the two leaders were having their heated conversation, then cut to Kano eating peanuts ! !

This and the poor snot-gnome at Sonya's place.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

The funniest thing to me is how Goro looks like Ron Isley

 

[Art Lean]

BUUUUUUT at the same time they’ve kinda wrote themselves into a corner with stuff like Prince motherfuckin Goro, the outworld heavy weight champion, getting killed by some guy named cole in his fucking driveway lol.

They can also go with Kintaro or even Sheeva as Outworld's Shokan heavy in the next one, they don't have to stick to the established MK1 tournament fighters in the next movie.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

It might just be revenant Goro. They made sure to show Shang Tsung reclaiming his body

 

[Nephrite]

But you cannot say that the production lacked effort, passion for the lore and more importantly, studying and respect for the characters. Except for Nitara and Reiko!! They clearly were jobbers that didn't leave their mark. But that's totally ok.

Honestly, Mileena was the worst. A super-popular character that's been around for nearly 30 years reduced to a mere shallow basic villain, there just be to be killed-off (and they killed her off in a very cheap way, basically cheated her). Her costume was forgettable (no trademark pink/purple), no veil/mask to hide her mouth and thus no surprise element, she's randomly black for whatever reason, and I guess Kitana/Mileena rivalry is not going to happen, shame. If they wanted a black female character, they could have had Sisi play Tanya or Jade in this movie and save Mileena for a sequel with Kitana.
... ... ...
Also Kitana's fan being in Raiden's temple is so random and makes no sense. This is pre-MK1, at this point Kitana would still have been on the Outword side so what the hell is her fan doing in Radien's temple in Earthrealm lol.

 

[Onryoki]

I don’t wanna be that negative about the movie. But it’s better that they don’t turn MK into a movie ever again. Games with such a history are better off as a series, that way the actual story can get told, new characters can get introduced and it gives them the chance to actually develop.

 

[EarlyReflections]

Raiden's and Liu's miscasts and horrible acting.. How could they really greenlight these?
Imo Sonya and Jax where spot on, Kano even if was a bit alienated , carried the whole mess.
Scorpion stands out of course. I would love to like Subzero, but he was more like a horror character, doesn't feel like Bi Han.
Cole Young, he came of as we all expected. The actor did a very good job and he is likeable, shame they wasted him on Cole and not and actual character. He could be a million times better as Liu Kang.
Shang was mediocre and Mileena felt like a cameo.

The lore was a mess, bithmarks, arcana wtf?
The settings, atmosphere and photography are weird too. Too many urban places and interiors, frozen environments suffered (the plastic transparent film on surfaces and the carpets as frozen floors sometimes were eye poking). Outworld is just an empty space.

This thing felt like MK Legacy season 2. I mean if you remember The Cyrax/Sektor episode from season 1, it surpassed this movie on every level.
Also Kung Lao's haircut. Seriously.

 

[SHAOLIN]

Wow you guys really had some HIGH expectation for this movie, huh?

 

[EarlyReflections]

Wow you guys really had some HIGH expectation for this movie, huh?

it doesn't feel like a 50 mil budget movie for sure...

 

[Art Lean]

it doesn't feel like a 50 mil budget movie for sure...

When adjusted for inflation, this had the same budget as Mortal Kombat Annihilation did.

 

[theotherguy]

we should have seen other Lin Keui characters and even set up Kuai Liang for sequels
as well as Quan Chi and the Neatherrealm
Johnny Cage needed to have been in this movie.

Ahh, no. There's already enough going on without trying to add at least 3 more characters. Even dumping Cole it's too much.

correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this movie supposed to be like a prequel to the tournament??? Like the next movie will be the actual tournament, this one was just outworld playing dirty and trying to assassinate possible champions with sub and co....??

In that sense I think it’s kinda cool and makes the movie better, BUUUUUUT at the same time they’ve kinda wrote themselves into a corner with stuff like Prince motherfuckin Goro, the outworld heavy weight champion, getting killed by some guy named cole in his fucking driveway lol.

There's a lot noise about there being no tournament, but it seems that was done on purpose to make it different from all the other versions., and possibly part of a grand plan with the sequels assuming they happen.

With Goro, that's true, but this isn't supposed to be a re-telling of the game story verbatim. As it seems they have scripts ready for sequels planned, clearly they know where they want to go and having Goro killed off doesn't matter in the end. It won't follow the original story with Goro being the big boss, but does it matter?

