Mortal Kombat (1995) Reviews

• Street Fighter Correction

  jaywolfenstien2003-09-22

  Following up the spectacular disaster of competing fighting game turned movie, Mortal Kombat succeeded where Street Fighter failed. Not a fantastic movie nor one that goes in my top ten, but Mortal Kombat (without a doubt) is one of the better game-based-films. MK wisely avoids inventing plot in unwelcomed places and sticks to the game as frequently as it can get away with. Actually the biggest contradiction that comes to mind is Scorpion and Sub-zero on the same team. Die hard fans will call the screenwriter on this, the rest of us won't care. All the mistakes Street Fighter made, MK avoided. Instead of colorful campy cameo-fest, Mortal Kombat comes across as a dark tale about a handful of martial artists shot with an exaggerated epic style with humorous undertones to provide comic relief every now and again. Then again, it is ironic that Street Fighter would feel cartoony and Mortal Kombat more concrete when looking at the style of the games (drawn sprites versus live actors). MK is a little silly when reproducing game effects and trademark moves, though now more and more films are moving in that direction (Matrix, anyone?) The movie's premise is the first Mortal Kombat arcade game featuring a few plot hints (journey to Outworld) and a few characters from Mortal Kombat 2 (Kitana, Jax, a youthful Shang Tsung.) Christopher Lambert and Cary-Hiroyuki Takawa make the most memorable impact as Thunder God Rayden and Shape-shifting Sorcerer Shang Tsung. Both ham up their performances just enough to remind us that we're watching a live-action video game, but they don't go overboard into Street Fighter's territory. The rest of the cast plays their part straight forward and makes their characters believable. It's a quick and slick film, gets to the action and gets over with before you can ask too many questions. It's a pretty decent martial arts film, and an outstanding ‘video game' film. And in 1995, it was the best game-inspired film you could find. Today it's still in the top five.

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• Fun Martial Arts/Fantasy Film

  BrandtSponseller2005-01-25

  A number of martial artists converge in China, from which they're taken to a seeming alternate dimension to fight in a tournament that's only held "once each generation". This time, however, the stakes are even higher, as the outcome of the tournament will determine the fate of the Earth. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've seen this film, and I've not yet had experience with any of the games, the other films, the animated series, the lunchboxes, or anything else related to the Mortal Kombat universe. After watching the first film, however, I definitely will seek out some of the other material, as I enjoyed the film quite a bit--it earns an 8 out of 10 from me. At this point, however, I can't compare it to any other instantiations of Mortal Kombat. The film is basically a combination of a classic Hong Kong-styled martial arts actioner and a fantasy that leans slightly to the horror side of that genre. To the film's benefit, it's also not something that either director Paul W.S. Anderson or writer Kevin Droney take too seriously--the film is ultimately an adaptation of a popular video game, after all. There is a tongue-in-cheek, slightly campy sense of humor and playful cheesiness throughout the film, the humor being primarily fueled from two characters, Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Lord Rayden (Christopher Lambert). True, Lambert has a kind of almost smarmy campiness to anything he says or does, in any film, but for me, that's part of his attractiveness--it's a large part of what sold me on the Highlander films. The fantasy aspect was something I didn't expect before watching the film. It was a very pleasant surprise. Being a huge horror fan, I was especially taken with the set design. The fantasy characters, such as Goro, and the fantasy traits of other characters, were well done and even subtle at times. As for the fights, which are the propelling force behind the film, they're pleasantly varied and well choreographed, although having just watched Master of the Flying Guillotine (1975) again recently, I was slightly disappointed that the fights weren't more brutal and gory (and in fact, this is one of the areas where I subtracted a point). But they almost make up for the lack of violence but their imaginativeness, especially the fights with Sub-Zero and The Scorpion. That cleverness was required over brawn in most instances was also a nice touch. Overall, this is a great film that any fans of martial arts or fantasy films should enjoy.

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• Though showing its age, "Kombat" is still as entertaining as it was in its heyday

