the best thing going for this is karl urban as the lead.
he looks he's having fun with the role and winking at the audience.
definitely will check this out when it comes to streaming.
the 1995 PAUL WS ANDERSON directed original still feels like actual cinema when comparing it to this, just based on this initial trailer
No offense, but I’m getting a little tired of the “Why does this movie actually need to be good?” defense. People did this with the last MK movie too to justify it being a piece of ****. Yeah I know it’s not the strongest source material. But they could have done a better job than THAT. The original MK movie was dumb fun and is kind of a bad movie, but at least it has some enjoyable performances, some heart to it and a satisfying conclusion.
Its not that people are justifying it being a piece of ****, its just some of us know what we we're getting into. You have an obvious course correction here and people are still ****ing whining. The folks that make the games don’t even take it as seriously as the fandom does. Its not gonna fallow the lore 1:1 because the lore is a mess and has been since MK4. They're not gonna spend a ton of money on it because the first one, while successful, got a mixed reception, and the game franchise itself is on life support for the second time due to over monetization.
Look, I can understand why fans like the movie. And its okay for them to like it and be fine with more. I would be a hypocrite if I said otherwise. However, for the rest of us, we would like, you know, basic competency in storytelling at the very least.
Look, I can understand why fans like the movie. And its okay for them to like it and be fine with more. I would be a hypocrite if I said otherwise. However, for the rest of us, we would like, you know, basic competency in storytelling at the very least.
And who says you're not getting that this time? You've got a different writer on board, Cole Young is obviously dying, they're playing more into fantastical stuff. They clearly heard you.
Its not that people are justifying it being a piece of ****, its just some of us know what we we're getting into. You have an obvious course correction here and people are still ****ing whining. The folks that make the games don’t even take it as seriously as the fandom does. Its not gonna fallow the lore 1:1 because the lore is a mess and has been since MK4. They're not gonna spend a ton of money on it because the first one, while successful, got a mixed reception, and the game franchise itself is on life support for the second time due to over monetization.
This kind of response is disingenuous though. Most hardcore MK fans like the 95 movie despite it playing loose with the established storyline, characters, and a PG-13(!) rating. I believe most of the criticism we're seeing in this thread is that this doesn't look very well made, and its predecessor wasn't either.
To me in terms of the overall production value- to me this movie just looks like what modern, mid-budget B-movie shlock looks like. Just like the 1995 movie looked like what 90s, mid-budget B-movie schlock looked like.
Now don't get me wrong, I'll take the 90s movie any day of the week. But it's also closer to my overall sensibilities in terms of the overall cinematography and look of it than most modern blockbusters.
In terms of general aesthetics and cinematography, I prefer Mortal Kombat 95 to the new Superman. You read that correctly. So yeah, that's kind of the dilemma for me when comparing most modern blockbusters to older films, which I just generally think tend to look better, for a number of reasons.
This kind of response is disingenuous though. Most hardcore MK fans like the 95 movie despite it playing loose with the established storyline, characters, and a PG-13(!) rating. I believe most of the criticism we're seeing in this thread is that this doesn't look very well made, and its predecessor wasn't either.
Most "hardcore MK fans" like the 1995 film because they saw it when they were eight. I agree it looks cheap but it is what it is. The biggest name in this thing is Karl Urban. We were never getting top notch production design.
I could overlook the cheapness of everything if the fight sequences were going to be something to look forward to, but they were awful in the first one and it looks like they haven't improved in the sequel either.
Yeah and it’s not that most of us are angry that they play fast and loose with the lore or whatever. So did the 1995 film. But I’ve always believed that if you’re going to make changes to the lore and the core story, then those changes had better improve the story, or at least not downgrade it to the point where it’s not even clear what the point was. In the 1995 film, fans of Sub-Zero and Scorpion might have been disappointed because they were mostly just mindless foot soldiers for Shang Tsung. But since it’s difficult to give ample time to all the game characters, they made the wise decision to focus on the most relatable ones (Liu, Johnny and Sonya), the flashy cool ones with personality (Raiden and Goro) and the awesome main villain (Tsung). Characters like Kano, Sub-Zero, Scorpion and of course Reptile taking a backseat is an understandable change.
Now when you take the most recent film, you have a guy who gets in through nepotism and birthmark who isn’t even a game character and has no personality. I’m fine with an audience surrogate if you give me a reason to care about him. But Cole makes Captain N the Game Master look like Tony Stark or Indiana Jones lol. Jax grows robot arms via magic. Liu an barely even fight and has nothing to do.