Also Kitana's fan being in Raiden's temple is so random and makes no sense. This is pre-MK1, at this point Kitana would still have been on the Outword side so what the hell is her fan doing in Radien's temple in Earthrealm lol.

Souvenir from a previous battle at some point? She's 10000 yrs old, and Shao Kahns assassin, makes sense she's been in a few fights during that time.

 

[Zviko]

Probably trash/average at best for a person not interested in MK, no idea. As a MK fan though, I couldn't ask for anything else. It felt like MK, it was bloody and gory, characters were badass, well captured their personalities and signature moves, fight scenes were awesome, it was funny,...fakin beauty.

I really enjoyed it. Kano was my favorite by far and Sub and Scorp obviously. The moment where Scorp's spear hits Sub when he returns,... I already said that "Get over here" was cringe when I saw the trailer for the first time but I didn't feel any cringe at all in the movie. It just gave me goosebumps.

Awesome job, I want more.

 

[Juxtapose]

I thought it was funny how impressed Kano was at Sonya's offer of 2 million. Considering he's an international weapon and drugs dealer you'd think he'd have dump trucks of money

Kabal made it pretty clear that Kano was very "washed" up and on hard times when he convinced him to side with Outworld.

 

[Juxtapose]

Variety interviews McQuoid on some of the choices for the film (no Tournament, no Cage, etc.) as well as discusses sequel potential.

An interesting read.

 

[Juxtapose]

I watched the film a second time last night.

Sub-Zero is great, and the opening scene, as well as his final fight with Scorpion, are the best moments of the film. The costume and general production design are fantastic, and the blood and gore are finally present in a feature film.

Cole was not a good character, and he really feels like a bland Neo wannabe. They should have focused on Liu Kang. The film needed a good extra thirty to forty minutes for exposition/character development, as well as some more extended fight scenes.

There were also too many characters not needed at all. Cut the 3D area rejects and remove Reiko and Nitara completely. The good guys focus on Liu, Lao, Sonya, and Jax with Raiden guiding them and Scorpion popping in to deal with Sub-Zero. The bad guys focus around Sub-Zero with Shang guiding him, with Mileena as his enforcer and Kano as the turn coat. That would have been fine, and allowed more development.

As a fan of the franchise, and getting all the in-references, I still enjoyed the film and give it a 7 out of 10; a fun b-flick. For anyone who does not know the franchise though, more like a 4 or 5 out of 10.

 

[Jynks]

I almost lost it near the end when Scorpion just keeps taking his mask off. I believe he took his mask off 4 times in 4 consecutive cuts.

That stuff with the masks is so lame.. I have no idea WHY they do that in films... it is always so stupid. Those crappy Disney Movies popularised it I think over the last 20 years. I mean they have it down to a super fast special effect now that takes the mask off and on in seconds. Basically this is some looser direction trying to copy on of ther WORST facists from disney films next to the magic ear buds and microphones that allow people to just casually chat no matter where they are phsycially). The thing is as it was so low budget they couldn't do the "whisk-face-off" special effect thing. As disney dose it so fast now it hides how beyond retarded it is.. seeing it in MK the syupidity of what we see with Iron Man and Spiderman is just amplified to 11.

 

[Art Lean]

A great very positive review from tabmok99 and his friends:

 

[Law Hero]

That stuff with the masks is so lame.. I have no idea WHY they do that in films... it is always so stupid. Those crappy Disney Movies popularised it I think over the last 20 years. I mean they have it down to a super fast special effect now that takes the mask off and on in seconds. Basically this is some looser direction trying to copy on of ther WORST facists from disney films next to the magic ear buds and microphones that allow people to just casually chat no matter where they are phsycially). The thing is as it was so low budget they couldn't do the "whisk-face-off" special effect thing. As disney dose it so fast now it hides how beyond retarded it is.. seeing it in MK the syupidity of what we see with Iron Man and Spiderman is just amplified to 11.

Generally speaking, actors usually DEMAND that they be allowed to remove masks/helmets in order to get more face time in a film so that audiences can recognize them. It's one of those things that's purely for the ego/resume, and once you notice it, you can't un-notice it, and it will take you out of the movie every time. It's why you often see characters in giant battle sequences not wearing any helmets or anything despite being shot at with arrows. It's also the reason why you get a Judge Dredd movie where Dredd doesn't wear his helmet at all.