  SwingBatta2002-03-07

  I was living in San Diego (particularly in the suburban armpit of Del Mar) in 1995, and I remember waiting eagerly well over a year for MK's release. And it was definitely worth the wait; I saw it a total of 13 times, which stood as my all-time record for nearly four and a half years. When all was said and done, it had grossed a strong $70 million domestically, plus $100 million worldwide. I'm not a Mortal Kombat fanatic anymore, but in retrospect MK was one of the most entertaining movies of the 1990s. It was easily the first video game-turned-movie to contain a halfway decent plot, exciting special effects, good acting and spectacular martial arts action, the latter which was before all the present-day "Crouching Tiger" wire-work nonsense. The actors underwent a three-month crash course in martial arts training, and their hard work paid off beautifully. On screen, they looked like they were really performing those moves instead of just imitating them. Unlike previous video game movie washouts like "Double Dragon" and "Street Fighter," MK also had a comprehensible plot that remained faithful to the games, and in the end won a space in gamers' hearts. Along with the supporting cast of well-renowned martial artists, MK featured a nice cache of actors: Linden Ashby – whose screen personalities have all had a bit of a humorous smartass element to them – was perfect as Johnny Cage, likewise then-rising star Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade and Robin Shou as the film's centerpiece, Liu Kang. Christopher Lambert gave a witty performance as thunder god Raiden (constantly misspelled as "Rayden," much to the aggravation of many MK fans like myself), and nobody cared that he was a French actor playing a Japanese character. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who recently starred in Tim Burton's version of "Planet of the Apes," clearly had a ball playing the evil Shang Tsung, and it showed. (Heck, how many evil sorcerers get to wear cool black leather jackets?) Unfortunately, save for Tagawa and Wilson, MK unfortunately did not spell the worldwide exposure that many had predicted would come to the stars following the film's success, and the art of animatronics, used here to bring the four-armed Goro to life, is all but extinct in this day and age, but there was no denying that back in the day, the cast and filmmakers knew they had made an entertaining movie. While I hardly watch MK anymore, the bottom line is that it was undeniably a kick in the pants during its time, and for that reason alone it continues to maintain my highest vote to this day. 10/10

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• A nice adaption!

  swedzin2010-01-04

  MK 1995 is a fine, just fine adaption. It is pretty often for movies based upon video games to end up crappy as a final product. Well, this one was more than OK. No need to tell anything except a few things... a few good things. The acting crew is great - Robin Shou (Liu Kang), Linden Ashby (Johny Cage) and Bridgette Willson (Sonya Blade) were great in their parts. Robin Shou is not the best actor around, but he proved to be great as Liu Kang and I find him, for now, to be the best who portrayed Kang in live action film. Linden Ashby was an excellent choice for Johny Cage. He was funny, cocky and sarcastic as a character, and I think that Ashby did a great job. Bridgette Willson was OK, but not all that great. Maybe because they give her so little to work with. And when it comes to that, our leading characters are not that much developed. They are just there to win the tournament, but their backgrounds are pretty solid, and that's about it. Too bad that they didn't give them more to their character. Christopher Lambert was fine as Rayden, mysterious and tall. But his acting was a bit wooden. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was excellent was Shang Tsung, his performance was inspiring and he made Tsung with such unmitigated charisma. So far, he is my favorite Shang Tsung. Talisa Soto (Kitana) was also good, alas just like Sonya, little developed and two dimensional. She was there to increase the plot for Liu Kang. Now, the one I really found most entertaining is none else than Trevor Goddard (Kano), his Kano was very fun! His Australian accent and charm were just through the roof! To mention the fact that most voice actors in video games based their performances on Goddard's. Thanks to him, this Kano is memorized and trademarked forever. Love this Kano! The martial artist that played Reptile (Keith Cooke), Sub Zero (Francois Petit) and Scorpion (Chris Casamassa) were amazing in what they do best - kicking some butt! They really gave a 200% effort and hard work in fight scenes. Fights are excellent, dynamic and well choreographed. The atmosphere in certain scenes is good, in a way, it gives us a decent impressions of "fighting locations." The locations and studio sets were good, CGI, was not that great. But, don't despair. One of the most beautiful things in this film is Goro. Performed by special effects master and student to Stan Winston - Tom Woodruff Jr. Who did an impressive job on Goro. You just can't deny his puppetry and animatronics. All that is pretty well mixed with voice acting of Kevin Michael Richardson who voiced Goro. For the end, Paul WS Anderson is not my favorite director, nor I don't find most of his films good. But, this one is very special and it was one of his early works in Hollywood, so he had to prove it. And he did it. He did a good job. Keep it in mind that this movie offers you only a tiny amount of blood. Whereas the game is extremely violent. This movie, reasonably is not. It's a decent fun! Watch it!

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• Best video game movie to date

  K-Mac0172005-09-05

  And that really says a lot about how the not-so-current trend of games-to-movies are received among critics. But this one was easily the best of all of them. This is easily in a league higher than the likes of Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Wing Commander, the Tomb Raider movies, Resident Evils 1 and 2, House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, not to mention that this was one of the few that actually stayed true to the game, from the costumes to the tourney fights, from the characters to the plot lines, everything was done right, and it makes for one hell of a fight-'em-to-the-finish type movie. But heed my warning: AVOID THE SEQUEL AT ALL COST! Just stick with the original. You won't be disappointed (well, maybe you will, just maybe).

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