Mortal Kombat 2021

[chintai80]

so true.

i did not go in watching a mortal kombat movie expecting it to be citizen kane, but the plotting for this should not have been this bad.

 

[moviedoors]

Here's my other pick, and he's the guy I'd want to see attached to most of these sorts of movie revivals (Predator, Terminator, Aliens):

John Hyams.

Seriously, do yourselves a favor and watch his two Universal Soldier movies. They're gold star DTV. Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a lean, mean, no bull**** thriller. It hits hard, has a great atmosphere, wastes none of its running time, and gets actual performances out of Van Damme and Lundgren. Then its sequel, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, is one of the strangest, most disturbing action movies ever made. Brutally violent, oddly structured, obliquely (but solidly) plotted, nightmarish and bleak in its presentation. It's the unholy collision of David Lynch and Gaspar Noe with Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto.

He also made last year's Alone, a terrific stalk/chase movie. This guy has filmmaking chops up the wazoo and he's mostly worked in the lower budget realm. It makes me think he must prefer the freedom because he's such an obvious talent that it's shocking he hasn't been attached to something bigger yet.

 

[SameOG86]

When Scorpion said “get over here” in English then spoke in Japanese afterwards I was scratching my head.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I finally re-watched Van Damme's Street Fighter today and damn as silly as that movie is I still found it more entertaining to watch than this movie, especially the scenes with Raul Julia.

Now, I don't know if I would call it a good movie either, but atleast it had alot of personality and a likable, fun energy thanks to the cast including a very loopey, coked out Van Damme lol.

Also, my god Ming-Na Wen was just as gorgeous back then as she is now.

 

[SameOG86]

I finally re-watched Van Damme's Street Fighter today and damn as silly as that movie is I still found it more entertaining to watch than this movie, especially the scenes with Raul Julia.

Now, I don't know if I would call it a good movie either, but atleast it had alot of personality and a likable, fun energy thanks to the cast including a very loopey, coked out Van Damme lol.

Also, my god Ming-Na Wen was just as gorgeous back then as she is now.

If they ever decide to reboot Street Fighter, I hope we get a thick Chun Li

 

[TheVileOne]

I finally re-watched Van Damme's Street Fighter today and damn as silly as that movie is I still found it more entertaining to watch than this movie, especially the scenes with Raul Julia.

Now, I don't know if I would call it a good movie either, but atleast it had alot of personality and a likable, fun energy thanks to the cast including a very loopey, coked out Van Damme lol.

Also, my god Ming-Na Wen was just as gorgeous back then as she is now.

Street Fighter I can see being sort of a guilty pleasure type of fun. It has a sort of campy goofiness that I can see would make it entertaining. Plus yeah, Raul Julia, a great actor, chewing the scenery and giving it his all. I mean, he literally made that movie for his kids.

Also yeah, it's not really a good movie, but you've got Van Damme portraying an American special ops soldier with that Belgian accent and doing that freaking Independence Day type speech. Yeah, it's a total guilty pleasure.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Street Fighter is a terrible movie but in that “so-bad-it’s-good” way, where you can watch it and laugh at how awful it is. Movies like MK21 and SF: The Legend of Chun-Li are just bad in a “this totally sucks and it’s a slog to sit through” kind of way.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah MK 2021 doesn't really have that going for it.

 

[Silvermoth]

 

[OutOfBoose]

When Scorpion said “get over here” in English then spoke in Japanese afterwards I was scratching my head.

He learned a bit of English in Hell.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

I finally re-watched Van Damme's Street Fighter today and damn as silly as that movie is I still found it more entertaining to watch than this movie, especially the scenes with Raul Julia.

Now, I don't know if I would call it a good movie either, but atleast it had alot of personality and a likable, fun energy thanks to the cast including a very loopey, coked out Van Damme lol.

Also, my god Ming-Na Wen was just as gorgeous back then as she is now.

I hated Street Fighter when it came out so I'd put MK21 ahead on the opening scene alone, even though I won't call that a good film either. It bastardized the story and concept way worse and they generally didn't hire people that could fight well on screen so it didn't even have the fighting going for it. I thought it felt more like trying to mock the concept rather than making a film about it, while the original MK at least felt like they wanted to make something good but didn't have the resources or talent to accomplish it, but still managed to make something entertaining.

So to me Street Fighter is up there with the absolute worst video game adaptations, which is unfortunate given how bad that genre is.

 

[The Shape]

Super accurate.

 

[samsnee]

When Scorpion said “get over here” in English then spoke in Japanese afterwards I was scratching my head.

When he said “I am Scorpion now”, I cringed. It’s his name from the game but honestly there was no build up to it at all. No explanation of why he wants to be called Scorpion. Just like “Get over here”, thrown in for fan service.

They were obviously able to reference the games in a more subtle way, like the leg sweep hack for Liu Kang.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Deck Rickard]

When he said “I am Scorpion now”, I cringed. It’s his name from the game but honestly there was no build up to it at all. No explanation of why he wants to be called Scorpion. Just like “Get over here”, thrown in for fan service.

