Mortal Kombat 2021

Originally posted by Robtard
Not sure why people are surprised this film is pure ass, dirty ass. It's a live-action film based on a video game, that right there is a bad start.

Think of all the live-action filma based on video games, a very small handful are decent.

Doom (2005) might be the best one and it's not a great film to begin with. Fun, but not great.

I liked 1995. All three leads were likeable, the fights were goofy awesome. Johnny Cage vs Scorpion was pure Metal.

Still watch it from time to time from the MK 9 Komplete collection.

But it's worth contemplating why this new film was so much worse than the original. Neither film has a stellar plot, but to me the original still has some fun character actors that bring it to life. They even help you tolerate the dated CG effects. ALL the characters in MK 2021 (with the exception of Kano) are bland and uninteresting. Also the original has more practical effects and set pieces that still hold up pretty well.

Hell, even Goro felt like a character in the original by comparison to his lame cameo in the new film.

So my take away from all of this is that the 1995 film was more fun and those that are able to safely go to theaters in the U.S. and Canada should go watch "Demon Slayer" instead.

I know this movie was unlikely to have lightning strike twice with a Shang Tsung recast but I was really disappointed when I heard that he wasn't great either.

Originally posted by Patient_Leech
But it's worth contemplating why this new film was so much worse than the original. Neither film has a stellar plot, but to me the original still has some fun character actors that bring it to life. They even help you tolerate the dated CG effects. ALL the characters in MK 2021 (with the exception of Kano) are bland and uninteresting. Also the original has more practical effects and set pieces that still hold up pretty well.

Hell, even Goro felt like a character in the original by comparison to his lame cameo in the new film.

Right now this movie actually has better ratings on Rotten Tomatoes then the original has. That might change over time but for now it is a true statement.

I know plenty of people that enjoyed this new one as well.

I think you guys have an opinion this movie was much worse rather than that it really is worse.

I do agree the original had better pacing and probably a tighter story but it still had bland characters. Or characters without much of a background as well. Heck in the original you only get a one sentence background for Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

The story wasn't exactly that great and still had holes in it.

Some of the action was just boring when you look back at it. Like the fight between Sonya and Kano was so bad in the original. The practical effects do look okay but man does the CGI look bad compared today.

I don't think it's as clear cut as saying the original 95 film was so much better.

The cheesy effects actually helped '95 imo. Scorpion doing the flaming skull thing looked like something out of an MTV music video.

How did Scorpion learn English?

Originally posted by Newjak
I don't agree with the idea this film was so much worse than the original.

Right now this movie actually has better ratings on Rotten Tomatoes then the original has. That might change over time but for now it is a true statement.

I know plenty of people that enjoyed this new one as well.

I think you guys have an opinion this movie was much worse rather than that it really is worse.

I do agree the original had better pacing and probably a tighter story but it still had bland characters. Or characters without much of a background as well. Heck in the original you only get a one sentence background for Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

The story wasn't exactly that great and still had holes in it.

Some of the action was just boring when you look back at it. Like the fight between Sonya and Kano was so bad in the original. The practical effects do look okay but man does the CGI look bad compared today.

I don't think it's as clear cut as saying the original 95 film was so much better.

Fair point on the one line by Shang Tsung that was given for Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but back in 1995, people had no idea how the characters would interact with one another because you didn't have like Netherrealm Studio around to release heavily story-driven games, to show how Liu Kang would speak with Raiden or how Johnny Cage would React if he saw some Outworlder, and this gave the directors great creative freedom. Of course some of the scenes were cheesy, but it had some huge impact on the future of the franchise, like the established character relationships, Kano's Australian heritage, and so on. Most of the cast was definitely more likable too, a good chunk of whom were born to play their roles; Cary Tagawa as Shang Tsung, Lindon Ashby as Johnny Cage, Robin Shou as Liu Kang, Christopher Lambert as Raiden... You can't tell me the new film's Raiden, Liu Kang, or Shang Tsung have the same presence to them.

A lot of the charm for the original film too, as well as MK series on the whole at the time, was that it didn't take itself seriously like it does now. MK95 did everything it was supposed to, moving the plot at a decent pace and doing a good job of striking a balance between fun camp and action without being cartoonish. It's a good thing that MK'95 didn't rely too heavily on special effects and more on the practical side, but of course the few CG effects it did have would look dated now. Everything's a product of its time.

On the fight scenes, I'll agree that Sonya vs Kano in the original was lacking, but all the other fights for the most part had great choreography. With MK'21 though, most of the fights outside of like Sub-Zero were choppy and badly edited. i.e.,

YouTube video

The movie still had some good parts. I won't take away from those who liked it, but the cons simply overshadow the pros for a lot of fans.