Now as some of us have said, Urban looks good here as Johnny (stunt doubles aside) so they appear to be course correcting and hopefully Cole will either die or become the new Scorpion or just give us a reason to give a crap about him. I don’t know. But much like the DCEU, it’s hard to course correct when you have a bad foundation. If MK had been at least a serviceable movie, then maybe we would be optimistic. But right now, they really have to prove themselves.
I'm not the biggest fan of the brand (although I played sooooo many hours of the games up until MK IV) but I think it understands exactly the kind of movie it is and it hits the right tone between serious and silly. It's dark enough without missing the fun of it.
I'm not the biggest fan of the brand (although I played sooooo many hours of the games up until MK IV) but I think it understands exactly the kind of movie it is and it hits the right tone between serious and silly. It's dark enough without missing the fun of it.
No offense, but I’m getting a little tired of the “Why does this movie actually need to be good?” defense. People did this with the last MK movie too to justify it being a piece of ****. Yeah I know it’s not the strongest source material. But they could have done a better job than THAT. The original MK movie was dumb fun and is kind of a bad movie, but at least it has some enjoyable performances, some heart to it and a satisfying conclusion. And they didn’t base the whole thing around some dumb audience surrogate no one cares about (and that they didn’t give the audience a reason to care about). This one DOES look like more of a step in the right direction, potentially, but after that last movie it’s hard to get interested. I like Urban a lot (it still feels like they missed a golden opportunity not casting him as Kano in the previous film but the actor they did cast turned out to be the one good thing in the movie so whatever) but I’m still not sure.
You know what I get where you’re coming from. I come from the side where I randomly stepped upon a fun throwback thing that made me happy. I had a jolly good time watching the trailer.
Without paying much attention to it I guess I’m in the camp of those looking at this as a MK film and not poetic cinema by any stretch of the imagination. It seems to be on the same vein as the one from the 90’s and I’m good with it.
What's interesting is we already got an enjoyably solid adaptation in the 90's so there is a standard there that could be passed. This looks cheap, bland, and uninspired, just like the first movie. I like Karl Urban as much as anyone here, but again, we actually had a good live action Johnny in the 90s movie. From what I'm seeing Karl isn't looking any better than Linden Ashby who wasn't even the lead in that movie.
It does actually, out of all the fighting films it still gets its due's.
The fact they threw a secret character (reptile) in there at the time no one knew of must of been hype in the cinema. I personally love the techno music starts after he transforms and gets right down to business with a somersault kick into Liu Kang lool the film has set the benchmark. It was the perfect balance of fantasy, fighting and intrigue and knew what it was.
Even though I enjoy the 1995 film I'm rather still surprised at how much credit it gets. Especially seeing it deemed looking better than this trailer as I thought it looked cheap already in 1996 when I first saw it, with some CGI being about as bad as it can get.
Even though I enjoy the 1995 film I'm rather still surprised at how much credit it gets. Especially seeing it deemed looking better than this trailer as I thought it looked cheap already in 1996 when I first saw it, with some CGI being about as bad as it can get.
Oh it definitely looked cheap back then and it’s not really a GOOD movie but it was kind of all we had for a while in terms of a watchable video game movie. Street Fighter was garbage (yeah I love Raul Julia but that movie is unwatchable otherwise), Super Mario Brothers was an abomination, and well… I never saw Double Dragon but I don’t think I need to lol.
Anyway though, I’m not going to pretend it was amazing but it was fun enough and had some charismatic performances and decent enough fights that I think it won over most fans. And believe me, I hate to defend Paul WS Anderson, who has done more damage to video game adaptations than most directors not named Uwe Boll and has literally killed and maimed people in his productions.
Oh it definitely looked cheap back then and it’s not really a GOOD movie but it was kind of all we had for a while in terms of a watchable video game movie. Street Fighter was garbage (yeah I love Raul Julia but that movie is unwatchable otherwise), Super Mario Brothers was an abomination, and well… I never saw Double Dragon but I don’t think I need to lol.
Anyway though, I’m not going to pretend it was amazing but it was fun enough and had some charismatic performances and decent enough fights that I think it won over most fans. And believe me, I hate to defend Paul WS Anderson, who has done more damage to video game adaptations than most directors not named Uwe Boll and has literally killed and maimed people in his productions.
Yes, I enjoy it too but, as you say, it has a lot of help from me enjoying the MK games and from coming out when game adaptations were generally far worse.
The point isn't to rag on it per se but I just found it curious how some comparisons between that and the new trailer sounded. Given the many shortcomings of the 95 one I just don't see anything in the limited scope of the trailer that makes the new film automatically seem worse. Being cheap and cheesy is just par for the course.
