Mortal Kombat

[Draevyn]

Even though you had nothing to do with it, I think I love Kaney for putting that out there.

[King Ellis]

'Sir, we got Scorpion out of prison like you asked. Mind if I ask why?'

'You might say i'm going to be running a...sting operation.'

[EddieRuckus]

'Sir, we got Scorpion out of prison like you asked. Mind if I ask why?'

'You might say i'm going to be running a...sting operation.'

YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[GoGo Yubari]

If Johnny Cage gets killed by Baraka, no buys. This was a key reason why I hated Annihilation too.

[Draevyn]

Well, the video showed that he was but for all we know that could have been a swerve too.

[Your Mom]

Chopping his head off and him not being dead would be quite the swerve

[Draevyn]

Chopping his head off and him not being dead would be quite the swerve

Or a recollection they believed to have happened based on faulty evidence. It's easily pulled off.

[GoGo Yubari]

I'm saying "if" on the grounds that it's a demo reel and could easily be rewritten to give Cage's actor a bigger part in an actual movie.

[Sousa]

So it's a stupid cop movie/underground street-fighting ring movie except the people all have pseudo-connections to Mortal Kombat characters, and they reused the moronic "The man you killed was my BROTHER" line from Mortal Kombat Annihilation? I'll take the wretched but campy first two movies, thanks.

[james_ewing88]

If this is the movie they are gonna do, even with how huge of an MK I am, I won't see it. Yes, it does look pretty good...yes, it has the classic characters (Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Jax, Sonya, Reptile, Cage, Baraka, Shang Tsung), but what they are doing is making it kinda, sorta, realistic. That's not what MK is or ever was. It was supernatural (sorta), and most (if not all) of the fighters had special powers, not someone like Reptile (who's not even an animal, but a HUMAN) eating dead people's heads. Still, movie looks pretty good, but a movie with NO Liu Kang OR Raiden? Sorry, but I can't buy into it.

Edited June 9, 2010 by james_ewing88

[Hajjhowe]

This looks like an interesting movie. Too bad it is even further away from the actual Mortal Kombat than the first two movies. If they wanted to make a gore fest killing tournament they didn't need to drag the MK name into it. As Sousa said, this is a pretty thinly veiled connection to the original and I really don't feel this gives a MK vibe at all.

I suppose if the new game tie's in more it might work, but with the original games? Not in the slightest.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

If people complain about the new Resident Evil movie going totally off the rails from the spirit of the Resident Evil game, then this is just the same for Mortal Kombat. The original games were like a 15 certificate I believe, it's only more recently, as the games have lost their charm, that they've become 18s.

[zero]

If this is the movie they are gonna do, even with how huge of an MK I am, I won't see it. Yes, it does look pretty good...yes, it has the classic characters (Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Jax, Sonya, Reptile, Cage, Baraka, Shang Tsung), but what they are doing is making it kinda, sorta, realistic. That's not what MK is or ever was. It was supernatural (sorta), and most (if not all) of the fighters had special powers, not someone like Reptile (who's not even an animal, but a HUMAN) eating dead people's heads. Still, movie looks pretty good, but a movie with NO Liu Kang OR Raiden? Sorry, but I can't buy into it.

They did all they could with the premise they had. Mortal Kombat was pretty much dead by 1998 and the only reason it hung on a little longer is because Deadly Alliance and Deception were surprisingly decent and repaired the damage done by MK's overexposure in the 90s. Then they pissed away that goodwill on Armageddon and MK vs. DC because once again, they did all they could. They could keep making the same game and keep telling the same story, or they could take the franchise in a drastically different direction, kinda like Twisted Metal Black.

And if this is strictly a movie, rather than something to promote the next game, then I'm even more in favor of the drastic shift in direction. The first MK, as corny as it was, was a pretty faithful adaptation and a movie based on the first MK video game today would get laughed out of the theater. I doubt that this movie will be winning any Oscars, but if you want to make Mortal Kombat the movie in 2010 and expect people to care, you're going to need something gritty.

