|
Post by The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM} on May 1, 2021 0:51:49 GMT -5
First of all, I loved the original Mortal Kombat in all its cheesy glory as a kid.
Now, the new Mortal Kombat was very enjoyable. It LOOKED like Mortal Kombat. Blood, fatalities, cool looking dudes. Everything looked good (the arcana bullshit not withstanding). But something just felt...missing.
Then I watched the old Mortal Kombat again and, man, that movie still holds up despite the terrible CGI and puppetry. Raiden, Shang Tsung, Liu Kang were all so much more interesting in the old movie. Johnny Cage, who I remember never liking from the games or movies, was more interesting than Cole for sure. In fact, going back I think the only part of the original movie I was really unhappy with was the thing this movie did the best: Scorpion and Sub-Zero. In the old movie, they were just Tsung's voiceless goons who were blue and yellow and did a couple cool things. In this movie, they were people with motivations and personalities.
I feel like we could have a REALLY great Mortal Kombat movie between the two of these.
|
|
|
Post by Raskovnik on May 1, 2021 1:08:00 GMT -5
The movie was basically what I expected and I enjoyed it. My biggest issues weren’t particularly glaring but I thought about half the cast had terrible American accents, and it was also kind of unclear where everything took place. I guess it was Chicago, then Gary Indiana, then somewhere in the Australian outback? The entire thing felt like they filmed it in a week and only had access to actors that were on holiday in or local to Australia and three locations to film it all in...and they still made something watchable. I have fairly high expectations for the sequel.
|
|
|
Post by HMARK Center on May 1, 2021 11:55:01 GMT -5
I went in with pretty low expectations given a couple of the reviews I had heard, and...well, ok, I didn't have a bad time, but it was way too evident that there were about three or four separate good movie ideas in there, but they all got smushed together into one, under-two hours film, and it didn't allow any of those 3-4 good ideas to fully breathe or develop.
Scorpion and Sub-Zero stuff? Awesome.
Kano? Awesome.
But man, I agree with the earlier posts that Sonya should've been the POV character. The new guy wasn't awful, but Sonya was the only character with any kind of compelling arc to speak of...and even then they blew her development by having her get her marking the way she did instead of just doing a whole "screw destiny, the power was in you all along" revelation moment. I didn't mind the "inner power" stuff, but if you're gonna do it, do something interesting with it!
Plus, yeah, I don't get how some of the script sounded so natural and fun, and then other parts of the script felt like it was being written by the thousand chimps Mr. Burns has chained to his thousand typewriters.
I also try not to get all "Aw, they jobbed (whomever) out!" when it comes to adaptations like this, choices like that have to be made, but a couple of the choices for quick or not-too-difficult deaths were head scratchers, for sure.
In the end, it's the challenge of adapting MK to anything that isn't a series format: there are so many characters, and you have to commit to who your main characters are and which ones you'll develop. In the '95 movie they committed to it being Liu/Sonya/Johnny with Raiden as their mentor and Kitana as the outsider who helps, so they mostly had things to do and stories to tell; it meant shortchanging Scorpion and Sub-Zero, for example, but that wasn't a poor choice given that the original Sub-Zero was mostly a bad guy, anyway, and Scorpion could change sides and motivations as needed back then.
Here? They clearly wanted it to center on Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but they couldn't work around how big a role the Shaolins play in the whole MK tournament set up, how the ninjas' background has more to do with Quan-Chi/Shinnock than it does with Shang Tsung and Outworld, and how they also wanted to work things in for Sonya, Jax, and Kano to do...it was too much, too unfocused.
Again, overall I liked some of the performances and didn't have a bad time watching it, but there was definitely a "throw all the shit against the wall and see what happens" style at play, here, and it would've done better narrowing its story down to one or two main POVs instead of, again, three to four decent ideas that just can't all easily coexist in the same movie.
|
|
|
Post by 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger on May 1, 2021 12:31:06 GMT -5
Does this movie feel like it's missing its final act? It just sort of ends, without really resolving anything of note beyond the Sub-Zero thing. Like, it doesn't even really feel like it left a whole lot interesting for a sequel besides what we already expected from this movie. I’m noticing that with a lot of these movies that finished post production during the pandemic. A lack of reshoots or a more focused editing process has led a few movies to have clunky or hollow endings.
|
|
fw91
Patti Mayonnaise
FAN Idol All-Star: FAN Idol Season X and *Gavel* 2x Judges' Throwdown winner
Tribe has spoken for 2024 Mets
Posts: 38,930
|
Post by fw91 on May 1, 2021 12:42:05 GMT -5
Just saw it. If nothing else, it's an easy watch that doesn't over stay it's welcome. Kano was the highlight for me. It IS nothing more than a prequel to the first tournament BUT if the franchise continues past a second movie, it may be the right call in the longrun. I kinda dug the Cole character. I suppose going forward we will have subplots involving Johnny Cage learning about his "chosen" status and getting him to stop being "face Kano," and take it seriously, Bi Han's brother becoming the new good Sub Zero who has to earn the trust of the Earthrealm warriors especially Cole.
|
|
|
Post by James Fabiano on May 3, 2021 9:02:08 GMT -5
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,046
|
Post by Mozenrath on May 3, 2021 9:06:10 GMT -5
Donald Fagin of Steely Dan once described their song, "Reelin' In The Years" as "dumb, but effective."
