Mortal Kombat 2021

[Silvermoth]

I would swipe right on Ludi Lin and Lewis Tan tho

 

[Prison Mike]

This and the Goro meme is just too much, lmao.

Today John Campia out up a video talking about MK21's box office and how he thinks the movie being on HBO Max has hurt the box office. While I do agree to a degree I personally don't think it's as much as he seems to think. Personally if the movie was in theaters only I wouldn't have paid to see it pandemic or not. I'm not even sure I'll buy the movie when it comes out on 4K.

The one thing this movie did do was take Kung Lao from being a character I didn't like and made him my favorite character in the movie. And well we know how that ends.

And to me Sonya seem like the perfect audience surrogate with the way she's wrote. As for Cole Young, he was exactly what I thought he would be. If they make a second movie hopefully we get a throw away line and him being in hiding with the help of Raiden to protect his family. Also I can totally see two execs having a $1 bet (like in Trading Places) and the bet being how it's so easy to create a MK character that fans will love.

I did like the movie more than expected but I was also expecting it to be a 2/10 at best. I would say it's a 5 or 6/10. I loved Kung Lao and Sonya and how can I forget Kano. Kano was great and I don't thing he was ment to get over like he did.

Well he didn’t say it was the sole reason, just a factor. It was more like bad reviews and bad word of mouth which contributed mostly to the steep box office decline in the second weekend. Also, I agreed with Rob in that the movie is not one of those four quadrant movies that appeals to the masses like GvK was. All the MK fans who wanted to see the movie did so during the first weekend. If you aren’t a fan of the games or didn’t grow up with 90s movies then you probably didn’t care about it.

 

[lespaul59]

Well he didn’t say it was the sole reason, just a factor. It was more like bad reviews and bad word of mouth which contributed mostly to the steep box office decline in the second weekend. Also, I agreed with Rob in that the movie is not one of those four quadrant movies that appeals to the masses like GvK was. All the MK fans who wanted to see the movie did so during the first weekend. If you aren’t a fan of the games or didn’t grow up with 90s movies then you probably didn’t care about it.

I probably should have been more clear in what I was saying. I singled out the HBO Max part because that's the only reason I watched the movie. I wouldn't have went to the theater and might have skipped the 4K and waited for the movie to hit HBO if it wasn't on HBO Max plus in theaters. I agree with Rob as well. To be honest I wonder how much people just being excited to go to a theater to just see a movie played into the the first weekend BO?

 

[Deck Rickard]

I would swipe right on Ludi Lin and Lewis Tan tho

This movie would have been a lot more entertaining if it turned out like Striking Vipers.

 

[TheFuture]

This was so terrible. Were the writer and director both drunk? Few people in this movie give even a decent performance and the writing is just so slap dash, everything taken at face value with little real development done. Not enough can be said for how poor a character Cole Young is.

Lewis Tan is quite charismatic so logic would have suggested they needed someone like that to sell an unknown character. I was not prepared for how generic a character Cole Young was. What a bizarre decision.

This barely scratched the surface of the Mythos behind MK, what a disappointment. What summed it up for me is that KABAL low-key stole the show. Lol.

 

[Deck Rickard]

If I see one more ****ing review that says that this movie “should please the fans”...

 

[Primal Slayer]

Id expect a sequel to be announced sometime soon since its done well enough at the box office. Nothing spectacular but good enough

 

[InvisibleWoman]

Instead of watching this movie (which by most reports is awful) I FINALLY bought Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate. Currently playing story mode and it's so SO good. It just frustrates me even more that they seem incapable of translating such a rich story to the screen.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Instead of watching this movie (which by most reports is awful) I FINALLY bought Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate. Currently playing story mode and it's so SO good. It just frustrates me even more that they seem incapable of translating such a rich story to the screen.

To be fair, I think that they COULD have translated it well to the big screen. MK 21 seems to be a case of a movie studio thinking their way is better than the people who work on the games since “they know movies” but then not being willing to hire legitimate talent to make a good film. The argument that games aren’t movies is a solid one, and perhaps having Boon and Tobias heavily involved wouldn’t have worked either because perhaps they don’t understand the subtleties of filmmaking (they might; I have no idea). But what floors me is that after distancing the movie from the actual creators, they turn around and hand it over to some guys who clearly know almost nothing about making a good movie. I get that they came cheap, but WB clearly wasn’t spending money on big name actors, special effects or set design here so maybe they could have shelled out some money to hire a real director.

 

[InvisibleWoman]

To be fair, I think that they COULD have translated it well to the big screen. MK 21 seems to be a case of a movie studio thinking their way is better than the people who work on the games since “they know movies” but then not being willing to hire legitimate talent to make a good film. The argument that games aren’t movies is a solid one, and perhaps having Boon and Tobias heavily involved wouldn’t have worked either because perhaps they don’t understand the subtleties of filmmaking (they might; I have no idea). But what floors me is that after distancing the movie from the actual creators, they turn around and hand it over to some guys who clearly know almost nothing about making a good movie. I get that they came cheap, but WB clearly wasn’t spending money on big name actors, special effects or set design here so maybe they could have shelled out some money to hire a real director.

I have faith that one day, we will see a screen adaptation that will be faithful to the games but also not skimp on script, special effects and cast/crew. ONE DAY.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I have faith that one day, we will see a screen adaptation that will be faithful to the games but also not skimp on script, special effects and cast/crew. ONE DAY.