One can of course have higher hopes than that, but then we go past the scope of comparing to the old film.
So… am I the only one who thinks Karl Urban actually looks really bad here?
This movie looks cheap and worse than the first one, and usually when a sequel unceremoniously kills off/discards the not-well-liked lead of the first movie, it’s bad news and a sign of lazy writing.
It does actually, out of all the fighting films it still gets its due's.
The fact they threw a secret character (reptile) in there at the time no one knew of must of been hype in the cinema. I personally love the techno music starts after he transforms and gets right down to business with a somersault kick into Liu Kang lool the film has set the benchmark. It was the perfect balance of fantasy, fighting and intrigue and knew what it was.
To me this is the best fight in all the shows and movies. It has the most energy, the coolest choreography, the most brutal stunts, the most badass music, and the exchanges are almost as fast paced as Jackie Chan's 80s movies. And YES...when I saw this in theaters, once reptile changed into human form WE LOST OUR MINDS!!! Honestly made Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung pretty tame in comparison.
So the bottom line on this film will vary on your enjoyment for the first film.
If you hated the first film and its vision not being aligned with what you think a mortal kombat film should be; you probably aren't going to enjoy this movie.
If you thought the movie was mediocre to just fine and found parts entertaining, while knowing things can be greatly approved upon, you’ll like this film for the most part.
If you liked and had fun with the last film, you will absolutely love this movie.
This feels like a soft reboot that works even if you hadn’t see the first film. Kitana and Johnny are the leads. Kitana is the center of the movie while Johnny is our pov throughout. They basically took a lot of feedback from the first film and improved on just about everything.
A more Charismatic lead, better fights, bigger scope. This movie is goofy throughout but still has its darker moments and a bit more gore than the previous movie. Has some of that big trouble in little china influence the early games had, not nearly enough IMO. I honestly wouldn’t think a single person would say this is worse than the first movie after seeing it. Now having said that I would give the first film a 5.5/10 and this one around a 7/10. I still had some issues with it. But it was refreshing to see many instances of learning from previous mistakes they made the first time around.
So the bottom line on this film will vary on your enjoyment for the first film.
If you hated the first film and its vision not being aligned with what you think a mortal kombat film should be; you probably aren't going to enjoy this movie.
If you thought the movie was mediocre to just fine and found parts entertaining, while knowing things can be greatly approved upon, you’ll like this film for the most part.
If you liked and had fun with the last film, you will absolutely love this movie.
This feels like a soft reboot that works even if you hadn’t see the first film. Kitana and Johnny are the leads. Kitana is the center of the movie while Johnny is our pov throughout. They basically took a lot of feedback from the first film and improved on just about everything.
A more Charismatic lead, better fights, bigger scope. This movie is goofy throughout but still has its darker moments and a bit more gore than the previous movie. Has some of that big trouble in little china influence the early games had, not nearly enough IMO. I honestly wouldn’t think a single person would say this is worse than the first movie after seeing it. Now having said that I would give the first film a 5.5/10 and this one around a 7/10. I still had some issues with it. But it was refreshing to see many instances of learning from previous mistakes they made the first time around.
I think it looks kind of fun?? It's ridiculous, but no more so than the NetherRealm story modes. The fight sequences better be improved, though. That's the one thing you absolutely have to get right about a Mortal Kombat adaptation, and the first movie looked every bit like someone's first, awkward foray into action filmmaking that it was.
Like I said Kitana and Johnny are the leads while Sonya liu jade and Jax are supporting. Look, if you go into this expecting liu to be THE guy, you’re going to be disappointed, liu was the center of the franchise for so long and like the games and constant retconning and new timelines, this is its own arc and not following a specific storyline of a specific game. But I will say, liu has absolutely the best fight, and scene altogether in the whole film, look I’m not going to say it rivals the reptile fight in the original film, but it has a similar impact in a different way. It’s really well shot and really intimate in a way none of the fights were in the previous film. Felt right out of the game that is quite cinematic.
Like I said Kitana and Johnny are the leads while Sonya liu jade and Jax are supporting. Look, if you go into this expecting liu to be THE guy, you’re going to be disappointed, liu was the center of the franchise for so long and like the games and constant retconning and new timelines, this is its own arc and not following a specific storyline of a specific game. But I will say, liu has absolutely the best fight, and scene altogether in the whole film, look I’m not going to say it rivals the reptile fight in the original film, but it has a similar impact in a different way. It’s really well shot and really intimate in a way none of the fights were in the previous film. Felt right out of the game that is quite cinematic.
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