That's more or less what I'd call this.
|
|
|
Post by James Fabiano on May 3, 2021 9:21:43 GMT -5
Donald Fagin of Steely Dan once described their song, "Reelin' In The Years" as "dumb, but effective." That's more or less what I'd call this. Battle Cat said that about Ram Man :-)
|
|
|
Post by Starshine on May 3, 2021 23:35:24 GMT -5
So big question, whose idea was it to dress Cole up like Aquaman?
|
|
|
Post by The Thread Barbi on May 6, 2021 2:14:51 GMT -5
I'm a simple man - Scorpion spearing Sub-zero, "GET OVER HERE" with the Techno Syndrome sample playing in the background and...
|
|
|
Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on May 11, 2021 16:31:33 GMT -5
A new challenger appears.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 11, 2021 16:41:44 GMT -5
A new challenger appears. This is only correct casting because his story IS Johnny's. And also full circle moment an all that.
|
|
|
Post by Wilfred on May 11, 2021 18:10:23 GMT -5
A new challenger appears. This is only correct casting because his story IS Johnny's. And also full circle moment an all that. This is what I’m hoping they do as well. Always been a Van Damme fan. Don’t think it’ll happen, but man how cool would it be.
|
|
|
Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on May 12, 2021 1:50:24 GMT -5
|
|
y4j1981
Dennis Stamp
Rowsdower
Posts: 4,642
|
Post by y4j1981 on Aug 1, 2021 22:33:43 GMT -5
|
|
ronin705
Dennis Stamp
All Might
Posts: 4,277
|
Post by ronin705 on Aug 2, 2021 0:00:26 GMT -5
After getting into th4ebirdman vids, i cant watxh cinemasins anymore. I didnt think the mistakes were bad, but geeze..
|
|
|
Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Aug 2, 2021 4:51:43 GMT -5
I had my criticisms about this new MK movie, but I prefer CinemaWins these days. There’s such an over abundance of those kind of roasting channels, and because of that it’s a fun alternative.
|
|
|
Post by thechase on Jan 28, 2022 4:39:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Lizuka #BLM on Jan 28, 2022 4:47:50 GMT -5
I can easily see a sequel either being much better or much worse, kind of comes down to if they improve on the problems with the first one or if they double down on them and I could see either happening.
|
|
ronin705
Dennis Stamp
All Might
Posts: 4,277
|
Post by ronin705 on Jan 28, 2022 5:54:35 GMT -5
First of all, I loved the original Mortal Kombat in all its cheesy glory as a kid. Now, the new Mortal Kombat was very enjoyable. It LOOKED like Mortal Kombat. Blood, fatalities, cool looking dudes. Everything looked good (the arcana bullshit not withstanding). But something just felt...missing. Then I watched the old Mortal Kombat again and, man, that movie still holds up despite the terrible CGI and puppetry. Raiden, Shang Tsung, Liu Kang were all so much more interesting in the old movie. Johnny Cage, who I remember never liking from the games or movies, was more interesting than Cole for sure. In fact, going back I think the only part of the original movie I was really unhappy with was the thing this movie did the best: Scorpion and Sub-Zero. In the old movie, they were just Tsung's voiceless goons who were blue and yellow and did a couple cool things. In this movie, they were people with motivations and personalities. I feel like we could have a REALLY great Mortal Kombat movie between the two of these. This 1000%. I don't even mind the use of the first movie as the prelude to the first tourney, but the new movie lacked the "boss fight" moments outside of the subzero Blizzard attack, while the OG set up Goro, Sub Zero, and Scorpion as three badasses with very little dialogue as you stated. Johnny, Liu Kang, and Sonya are MKs "Trinity" with Sun Zero and Scorpion being the "Spiderman/Wolverine" outliers, so screwing with that killed them right off the bat. Next movie NEEDS him (Miz, Ryan Reynolds, or let's f*** around and race bend Michael B Jordan into him what the hell it's hypothetical lol) grouping up with the main crew leading to the second half of the movie being the FULL TOURNAMENT (MK 1/2 mish mashed into one) ending with Liu wrecking Shangs shit..again lol. Sub plot can be Qui Lang going after Cole since he's Scorpions bloodline, but of course, face turns when the team needs him. Then, END with either Shao Khan, upon learning of Shang Tsungs failure via QUAN CHI, plotting or flat out starting the invasion of Earthrealm showing cameos of movie 3s additions (Joseph Sikora as Kurtis Stryker, Taylor Lautner as Nightwolf and Zoe Kravitz as Jade), raising the stakes to end the trilogy.
|
|