Mortal Kombat (1995)

Admirable film.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This Hollywood movie, based upon the immensely popular computer game, is one of the more successful attempts at cashing in on a popular culture. "Mortal Kombat" features several of the characters from the computer game and they translate well onto the big screen. The approach in the making of this movie, is to make the violence as comic strip as possible. In addition, both the setting and the martial arts action are given a fantasy look. Some of the scenes tend to feature some crazy s*** regarding the above. You instantly realise that such things could never happen like that in real life. I have no idea how skilled the cast were in the field of self defence but the choreography comes thick and fast. The script clearly wasn't going to include much in the way of character depth and why should it? Apart from the numourous fight scenes, I like the slight references to the masterpiece, "Enter the Dragon." The said tournament taking place on an island that has no official existence, the leading hero trying to be Bruce Lee etc. The acting isn't the best I have ever seen but the one who plays Johnny Cage is quite a laugh. One of the Carradine brothers makes a cameo appearance but is completely wasted. A hugely entertaining martial arts fest and one to remember.

I rate this by my appreciation for it when I first saw it, which means I was about 7 years old, now I would probably be a bit less euphoric about it.. But then it ticked all the boxes for me. It's fast paced and action packed, every fight is interesting and looks great! The characters are true to the game, they look and act very much like in the games including many signature movies. The plot is easy to follow, maybe simplistic, but so were the games. If it had more gore it would be exactly like the games! And considering the target audience was kids/teens it is understandable why there isn't much gore! Goro looked amazing for the time and Christopher Lambert's portrayal of Lord Rayden was so awesome! And finally that theme "song"... you gotta love it! All in all like I said, still the best videogame adaptation, whether it says much or not is debatable, but that's another question entirely!

Based on the hit video game for the Sega Genesis, Mortal Kombat involves three great fighters, Lui Kang, a monk, Sonya Blade, a gun-wielding cop, and Johnny Cage, an actor, that are guided by fate to a tournament. At the beginning of the movie, on a Chinese junk ship, they meet Lord Raiden, the God of Lightning and Thunder and the Protector of the realm of earth. They cast off to an island where the tournament is to be held. The souls controlled by Shang Tsung, a wizard from Outworld, fly around. The winner will ensure that the men and women of earth do not share a similar fate. And each fighter has his or her own self-interest in winning. Watch the movie to see who wins!

The success of the 'Super Mario Bros' movie in 1993 provided many an idea for movie makers in the '90's. It wasn't an immediate success though. The 'Street Fighter' movie made in 1994 proved a box office flop. It was therefore brave that Ed Boon and John Tobias' much loved video game franchise 'Mortal Kombat' should be brought to the cinema screen. The film, written by Kevin Droney, was conceived in August 1995, four months after the third game in the series got underway. The cinematic film came after a straight to video animated film entitled 'Mortal Kombat - The Journey Begins' was released ( which was made to fit around the movie ) and met with mixed reviews, some felt it was completely unfaithful to its game predecessor and criticised it for not giving enough of the characters much exposure whilst others felt it was a welcome venture. I still have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I find it worthwhile, gripping and sometimes even humorous whereas on the other I find it sometimes disjointed, confusing and even lazy.The film more or less follows that same pattern as the game. The Earthrealm fighting tournament known as 'Mortal Kombat' is about to embark on its tenth and final battle against Outworld. Having lost the previous nine battles, the tournament looks destined to perish forever it is does not win the final tournament. Sorceror Shang Tsung ( Cary-Hiryuki Tagawa ) and his ghastly four armed body guard Goro ( Tom Woodruff. Jr ) both endeavour to win the tournament. and rule Outworld. Meanwhile, a group of Earthrealm warriors are competing for reasons of their own - Liu Kang ( Robin Shou ) enters to avenge the death of his brother Chan ( who died at the hands of Shang Tsung ), Special Forces agent Sonya Blade ( the beautiful Bridgette Wilson, in a role that was originally written for the equally beautiful Cameron Diaz ) hopes to get revenge against not only Tsung but one of his henchmen, the cold blooded Kano ( Trevor Goddard ), film star Johnny Cage ( Linden Ashby ) is entering to prove that he is a bona fide martial artist and not the fake that the media have made him out to be. All are guided by Rayden - God Of Thunder ( Christopher Lambert ).Also allying with the Earth warriors is 10,000 year old Princess Kitana, who is the daughter of Shao Kahn, the despicable ruler of Outworld.The cast certainly do a good job in bringing the characters to life, particularly Bridgette Wilson ( who I fondly remember as Veronica Vaughn in the hilarious Adam Sandler film 'Billy Madison' ) as Sonya and the husky voiced Christoper Lambert as Rayden. Talisa Soto is also wonderful ( as well as sexy ) as Kitana. One of the biggest downsides, as I encountered earlier, is the lack of screen time for some of the most popular characters such as ninjas Sub Zero, Scorpion and Reptile. One of the most notable things about the film is its soundtrack, particularly the opening theme by The Immortals which has become a global hit in its own right.A second cinematic release came in 1997 entitled 'Mortal Kombat - Annihilation' which fared disastrously at the box office, meaning there would be little chance of a third release, which is tragic considering it was a far better film than the first in about every respect.