You can pick this up on DVD over on Amazon.
Or you can watch it on Amazon Prime.
I remember it being 1995 and seeing this movie at the theater with some friends. Back then we didn't think it was that bad. Of course our only from of reference for video game movies was Super Mario Brothers so that is an issue. Now upon viewing it again after a few decades my opinion is somewhat different and I find myself wondering what the hell was wrong with me back then.
Let me start off by saying effects wise they didn't do a bad job with what they had at the time. CGI was still much in the experimental and development phase. Terminator 2 had just came out four years prior and all that tech was still pretty expensive and most companies had no idea how well it would turn out on the big screen. So some of it turned out decent like Scorpions “Get over here” attack, but the others like Scorpion unmasking himself or Reptiles non-human form are pretty janky at their best. On the other hand the Goro puppet and animatronics were pretty damn sweet looking and much better than they had any right to be. So the practical effects actually turned out better than any of the CGI.
Then we get to casting. Oh who the fuck cast Christopher Lambert as Raiden? Seriously can we retroactively fire that person and make them pay back everything they earned for this movie. This is probably the thing that really gets me the most here. He can't act outside of a specific parameter to save his life and here he is way out of that. Just simply terrible. They cast folks who don't look like they should be in any sort of fighting competition, much less Mortal Kombat. Bridgette Wilson may have the blonde hair but she is absolutely unbelievable as Sonya Blade. At least a few were actual martial artists but that didn't help much because of... wait for it... because of....
Because the choreography sucked for the most part. The fight scenes had tons of cuts, edits and ended up looking like a jangled mess. Occasionally you would get a few shots that lasted more than a few seconds but that was a rarity. Some actual folks in place training people to do longer lasting scenes in shots that lasted a bit would have been great.
Also we discover the director loves (and I do mean loves) drowning out as many different colors as he can. Flooding a scene with one single color, be it blue, red, yellow or whatever. At first it was noticeable as a simple way to shot a scene for effect, but we get it over and over again. Somebody needs to take the flood lights away from him.
In the writing department they pull off an okay job. Nothing super bad and they do keep the characters constant throughout. Johnny is an ass, Lui is fighting against his destiny, Sonya wants to fuck up Kano. No big departures for no reason, with a nice little dash of “what have we gotten ourselves into” thrown in there. Some of Raiden's lines are pretty laughable but again, coming from a hopelessly miscast Lambert that is no surprise.
Oh I will take a moment to mention the soundtrack is fun. That's about all I can say on that.
Then the entire thing is set up for a sequel. From Jaxx being in the early part of the movie to the final end scene. But oh don't go thinking they stepped it up with part two because they sure as hell did not. One day I may view that movie again for a review, but today will not be that day.
Until next time.
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Such believable martial arts abilities.
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