When we waited 24 years after Annihilation for a new film, having some expectations was reasonable, and mind you I wasn't expecting a ground breaker; just some half decent adaptation but with gore added, but it was hardly even that. Some of the previous attempts one could argue were done better too like with the MK Rebirth/Legacy web series (that had Michael Jae White, etc) despite the problems that were had with its style. Compared to MK'21 it at least knew how to world build. The creator behind it wanted to do an MK film, but wasn't given the budget to do so. Instead we get this other guy Simon McQuoid that hadn't even directed a film previously to do MK 2021 and it shows.

Originally posted by cdtm
The cheesy effects actually helped '95 imo. Scorpion doing the flaming skull thing looked like something out of an MTV music video.

Originally posted by SquallX
How did Scorpion learn English?

Yeah, I don't mean to imply that there is nothing to enjoy about the new film. I did enjoy some things, like the somewhat uncompromising violence and I give the film some credit for bookending the film with the Sub-Zero/Scorpion connection (even though I'm not sure we needed some goofy backstory on Sub-Zero and Scorpion. They worked fine in the original film to me just as weird alternate dimension villains). That being said...

Originally posted by Ridley_Prime
A lot of the charm for the original film too, as well as MK series on the whole at the time, was that it didn't take itself seriously like it does now. MK95 did everything it was supposed to, moving the plot at a decent pace and doing a good job of striking a balance between fun camp and action without being cartoonish.

...I think that hits the nail on the head. The new film doesn't embrace the camp like it should. Like a lot of modern "gritty remakes" it tries to be some classy drama when it should embrace the ridiculous premise and have more fun with it. MK95 did that. There were no characters actors to chew up the scenery and really show that they were having fun with the role. MK95 had that.

Like lame main character guy who gets his powers was just fu#king cringy bad.

That Arcana that the characters talk about is basically Midichlorians in Star Wars isn't it and using that as Cole's excuse why he's weak is he had so much of it untapped. Maybe next Shao Kahn will help by first telling him the tale of Onagis the wise.

And I'm not here to imply that you can't like the original 95 one more than the 21 version. Different people like different styles. I personally like both myself.

Still it's stretch to say one of them is technically worse than the other. Neither one were really a master piece of film making. Both had their fair share of problems. I just think the 95 one has a nostalgic advantage over the 21 version for many people.

Originally posted by Ridley_Prime
Outside of Sub-Zero whom most of the budget for this film went to, I can't think of anyone that the new film did better than the original 95 film. Even some of the most minor characters in it had more of a background than with those of the new film. Aside from Goro who we already explained was done dirty, the cameo characters like Reiko and Nitara looked so egregious that if they weren't named, I'd have probably assumed they were just generic dickheads for the heroes to overcome. They may as well have not been in the film with the 20 seconds they had.

Fair point on the one line by Shang Tsung that was given for Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but back in 1995, people had no idea how the characters would interact with one another because you didn't have like Netherrealm Studio around to release heavily story-driven games, to show how Liu Kang would speak with Raiden or how Johnny Cage would React if he saw some Outworlder, and this gave the directors great creative freedom. Of course some of the scenes were cheesy, but it had some huge impact on the future of the franchise, like the established character relationships, Kano's Australian heritage, and so on. Most of the cast was definitely more likable too, a good chunk of whom were born to play their roles; Cary Tagawa as Shang Tsung, Lindon Ashby as Johnny Cage, Robin Shou as Liu Kang, Christopher Lambert as Raiden... You can't tell me the new film's Raiden, Liu Kang, or Shang Tsung have the same presence to them.

A lot of the charm for the original film too, as well as MK series on the whole at the time, was that it didn't take itself seriously like it does now. MK95 did everything it was supposed to, moving the plot at a decent pace and doing a good job of striking a balance between fun camp and action without being cartoonish. It's a good thing that MK'95 didn't rely too heavily on special effects and more on the practical side, but of course the few CG effects it did have would look dated now. Everything's a product of its time.

On the fight scenes, I'll agree that Sonya vs Kano in the original was lacking, but all the other fights for the most part had great choreography. With MK'21 though, most of the fights outside of like Sub-Zero were choppy and badly edited. i.e.,

YouTube video

The movie still had some good parts. I won't take away from those who liked it, but the cons simply overshadow the pros for a lot of fans.

When we waited 24 years after Annihilation for a new film, having some expectations was reasonable, and mind you I wasn't expecting a ground breaker; just some half decent adaptation but with gore added, but it was hardly even that. Some of the previous attempts one could argue were done better too like with the MK Rebirth/Legacy web series (that had Michael Jae White, etc) despite the problems that were had with its style. Compared to MK'21 it at least knew how to world build. The creator behind it wanted to do an MK film, but wasn't given the budget to do so. Instead we get this other guy Simon McQuoid that hadn't even directed a film previously to do MK 2021 and it shows.

Can say I prefer the full flaming skull for Scorpion over the new film where they only showed half his skull when he was breathing the fire. I guess less is more for some, but with Scorpion's Ghost Rider roots, they may as well have gone all out with the skull.

Like most things in this film such as how Bi-Han lived for centuries, it is not explained.

