Summer of Netflix Day 65 - Mortal Kombat

Jason: The year was Mid-90’s something. I was a young lad, not quite 10, sitting at my friend’s house playing video games. What were we playing? Mortal Freakin’ Kombat. I sucked so bad at that game. Total button masher. Never could get the fatalities to work when I wanted them to. And I didn’t even know there was a story mode. But I enjoyed the heck out of that game!And then came the movie. I remember seeing it when I was a pre-teen but I didn’t remember a lot about it. Just that it was Mortal Kombat on the screen with real people. I recently watched it again and could not help but laugh through the whole thing. From the iconic 90’s-synth soundtrack to the cheesey animated special effects. It really took me back in time. There were some things that caught me off guard. Like the fact that both Scorpion and SubZero go down like total punks and Goro was just unnerving! Also, I found the casting a bit silly. It’s hilarious watching Connor MacLeod trying to imitate an ancient Asian deity.

Overall, it is a nostalgic trip back to a simpler time in cinema history. Or rather, a more over the top time in cinema history. A time that I think we can all agree is better left back in the 90’s. Now if only the Super Mario Bros. Movie were on Netflix!!

Joel: They’ve never quite figured out how to actually adapt a video game into a movie. There have been a few here and there that weren’t bad. There have been video game movies that were good movies, but terrible adaptations of the video game. There have been some that had a good idea or two, but were never able to pull it together into a complete package. But then there’s Mortal Kombat. It’s a movie thats a product of its time to be sure, but where it succeeds when most others fail, is that it’s actually a fairly true adaptation to the look and feel of the video game that it’s based on. It helps that the source material has some of the most memorable characters in a fighting game at the time, so it’s very easy to recognize who each person is supposed to be. But the movie genuinely does have the feel of a video game about it. Our main character (Liu Kang) has to make his way up the ranks fighting progressively more and more difficult opponents, just like the video game. People are able to brush aside massive amounts of damage in each fight, just like a video game. Honestly what doesn’t work about the movie is a product of its time (some of the effects haven’t aged well) and the fact that the story of Mortal Kombat was never Oscar material to begin with (because it was a fighting game, what were you expecting?) but what it does really well is take a good look at the source material, figure out the best way to adapt it for the screen and pull of a pretty enjoyable movie out of all of it.

Chris: I honestly don’t have much to say about this movie other than how it was the embodiment of every cheesy 90’s movie I can think of. Maybe I made the mistake of not watching it around the time of it’s release so I could be like Jason and watch it through the lense of nostalgia and perhaps I could at least appreciate it for that reason. But I didn’t and I couldn’t.