[wolves]

I saw this earlier today and it looks fantastic. A lot of people were saying this was simply a short video released to hype up the announcement of the next MK game at E3 which is next week I think. I know the creators of the game said that the next game in the MK series will be a very violent hard M rated game.

If this is unrelated to the next film, I hope whoever is writing the script takes some notes.

EDIT - Nevermind. Jeri Ryan (Sonya Blade in the clip) confirmed that the video was made to sell the movie to various distributors.

Edited June 9, 2010 by wolves

[zero]

Latino Review has apparently confirmed that as well:

Mortal Kombat is a movie franchise that has been missing one thing - the blood and guts that we all loved from the video games.

Now it looks as if we're going to finally get the rated 'R' reboot we fans deserve. Kotaku has the first look at the Mortal Kombat test video shot for Warner Brothers to get funding for a full blown hard 'R' MK movie. Yes, this is the direction they plan on going for the Mortal Kombat reboot. And I've got the exclusive goods on who played who.

The short was directed by Kevin Tancharoen, who did the remake of Fame last year. Judging from this short, Kevin is the perfect director for this movie.

-Jacks is played by Michael Jai White. Michael played Spawn and was in Undisputed II. Michael makes a great Jacks (Jax).

-Sonya Blade is played by Jeri Ryan, who played Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager.

-Baraka was played by the very talented Lateef Crowder, who plays the Brazilian fighter in Undisputed III.

-Scorpion is played by Ian Anthony Dale. Ian plays Kazuya in the upcoming big screen version of Tekken.

-Johnny Cage was played by up and coming martial arts sensation Matt Mullins.

-Still working on who played Reptile. Will update when I find out.

-The fight choreography was done by Larnell Stovall. Larnell did the fight choreography for Undisputed III and is one of the best fight choreographers in the business. You want to see the fights you deserve? Then you fans should DEMAND he be the guy in one charge for this reboot.

And Jeri Ryan confirms:

Okay, so... Mortal Kombat. It's not a game trailer. Actually was made for the director to sell WB on his vision for a reimagined MK film. [...] I did it as a favor to a friend. No idea yet what WB's reaction to it was. And I'm not sure how you can contact WB to push them to make it. But you guys are resourceful...! ;-)

So it's not a game or a movie, it's a pitch. Here's hoping the games move in this direction.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

As long as they include Friendships and Babalities just to balance things out properly.

[Hajjhowe]

Oh I'm not saying Mortal Kombat's concept would make a good movie. It doesn't really. Which makes me wonder why they would do this now. Remaking it Twisted metal Black style for the games is fine. I liked TMB and if the MK games go a similar route I am sure it could be very interesting too.

I don't know, it just seems kind of pointless to me to use the MK names when the movie could get along fine without them. It's not like having blades for arms or whatever is trademarked.

[Rich]

Edit: I am dumb and in a rush

[Benji]

Oh I'm not saying Mortal Kombat's concept would make a good movie. It doesn't really. Which makes me wonder why they would do this now. Remaking it Twisted metal Black style for the games is fine. I liked TMB and if the MK games go a similar route I am sure it could be very interesting too.

I don't know, it just seems kind of pointless to me to use the MK names when the movie could get along fine without them. It's not like having blades for arms or whatever is trademarked.

What he said, change the names to "Lizard" , "Crab" and "BA Baraka" (okay, maybe the last one is awesome), and very few would give it much of a second thought if they're totally honest. Now if they re-did the games in this style I could get seriously on board with it.

[Red Devil-Taker316]

If it's a pitch, I feel like the scene shown was perhaps just the opening scene, and the rest of the movie focuses on the tournament.

I do like that it would be focused around Scorpion instead of Liu Kang. This also brings a possible Zombie Liu Kang appearance.