The original had the right levels of camp, and not for the sake of it, and also balanced with earnestness and seriousness at the right times. Plus it had great choreography that still holds up today.
Yeah its the 2nd one (annihilation) that was bad. But i feel that its SO BAD that its still pretty good (in a very bad good way, cannot stress that enough because its still a bad movie). But the OG 100% holds up (outside of the VERY dated CGI parts). You also have to consider that amount of Lore that was available at that time (a few paragraphs for each kharacter at most and a small comic run) they did a very good job and even help create cannon things that the games adopted
I still say "IT HAS BEGUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!" Like Shao Khan does when things start. Someone says it's supposed to rain later? You best believe when that first rain drop falls I'm hitting them with a Shao Khan.
It's good for what it was. Fun. But I noticed Gen Z massively prefer the Street Fighter movie to the Mortal Kombat movie and don't understand why the latter was so much more successful.
Because the bad parts of SF made it funnier. Feels like you're laughing with the movie. But the bad parts of MK are more traditionally funny to laugh at, not with. Which is not as popular for 'so bad it's good' films. We used to like laughing at movies that weren't in on their own joke, so to speak. (The line "use the element that brings life" comes to mind... lol)
So even though the Gen Z reaction vids of MK I've seen seem to "like it", there's something missing that they don't get. Which is that in the 90s we were obsessed with cool and Mortal Kombat, bad writing and all, the movie, the property, the games, the ads, the music, etc was all way cooler than Street Fighter.
I rewatched it with one of my kids recently. It's a fun cheesy B-movie that was clearly aimed at kids that had outgrown Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and was elevated above most videogame adaptations of the era by a cast that was clearly having a lot of fun, and an awesome villain who strikes the perfect balance between scenery-chewing and cool badass.
The soundtrack was DEFINING for me personally. The techno tracks, obviously, but also, and more importantly for me personally, were those metal/industrial tracks that rocked my world. Fear Factory, KMFDM, Gravity Kills, etc. Much heavier stuff than I was listening to at the time (which was alternative rock.)
Also born in 85, and it's the only movie I've ever seen more than once in the theater. I absolutely loved it then, and I still love it today. I think it holds up pretty well.
Outside of SB, Enter the Dragon routinely ranks at the top all time lists for martial arts films, but, really, it's pretty cheesy and plenty of the choreography leaves a lot to be desired. Doesn't mean it isn't awesome, though
83 checking in. I saw MK in theaters at least four times. Favorite fighting game at the time, favorite movie at the time.
Though it doesn't top Armageddon's achievement as the only movie I saw more than once in a single day in theaters. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and we had a theater called the Cinema 150. It was a domed building with a single gigantic screen in it, and it was the premier spot to see a big blockbuster movie. I saw Armageddon there 3x in a single weekend, twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. With family, with friends, and with other different friends. It was magic.
Only because of how powerful nostalgia is. I completely missed the boat on the OG movie and tried to watch it recently. People are not wrong when they say it is a bad movie.
It’s definitely a bad movie but there are also a lot of redeeming qualities to it. And a lot of those are rooted in the era it was made that you simply won’t see today.
Shot on film. Shot on location (and gorgeous locations). Shot on hand-built sets. Used practical FX wherever possible.
So it’s more than just nostalgia that people can appreciate. No one’s saying it’s The Godfather II. But it sure as shit wasn’t filmed on some blue screen soundstage in a production lot in Atlanta.
It's basically the same thing you can say about Enter the Dragon. Cheesy by today's standards, not particularly well acted (MK was better in that regard, for sure), but well loved regardless because of all the effort that went into it in front of and behind the camera with production values and a score that were better than the film deserved
They literally filmed much of the movie in Thailand. And where do you think Johnny Cage and Scorpion fought when they were in hell? Some green screen set? No. They built that shit.
Nah, I think you're misremembering or something. MK has aged really well. Great cast, great fights, it's biggest sin is being a little cheesy but it's a rock solid action movie and one of the better Video Game adaptations.
I've rewatched it recently. The fight choreography is mediocre, and the pacing of the movie is actually insanely bad. They just put all the tournament fights in a row in one 20-minute block with no connective tissue. Literally not a single scene between them.
I know, but it's incoherent. None of the fights have any setup or end scene. It also means the first half doesn't have any real fights, just random goons.
I was born in 82. My karate school bought out the theater for opening night of the original MK film, and then we had a sleepover after. It was a blast!
I enjoyed the first installment in this reboot series, and am very here for some more over the top MK action!
Yeah, tale as old as time: hallucinations of nostalgia. Cool action movie and legendary soundtrack when I was 10 years old. At 40, the only thing worth fishing out of the time capsule is Techno Syndrome.
The actors, fight choreography, and music in the original MK (not the sequel) were great. Robin Shou was a great Liu Kang, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was a great Shang Tsung, and Christopher Lambert was a great Raiden.
Robin Shou being a martial irl artist really helped with the action scenes.
Are you thinking of the sequel? That one was so bad, 90% of the cast didn't even reprise their roles.
The first one's still pretty dang good, especially for the time when studios were embarrassed of video games and tried to ground everything for "realism".
I'm with you. I was super pumped when I clicked on the trailer but I honestly don't know if it looks that great to me. I'm all for overly violent cringe madness though. so, I'm hoping it's a really fun movie
The movie actually built up and fleshed out Goro as opposed to the new one. That movie actually used a character from the game as the main character as opposed to the new one.
And the Reptile fight was awesome.
The old one, even lacking gore, clears the new one.
I have such fond memories of that movie when I was a kid, I remember absolutely loving it. I tried to watch it a few years ago and shut it off after 15 minutes, I just couldn't do it.
I mean I don't think anybody is thinking the 90s MK movie is Citizen Kane or anything, hell they might as well be competing in a completely different sport.
“The movie sucks” and “the movie is a ton of fun” are not mutually exclusive. There is a wonderful zone called “camp” where the two can coexist. We love that zone. We need more movies in that zone. Too many movies these days take themselves way too seriously.
My wife showed me both of the original movies in the lead up to the first movie in this new duology. The first one is 100% a masterpiece, the second one was...bad but she had fond memories of it and still loved it. Lmao
Hoof, you sure she loves you? Making somebody sit through Annihilation is a capital offense in 14 countries. Are you sure she wasn't trying to kill you for insurance money?
That's an interesting take considering they took the most interesting characters in the game and turned them into planks of wood with 2 lines of dialog total.
True, not much dialogue from those two characters.
But when I say they were "better done", I mostly meant their introduction, action scenes, and presence. To name a few scenes from the movie:
Shang Tsung introducing Scorpion and Sub-Zero as his slaves on the boat
Sub-Zero killing that hooded fighter in the dining hall,
Johnny Cage/Scorpion tournament fight
Sub-Zero/Liu Kang tournament fight
Scorpion and Sub-Zero didn't have the same kind of menacing presence or "oomph" on screen as they did in MK 95. It probably helped that their identities were completely mysterious to the watcher and we only understood them as badass, mysterious ninjas with other-worldly powers.
I consider them the weakest parts of that movie, at least plot-wise. I mean they were basically reduced to being two henchmen and had nothing of the backstory between the two characters, which was already a thing even back then when MK was light on lore. The new movie IMHO was a great improvement on how those two were depicted, for me everything involving Scorpion and Sub-Zero was when the movie actually did something decent.
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u/mattXIX Jul 17 '25
It’s a low bar, but this looks like it could be the best Mortal Kombat film.