They were obviously able to reference the games in a more subtle way, like the leg sweep hack for Liu Kang.

Yeah, I had a similar reaction to Bi-Han’s line (“I am now Sub-Zero!” or whatever he said). This movie didn’t understand subtlety. On its face, a guy calling himself “Sub-Zero” sounds really silly. But we’ve seen enough superhero movies to know that there are ways you can work in those silly names so that they don’t feel stupid. These filmmakers clearly didn’t know how to do that.

You could see it with the way they did other things too. The better movie would have tried to be a but more gradual. They attempt to take a grounded approach with the intro scene and then Cole’s introduction. But then all of a sudden we’re in Outworld at Shang Tsungs throne. Even with some of the other fantastical stuff we had already seen, that still felt really jarring. A person who knows noting about MK was probably watching that and being like, “Huh? WTF is happening?”

 

[SameOG86]

Yeah, I had a similar reaction to Bi-Han’s line (“I am now Sub-Zero!” or whatever he said). This movie didn’t understand subtlety. On its face, a guy calling himself “Sub-Zero” sounds really silly. But we’ve seen enough superhero movies to know that there are ways you can work in those silly names so that they don’t feel stupid. These filmmakers clearly didn’t know how to do that.

You could see it with the way they did other things too. The better movie would have tried to be a but more gradual. They attempt to take a grounded approach with the intro scene and then Cole’s introduction. But then all of a sudden we’re in Outworld at Shang Tsungs throne. Even with some of the other fantastical stuff we had already seen, that still felt really jarring. A person who knows noting about MK was probably watching that and being like, “Huh? WTF is happening?”

Adding to that, Bi-Han stabbed Hanzo in a non lethal area so I was trying to figure out what really caused Hanzo to die? Damn this movie is just so lazy and amateurish.

 

[Da-Scribe]

Nothing was more bizarre to me than Shang Tsung introducing Nitara. There was such an intensely flirtatious vibe in such a short amount of time. I was so lost lol.

 

[chintai80]

her purpose in the movie was just so kung lao can do his crazy ass fatality.

should of at least have her get in some hits.

shang tsung was talking her up like she one of his top warriors but kung lao flipped onto her back and rode her like a surfboard into his hat. lol

 

[Da-Scribe]

her purpose in the movie was just so kung lao can do his crazy ass fatality.

should of at least have her get in some hits.

shang tsung was talking her up like she one of his top warriors but kung lao flipped onto her back and rode her like a surfboard into his hat. lol

Breh, like what a humiliating way to go out lmfao. Though I will say it made his “Flawless victory.” line ring pretty true.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Nothing was more bizarre to me than Shang Tsung introducing Nitara. There was such an intensely flirtatious vibe in such a short amount of time. I was so lost lol.

her purpose in the movie was just so kung lao can do his crazy ass fatality.

should of at least have her get in some hits.

shang tsung was talking her up like she one of his top warriors but kung lao flipped onto her back and rode her like a surfboard into his hat. lol

Yeah I love how the movie makes it painfully obvious who the redshirts are by not even introducing them until 2/3 of the way through. They might as well have just put some text onscreen that said: “So, since there haven’t been many fatalities yet, here are three characters you probably haven’t heard of who will all get killed in brutal ways.”

 

[The Infernal]

I watched the opening scene available on Youtube and what struck me as odd was that Scorpion and Sub-zero knew each other, were mortal enemies, but yet neither understood the other's language.

Was that the writer's idea of authenticity? Wouldn't it have just been far simpler and more sense to have them understand each other so they could actually converse and act off one another than make proclamations to each other whilst the other just stood their awkwardly pretending not to know what was said?

I think it would have conveyed a more reciprocal rivalry rather than having them unable to communicate which suggests they didn't really know much about the other.

 

[Da-Scribe]

I watched the opening scene available on Youtube and what struck me as odd was that Scorpion and Sub-zero knew each other, were mortal enemies, but yet neither understood the other's language.

Was that the writer's idea of authenticity? Wouldn't it have just been far simpler and more sense to have them understand each other so they could actually converse and act off one another than make proclamations to each other whilst the other just stood their awkwardly pretending not to know what was said?

I think it would have conveyed a more reciprocal rivalry rather than having them unable to communicate which suggests they didn't really know much about the other.

Bi Han did speak Japanese actually. So they would’ve been able to communicate.

 

[The Infernal]

Ah, ok.

 

[Da-Scribe]

I do agree that scene creates a big narrative issue though. We still come out of it not understanding their rivalry at all. Maybe I missed a detail, but seems like they fight to the death just because.

 

[The Infernal]

I still haven't seen the movie since it's not out 8n the UK, but I don't fancy paying £16 to rent it. Funnily enough, before the pandemic I could have gone to the cinema for a fiver which makes seeing so-so movies a bit more palatable. lol