When it comes to making live-action video game adaptation films, there has yet to be a film that everyone across the board describes as “good.” Most fans can be heard saying, “it’s a good movie for video game adaptation standards” but never has anyone said, “it’s a good movie for movie standards.“Mortal Kombatfinally got its long-awaited reboot film this year after the less than desirableMortal Kombat Annihilationwas released to the public dismay from fans and critics alike in 1997.
Fans assumed that they would never get to see a live-actionMortal Kombatmovie that satisfies everything they’re looking for. In 2010 Kevin Tancharoen released a short film fan film titled Mortal Kombat Rebirth which took a grounded, realistic, and more gritty approach to the Mortal Kombat world. That evolved into the Mortal Kombat Legacy YouTube series in 2011-2013 before Tancharoen stepped away from the whole series as a whole after creative disputes when he was asked to make a live-action film. Fans were brought hope during these years only to lose it again. Finally, it was announced that they would be doing a reboot which fans have heard before. However, when they found out they were rebooting the film, bringing in a new cast,making it an R-rated film, and keeping it accurate to the video games' lore their excitement went through the roof.
RELATED:Mortal Kombat Movie May Be Getting A Sequel After All
If one were to think of the movie as a ‘pilot’ for where the series can go, then they would see a foundation of ideas that can be the beginning of great things. It’s no secret that it’s easier to turn a movie into a video game than it is to do it the other way around, but there are still things that can be done to make this movie series a whole lot better. Here are 5 things that theMortal Kombatmovie sequel must do to succeed as the best video game movie adaptation of all time.
The Story Is Already Established So Get To The Fights
Mortal Kombat for all intents and purposes, is a fighting game. The game is primarily known for its brutal combat, wide range of fighters, and unique world that it has built. With that being said, the movie should be emphasizing the fighting. The video games on the other hand actually are known for having an enriching story yet the games don’t focus on the dialogue or explanation because after all, it’s a fighting game with a roster of 20+ characters. This means the gamer is always either fighting someone or about to fight someone; it doesn’t have the luxury of giving a three arc backstory for every single character. The story does manage to give a glimpse at each individual character but this doesn’t translate for conventional film writing. Film writing requires a main character, exposition, and story elements that often clash with the makeup of a video game title likeMortal Kombat.
A great film to look at for an example isTheRaid. That film gave the characters, predicament, and story in the first few minutes while everything after that was fighting. The sequel film needs to get right to the fights. Fans know the backstory of the Earthrealm defenders after this last movie, it also explained the tournament, it painted Shang Tsung as the bad guy so the next movie should have a tournament. Let the fights be the introduction. Tell fans what the tournament is, why they’re fighting, who is fighting and let the rest of the film be fights. The film doesn’t need to win an oscar, fans just want an enjoyable experience.
No more using main characters as Jobbers
Mortal Kombatdid a poor job at demonstrating power levels between its characters. A team ofsupernatural warriors from Outworld(Mileena, Reptile & Goro for example) who’ve been specifically recruited after training and killing their whole lives get wasted by a team of newcomer inexperienced fighters. Reptile was killed during his introduction in the film, Goro was killed by a man that didn’t even beat another human cage fighter and Mileena was taken out after only have two minutes of screen time.
There weren’t many characters to begin with in the film and at the end of the day, someone has to die in order to satisfy fans with a fatality. However, they could’ve gone about it more effectively and make it look a lot less like plot armor. The Reptile fight for example is a great point of topic. After melting the metallic cargo hold with acid, Reptile was seen sneaking around in the dark using an invisibility camouflage. There was even a scene where he disintegrated a knife with the same acidic substance. Instead of having the character spit acid while cloaked from within the shadows, they had Reptile go down and fight hand to hand. This makes Reptile look less intelligent which doesn’t make the protagonists look impressive.
Had Reptile done the “smarter” tactic and fired off acid from the shadows.Viewers would’ve had to see the Earthrealm championsdefend themselves against this incredibly difficult predicament forcing Reptile to close in with a hand-to-hand battle at the end. This would’ve made Reptile scarier as one touch from the acid can melt metal and it would’ve made the protagonists appear as characters worth following after they overcame those near-impossible odds.
To do something as difficult as that, would then lead into how they stand a chance against Goro and Mileena. Instead, the fight scene was them scrambling around until Reptile revealed himself then they all had to team up to beat him.It made a strong villain feel very flat.
Bring back the villains
This is in conjuction with the last point; the villains were absolutely wasted. Shang Tsung had a quote where he said, “death is only another portal” which means death is not the end. This has heavy implications for the characters that were killed in the movie to be able to return at some point in a future movie title.Joe Taslim has signed on for multiple more Mortal Kombat projects.In the games' lore, his character (Sub Zero or Bi-Han) returns from the dead after being killed by Scorpion and becomes the Netherealm specter Noob Saibot.
Mileena, Reptile, Nitara, and Goro on the other hand aren’t typically known for coming back from the dead as an “evolved” version. However, if/when Bi-Han comes back, it won’t make sense for the others to not have the same option either. It would be a disservice for newcomers to not really know the impact these major villains have in the video games nor would it be fair for the hardcore fans who want to see more of them when they return.
The best route to go about this is to have them gain a new ability at the cost of something else. Sub Zero will become a specter while losing the little bit of humanity he has left. Mileena’s face resembled her in-game appearance during her final scenes in the movie so having her come back with the full set of teeth and mask is an option. Reptile can return with a more humanoid appearance like in the games while losing his Saurian race identity.Goro can come back strongerbut with a limited life span or amount of speed. Those are just quick examples that the writers can start with if they should decide to bring these characters back in the next film as their fight scenes all fell flat (with the exception of Sub Zero).
Make it more faithful to the video games
The movie can only benefit from keeping the movie as closely accurate to the games as possible. It makes the hardcore fans of the games happy and it makes the newcomers want to experience or learn further about the games.There were some nice callbacks to the gamesin the film that fans really enjoyed such as Liu Kang “spamming his sweep attack” (which is a callback to the arcade games), Kung Lao’s Fatality, Kitana’s Fans, and even the Shao Kahn statue to name a few.
One thing they can continue to add on is keeping the costumes more accurate to the lore of the games. The look of the film’s costumes was stunning but they can use small touch-ups for the sequel. The new Sub Zero should have a lot more blue hues on his costume considering he’s a different warrior than his brother. Mileena (played by Sisi Stinger) did an incredible job in the film but was missing the iconic pink color palette as well as the mask she’s known for wearing. Reiko is often joked about how he looks nothing like the game’s version of the character. Reptile can benefit from a more ninja-like appearance to represent his renditions from the games.
Keep The Brutality
The brutality of the film shouldeither stay the same or go up a tiny bit.The Suicide Squadfilm felt way more violent in comparison which many didn’t think would be the case. Some of the kills from theMortal Kombatmovie felt right out of the video games which was cool for fans but in terms of the totality of the movie, it wasn’t nearly as violent as games. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it allows for new viewers to feel comfortable however where it gets tricky is they don’t want to start running the risk of making it lighter with each film to the point where it resembles the original 1995 film.
The movie did a balance of making the film have flashy clean fights and gritty/bloody ones which was a perfect balance to satisfy newcomers as well as hardcore fans alike. If they keep this balance and don’t diminish it by turning their back on the core audience, then fans are in for a good treat with this upcoming sequel.