I think it's a wash between this version of Sonya and the original 95 Sonya. Both are presented as tough as nails badasses but in the original while she was given more screen time she did eventually become the standards 90s damsel in distress at the end. In this the 21 version her fight with Kano is also a lot more fun.

Lui Kang was the main character of the original so yeah he got a lot more character development so it's hard to argue with that one.

The Kano of this is one is a million times better than the original Kano who just ended up being fodder. Also I would say 21 Kano was meant more of a stand in for 95 Johnny Cage and they were both pretty enjoyable.

I would argue the MK Legacy series did a better job at world building than both films because it was a series and therefore had a chance to build out the characters better.

I do agree with a better budget the 21 film probably would have been much better.

MK Legacy was amazing.

Liu Kang's never been the same since Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. From main character to

So what do you think of Cole Young?

Was an original character really necessary, when they have a rich and diverse cast to choose from?

And what was the deal with Scorpion only stepping in at that exact moment Sub Zero and Cole were fighting? Why not go after him sooner? What, did Cole summon him? Is that another power he gained, necromancy?

MK Legacy Raiden was the worst thing ever.

Originally posted by cdtm
MK Legacy was amazing.

Liu Kang's never been the same since Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. From main character to

You have to understand this key point in MK. The series was created by Boon and Tobias. Kang was Tobias’ boy, while Scorpions was Boons.

After Tobias left, Boon had full creative control, and he always hated Kang. That’s why Kang was pushed to the back, while Scorpion was pushed to the front.

Originally posted by cdtm
So what do you think of Cole Young?

Was an original character really necessary, when they have a rich and diverse cast to choose from?

And what was the deal with Scorpion only stepping in at that exact moment Sub Zero and Cole were fighting? Why not go after him sooner? What, did Cole summon him? Is that another power he gained, necromancy?

So I can see the logic of wanting to use an original character for that. I wish he was a less active member. My original thought was that he was going to be used to help return Scorpion's spirit via his body and that was going to be Cole's Arcana.

At the end though Cole was just mediocre character not given enough time to get interesting. I thought the actor was fine though.

So Scorpion was trapped in hell until Cole's blood mixed with Scorpion's dagger to allow his spirit to transfer over.

A little tacky but I liked the scene we got from it where Scorpion spears Sub-Zero out of nowhere.

Originally posted by Newjak
I don't know if it was needed but I also understand what they were trying to do with him. They were trying to use him as the audience introduction to the world.

Makes absolutely no sense what so ever to use such a character when MK already has a plethora of well known, well liked characters to choose from.

MK95 had us seeing the story through Kang, Cage, and Sonya’s eyes, and we loved that movie.

Cole was a useless character that took away from Kang’s and Lao’s time.

Originally posted by Newjak
I would argue Scorpion was definitively done better in this movie simply because he was given more to do and his opening scene was one of the best of the movie.

I think it's a wash between this version of Sonya and the original 95 Sonya. Both are presented as tough as nails badasses but in the original while she was given more screen time she did eventually become the standards 90s damsel in distress at the end. In this the 21 version her fight with Kano is also a lot more fun.

Lui Kang was the main character of the original so yeah he got a lot more character development so it's hard to argue with that one.

The Kano of this is one is a million times better than the original Kano who just ended up being fodder. Also I would say 21 Kano was meant more of a stand in for 95 Johnny Cage and they were both pretty enjoyable.

I would argue the MK Legacy series did a better job at world building than both films because it was a series and therefore had a chance to build out the characters better.

I do agree with a better budget the 21 film probably would have been much better.

Fair enough on Sonya.

We wouldn't of had the current Kano if not for '95 Kano though. The late Trevor Goddard's great performance was what cemented the character as Australian from thereon. He at least had the cybernetic eye piece too unlike the new one, much as I enjoyed him also. The reasoning for Johnny Cage not being in this film was bullshit to begin with, but I was able to live with this Kano as the comic relief standin as the next best thing.

Originally posted by Estacado
MK Legacy Raiden was the worst thing ever.

YouTube video

Remember too that the entirety of this film was pre-tournament, so there was no reason Raiden could not of helped throughout. It's only ever been established that he can't interfere during a tournament, but if the enemy team cheats prior to it, he's able to step in.

Not here though. Guess Kung Lao had to die for nothing.

You have to understand this key point in MK. The series was created by Boon and Tobias. Kang was Tobias' boy, while Scorpions was Boons.

After Tobias left, Boon had full creative control, and he always hated Kang. That's why Kang was pushed to the back, while Scorpion was pushed to the front.

Also, Liu was still the main protagonist again in the latest game. Scorpion has otherwise been pushed to the forefront because he's always been one of the most popular characters. Sure, being Boon's favorite helps, but you see Sub-Zero being pushed to the forefront almost as much (especially if this film's any indication) and that's because of his popularity as well.

Kind of funny seeing Raiden's prominence from his days of being kind of a joke character.

What with his ending resulting in a party with the other gods that burns down the earth and all.