I hope so. But this mess probably delayed that day for years if not decades.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Just saw it, not as bad as I thought it would be but Cole Young wasn't interesting at all and needs to be gone in the sequel. Just say he feared for his family.

I did like the cast though but they need to get a better director and writing team next time.

 

[P Supreme]

If I see one more ****ing review that says that this movie “should please the fans”...

honestly its hard not to assume they are on the take if your honest with yourself you know the fans will hate it but that's not part of the script they were handed lol

 

[lespaul59]

Will this movie even break even? I know the box office totals right now can't be looked at the same as before. I was kinda shocked when I saw the world wide BO was $72.5m. I was expecting something more along the lines of the WW BO being around $100m. I may be wrong but I think this movie getting a sequel will be base on how well it performs on HBO Max.

 

[DarkKnight88]

The budget couldn't have been much, so I'm sure it'll make its money back. They know the popularity is there based on the opening weekend, they'll most likely do a soft-reboot. New creative team and all that.

 

[Flash525]

I'm not seeing a soft reboot, they'll do a continuation for sure, though maybe they'll write out a few characters in the process.

I know this film wasn't exceptional, but I honestly don't see it as the mess some of your guys do.

Thing is, there's always a group of fans that have their own idea how material for something they love should go, and it doesn't always play out that way; just look at the DC film content discussion. You've got fans all over the place!

 

[The Infernal]

I don't see how a sequel could salvage this nonsense.

 

[Da-Scribe]

Even setting my fandom aside, hard as that can be, this flick is still largely disappointing.

The whole thing is predicated around an ancient rivalry we never actually get any details on. They fight and kill each other just because.

They also center the film around a blank canvas of a character who isn’t good at the one thing you’d expect him to be good at in a martial arts film...that being martial arts. And I get the appeal of the underdog or whatever, but he doesn’t ever become a better fighter really. He just gets even better at getting his ass whooped. Like he literally takes punches as a superpower. Until he seemingly can’t once he fights Sub-Zero. Then he goes back to getting his ass whooped regular style while beating up ice on the side. He also inexplicably becomes the tactician of the group. Above the two fighters who are special forces.

Why did Raiden send Cole back to his family knowing that Shang Tsung was hunting Cole? And why did Cole go? And why didn’t Raiden just send them to the Void?

There’s just a lot of head scratching choices in just about every single scene.

 

[The Infernal]

Yeah. They establish Cole as a loser and there's no real progression for him. It feels hollow when other characters start asking Cole to take the lead when literally anyone else there is far more qualified.

 

[lespaul59]

The budget couldn't have been much, so I'm sure it'll make its money back. They know the popularity is there based on the opening weekend, they'll most likely do a soft-reboot. New creative team and all that.

I've seen $50m mentioned multiple times but I couldn't really find any thing saying if that's before or after tax breaks or anything like that. These days do you even figure the marketing budget the same? Right now MK 21's WW BO is about $21m behind Godzilla vs Kong's domestic BO. I guess ultimately I figured MK 21 would have done better at the BO than it has. Granted I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to BO numbers in the best of times but I just don't think this movie is gonna make it to $100m unless I'm completely missing something.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Even setting my fandom aside, hard as that can be, this flick is still largely disappointing.

The whole thing is predicated around an ancient rivalry we never actually get any details on. They fight and kill each other just because.

They also center the film around a blank canvas of a character who isn’t good at the one thing you’d expect him to be good at in a martial arts film...that being martial arts. And I get the appeal of the underdog or whatever, but he doesn’t ever become a better fighter really. He just gets even better at getting his ass whooped. Like he literally takes punches as a superpower. Until he seemingly can’t once he fights Sub-Zero. Then he goes back to getting his ass whooped regular style while beating up ice on the side. He also inexplicably becomes the tactician of the group. Above the two fighters who are special forces.

Why did Raiden send Cole back to his family knowing that Shang Tsung was hunting Cole? And why did Cole go? And why didn’t Raiden just send them to the Void?

There’s just a lot of head scratching choices in just about every single scene.

What’s funny about Cole’s plot armor is that it doesn’t protect anything but his arms and torso, so he could theoretically still get his head ripped off, right? It didn’t seem like he could grow armor over any vulnerable part of his body so Goro should have still be able to take his ass out pretty quickly.

 

[Prison Mike]

I think this movie should get a sequel but should be a HBO Max original movie.

 

[metaphysician]

Personally, when I see "it will please the fans", I read this as "the critic hates the movie, but either not *that* much or else can't finger a good objective reason they hate it".

 

[Deck Rickard]

Personally, when I see "it will please the fans", I read this as "the critic hates the movie, but either not *that* much or else can't finger a good objective reason they hate it".

Most of the critics saying that sort of thing gave the film positive reviews I think, so it doesn’t seem that they hate it. I think it’s more that they’ve accepted the notion that video game adaptions CAN’T be well made or good and so anything that’s not MK Annihilation-level awful is passable. I also think that, because something like MK has a reputation for being gory, mindless fun, a movie that lives up to that expectation on some level will please fans. But what they’re missing is that fans of the games are also fans of good movies and a lot (perhaps most) of us can see pretty clearly that this isn’t one.

Also, it should be pretty easy for a professional critic to find an objective reason for disliking this movie. That’s not to say that they have to dislike it, but a movie this poorly made should be pretty easy to rip to pieces lol.

 

[P Supreme]