NOTE: Pretty much any time I refer to the “Mortal Kombat movie” here, I’m talking about the one from 1995, not the one from 2021.
Watching the Mortal Kombat movie recently gave me lethal levels of nostalgia. And I’ve never even seen it before.
It’s a perfect encapsulation of every B-movie from the 90s. Bad acting, writing that swaps from amazing to terrible in the blink of an eye, and beautiful special effects.
It’s not a good movie by a lot of measures. But don’t get me wrong, it’s really fun. And it’s one of the best cross-media video game adaptations I’ve ever seen.
One of the most interesting parts of this movie, is comparing it to the direction the series has taken since. The casting seemed slightly weird when I was watching it, but after some reflection, I realized why I felt that way. This was the first time all the familiar Mortal Kombat characters were shown in high-detail, at least compared to the digitized sprites of the games. Johnny Cage and especially Raiden felt weird to me, but that’s only because I was comparing them to their modern appearances that were set in MK9.
Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage I was able to get past, but Christopher Lambert as Raiden still doesn’t sit well with me. I’m not a die-hard Mortal Kombat fan. In fact, I only started playing the new games and watching the movies like 2 weeks ago. Maybe the reserved, wise old man direction Lambert took Raiden in makes sense to fans who have been playing since the 90s. To me, it just felt weird as someone going back to the movie with Richard Epcar’s iconic performance in the modern games in my mind.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, on the other hand, is perhaps the perfect casting. When auditioning for the role, he immediately impressed the filmmakers with his line delivery while standing on a chair. I’m assuming that’s true, because it’s on Wikipedia.
I love the fact that they got his likeness and voice for Shang Tsung in MK11 as DLC. Interestingly, there’s a whole DLC pack that contains costumes that feature actor’s likenesses and voices from the movies.
In general, I just think it’s amazing the love Mortal Kombat movie has received as of MK11. There’s so many references to tiny moments in that movie. Multiple intro lines reference it, you can find Kano eating at Goro’s lair, and there’s even a statue referencing the stupid little CGI goblin Reptile.
And holy shit… The MK11 launch trailer featuring the movie’s theme remixed? That’s one of my favorite trailers of all time, and like 70% of that is the song.
The Mortal Kombat 1995 theme is is goddamn hype, I can’t even begin to put it into words. It’s one of those video game songs that you hear, and it just makes you immediately want to play the game. Just writing about it right there made me pull up the song on YouTube, and I want to close my laptop and play some Mortal Kombat 11 this fucking minute.
And that’s the beauty of the movie. It did so many things that would become iconic for the series. The actor’s portrayal of all the characters basically established what all the characters would look, sound, and talk like in the games when story became more of a focus.
Of course, I could spend a buncha time talking about how stilted some of the line deliveries are or how contrived it feels at points, but ya know, it doesn’t matter that much.
Would I Recommend It?
If you’re looking for a genuine quality movie and have no interest in the series, this is a hard recommendation to give. The movie is basically all fan-service. If that’s something that annoys you or actively detracts from the experience, you should probably watch something else.
If you aren’t a Mortal Kombat fan, but you think you might be interested in the series, this could be a cool way to dive into the lore. (Or maybe the new movie will be a better starting point, haven’t watched it yet)
If you are a Mortal Kombat fan though, and you haven’t seen this movie, you need to get on that. Like close your browser and watch it right now.