Was Mortal Kombat a Succes? Is it Worth a Watch?
This is an image of the first Mortal Kombat game (1992). Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero
Credit: YOUTUBE/ARCADEGAMESFREAK
The first Mortal Kombat game came out in August 1992. It featured seven characters who would be the beginning of a series and a story. The tale featured a mythical dystopia, which was comprised of 6 realms, with Earthrealm and Outworld being the main focus of the game.
This universe was overseen by omnipotent beings referred to as “Elder Gods.” These Elder Gods created a tournament known as “Mortal Kombat” to dispel realm disputes. The first video game depicts a tournament between Earthrealm and Outworld and if Earthrealm loses, Outworld will be allowed to conquer them.
This is a moment from The Mortal Kombat RPG, Shaolin Monks.
Credit: Games Radar author, Dan Amrich
Obviously Outworld loses and the rest of the games involves schemes from Shang Tsung, an Outworld villain, attempting to beat the Earthrealm fighters outside of the tournament.
With 19 games featuring crossovers games (such as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe), 2D/3D fighter style games (such as Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), and action-adventure games (such as Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks) the series has had quite a lengthy and prestigious history that has become worth more than $12 Billion.
Over the 19 games, 97 characters have been introduced. Compared to the first Mortal Kombat, which had 7 characters, Mortal Kombat 11 has 38 playable characters (13 are in DLC). It is safe to say that there are few games more deserving of a movie than Mortal Kombat.
A scene from the 1993 film, Super Mario Bros.
Credit: Cinema Blend author, Nick Evans.
There are no doubts that Mortal Kombat should be immortalized with a well-executed movie, but such a task is not so easily accomplished. Many have tried, but few have succeeded. Some lesser-known adaptations that are gladly kept tucked out of the public eye consist of Super Mario Bros. (1993), Far Cry (2008), and a few Resident Evil movies (2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2016).
There are also countless well-known adaptations, some flops and some not. They include Doom (2005), Sonic (2020), Assassins Creed (2016), and droves of Tomb Raider movies.
While some have been received decently by the public, none have ever been perceived as one of the greatest movies of all time and many are often received so poorly it tarnishes the game’s franchise as well.
The general view of game to movie adaptations is best described by “The Guardian” author Keza MacDonald in saying, “No other film genre boasts such an unimpeachable reputation for dreadfulness as the video game adaptation.”
Jean-Claude Van Damme as Commander Guile (in blue) fighting the main villain in the 1994 movie, Street Fighter.
Credit: Little White Lies author, Greg Evans
On the lower end, Super Mario Bros. got a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes and Doom got an 18%. On the Higher end, Detective Pikachu got 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and The Angry Birds Movie 2 got a 73%. There have also been adaptations from fellow fighting game titan, “Street Fighter.”
To say their two movies were failures would be subjective. The 2009 movie, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” received a rotten Tomatoes score of 5% and a Google Users rating of 67%. The 1994 movie, “Street Fighter” was rated 13% on Rotten Tomatoes and 76% by Google Users. While the critics despise it, the people are not fully in agreement.
To be honest I have been intentionally avoiding the topic of Mortal Kombat’s history with movies. The truth is that Mortal Kombat have also made a few movies prior to the one released this year, both quite frowned upon.
The first (titled “Mortal Kombat”) was released in 1995 and earned a Rotten Tomatoes of 44% but a Google Users rating of 86%. The second (titled “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”) was released in 1997 and received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 2% with a Google Users rating of 71%.
Just a few of the poorly executed characters from Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997).
Credit: Screen Rant author, Michael Kennedy
The Rotten Tomatoes scores are incomprehensibly bad, but the User ratings are positive. While some fans watched and enjoyed, most generally believe the old MK movies to be awful. Given the aforementioned pedigree of the Mortal Kombat franchise, a flop like this is unacceptable. After a vicious dent to Mortal Kombat’s hopes of producing more movies, the organization took 24 years to wind up for another swing.
After watching the newest Mortal Kombat Movie I find myself fairly pleased. Given the notoriety of game adaptations and Mortal Kombat’s shoddy movie history, I was fully prepared to endure many tumultuous minutes of boredom.
To my surprise I found the movie overall entertaining. I think my biggest worry was that I am not exactly a Mortal Kombat Fan. The button mashing, combo crunching fighter style is not one I enjoy, I am also not a fan of cringing at MK finishers.
Liu Kang (left) and Kung Lao (right). Two characters from the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.
Credit: IMDb
I went into the movie expecting an absurd amount of gore, but the action was effective and impactful, while not shutter-worthy. For those worried the action is bland, I promise there are a few classic Mortal Kombat Finisher scenes, gore and all.
With all the good stuff out of the way let’s unpack the bad. I believe the sole reason I enjoyed this movie was because of the action. Much similar to the game, the story seemed to be an afterthought.
The story seemed to materialize out of thin air with no context, which leaves the viewer unconvinced of the forced backstories that are supposed to conjure emotion or create immersion in the dystopia that is Mortal Kombat.
2021 Mortal Kombat’s depiction of Kano.
Credit: Screen Rant author, Daniel Gillespie
I also found the characters to be 2D and none really seemed useful to the story or entertainment value, but this is an opinion and not everybody agrees entirely. Fellow Mortal Kombat movie viewer, Mr. Jackson described the movie character Kano in saying, “He’s the one that stands out. With all of the others, there’s just not much there.” He also describes him as the most “charismatic” and essentially a hit or miss character.
I spent a good majority of the movie anticipating the fights rather than their repercussions. Another effect of this lack of story development is that the story seems to have this inconvenient coincidence effect that drives the story along unnaturally.
In many instances an easily preventable error goes unnoticed, and it becomes a sole driver of a major story point, which disrupts immersion and makes the story arch seem artificial and lazy. In regard to game accuracy and plot faults, Mr. Jackson quoted the main character of the Mortal Kombat movie, Cole Young, in saying, “Oh, Raiden can send us anywhere, anytime.” This is a bit of a window to the forced plot and “convenient” story features. Mr. Jackson also says this to emphasize that there really never was a tournament held in the runtime of the movie.
Raiden just after teleporting in the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.
Credit: Flickering Myth author, Amie Cranswick
The plot mentioned this grandiose tournament several times and featured it as the main conflict of the movie. Earthrealm must win. This could be some setup work for the planned sequels, but if this is the case then they can’t suggest it as the main issue of this movie.
To conclude my opinion on the new Mortal Kombat movie, I believe anyone, even non video game players, can go see it and not be hopelessly bored, but those who aren’t fans of action will most likely find themselves left with a bland story.
As far as the future of MK movies, I could definitely see them making another, given that their budget was $55 million, and they earned $66.9 million. If you like the game lore then the movie will be great, if you like the combo and special move variety it may fall short, but if you want an action-packed movie with a brute force plot and are okay with poor story development then this is great movie.
In congruency with my previous statements, Mr. Jackson believes, “If you have no stake in the game, then no, it would probably not be an enjoyable movie.” In the end, every game to movie adaptation has a high bar and low bar. Their goal is profit and advertisement. They want to inform people of their game and make money in the process without damaging their image.
Their low bar is to not lose fans of the game in the event that the movie turns out a disgrace. In this case Mortal Kombat was a success at both goals. They made money and everyone is thinking about Mortal Kombat in a positive light.