I'm glad @RoboCop pointed it out because I also thought it was hilarious to see him taking his mask on and off all the time in the same scene. On a side note, I don't know if it was intentional, but I also found it hilarious that, despite knowing Japanese, Bi-Han always speaks to Hanzo in Chinese which he clearly doesn't understand. Guess he's just trolling him. At least the actors actually knew Japanese this time unlike in Legacy where Hanzo has a hilariously TERRIBLE English accent while speaking Japanese.

 

[NickDaGreek1983]

If you lived in the 90's and watched the old films when they where being played, then you know what I'm going to talk about. Some here were TOO young or not even born back then.

The lack of internet, meant we went to see the 1995 film without knowing anything about it... Just 3 or 4 promo pictures in magazines. And that classic Goro-shadow poster outside of cinemas. The critics back then gave mk1995 1 out of 5 stars on average, for the record.
The film had little CGI and a small budget that most of it went to create the Goro puppet (1,5 million). Also, it was pg-13 and it showed. The most violent thing we saw was an extra getting shuttered during an "exhibition fight".
Most fans hated the same stuff which I will talk about further down this post.

The thing most people agreed on, though, was the portrayal of Kano and Shang Tsung and THAT F%#ING music!!! That soundtrack... Not just the techno syndrome, all of it !

So, after 14 years since annihilation and 13 years since TV's Konquest, Kevin Tancharoen comes in and with a budget smaller than my house's worth gives us MK Legacy 1&2.

Then sth happens and suddenly backs of the MK film project when the rumors in late 2013 were that plot was "a normal dude who works in a supermarket and one day discovers he has supernatural powers".


In between those years, people didn't like a bunch of stuff and expressed their opinion over it.

Some of theme were:
- pg-13 MK ?!?
-Mediocre fan service , with SOME special moves here and there.
-poor CGI that aged badly (animalities, reptile, holes in green screen effects etc).
-Liu Kang is bland/boring and the "chosen one" story is overplayed (Cole deja vu?).
- The tournament format is also overplayed.
-Scorpion and Subzero were allies AND jobbers...
- That vagina-like bird out of scorpion's hand.
-Most bad guys are jobbers with no backstory whatsoever in both films.

• People hated , REALLY hated lizard reptile (deja vu?) because mk1,2 and 3 had a ninja-like reptile. It wasn't until MK4 (1997) that Midway re-modeled him after the 1995 movie.
• Casting choices. Always people have their own opinion on casting in any cinema era.

So over the years we 've seen twists being made as an answer to ALL things MK fans bitched about.

-Liu Kang turning on earthrealm (Brian Tee) and kicking earthrealmers' butts.
-Scorpion & Subzero's origins (while talking in japanese, sth that followed us to the 2021 film) being done accurately in an anime style.
-Different takes and styles on different characters' origin story in mk legacy 1.
-A non-classic tournament format, just wandering around an island slaying each other in legacy 2.
-Cole Young as a new face in the franchise, in order for easier exposition and an alternate way to tell the mk story other than "Kang is the man".
-Bad guys finally being a threat and not just extras.
-Great cgi , even greater costumes, gore and fatalities we didn't even dream before 2021 and good casting .
-most important: FAN SERVICE



All I have to say is: WE DO NOT deserve to get anything MK movie-related (animation or live action) ever again. Ever!

This forum , especially , is a good example on why the internet is a bad place to take opinions seriously. Of course everyone has the right to speak his mind, but the fact that the people of the extremes speak their mind so intensely, burying others' opinions with simple phrases like "mk movie sucked-period" or the other extreme, "it was the best video game moive ever-period" and one saying to another "you're an idiot" for not agreeing is more thatn 50% of those last few days of comments.

After years and years of renditions and lots and lots of different takes of MK lore through mk videogames, mk series, mk films, mk comics and mk animation films, fans will always find a way to be totally nihilistic over any attempt that is being made and show little respect to its creators .

Remember when in the MKX days , Shaun Himmerick was bullied and cursed on repeatedly on twitter because there was no reiko in the mkx dlc? Remember when todd garner de-activated his instagram/tiwtter account because he got cursed and spammed over Kano's left eye shooting lazer in the trailer?


Yes, we are that hateful and stupid.
We do not deserve a sequel.
EDIT: I am tagging you because I know you'll be interested in this post of mine, because I know you're civilized and I am interested in your opinion. @Kindred @Art Lean @RoboCop @Jynks

 

[BRAZILIAN SHEEP]

As a movie: Good movie. Decent. Not a masterpiece, but not a piece of garbage too.

As a MK movie: Come on, man. Not good. NRS story in the game is way better than this.