La Ron S. Readus
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Why I LOVE the Mortal Kombat Moive (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2020-03-26 14:27:12 +0000 UTC
MOM SAID ITS MY TURN TO TALK ABOUT THE 1995 MORTAL KOMBAT MOVIE AND HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!
T-That’s not...t-that’s not even a bit for the opener; I’m LEGITIMATELY about to do that right now...
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It’s true, Readers; the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie holds a very special place in my heart.
Not only was it the SECOND video game movie I ever saw -- my very first one was Super Mario Brothers and I love it with all my heart, do not judge me...
But when I used to find myself having to convince people that it IS POSSIBLE to make a good video game movie that’s both entertaining and faithful to the source material -- y’know, before Detective Pikachu started the current renaissance
Mortal Kombat 95 -- SPECIFICALLY Mortal Kombat 95 -- was Evidence A in all of my trial cases
And the reason it IS Evidence A -- especially for me -- is because it’s a FIGHTING game. And before the end of the new millennium’s first decade, attaching all that possibility for a movie in a fighting game narrative was a FEAT and a half
See, when it comes to me and fighting games, I’m a casual fan of them. I’m also VERY picky.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m MORE than willing to put in the time to learn how to play with certain characters
But because my first fighter -- and in retrospect, my FAVORITE fighter -- is the Tekken series, fighters like Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur with fleshed out characters and a strong narrative are my initial attractors before gameplay and the like.
Yes, Readers. I play fighting games...for the story
There are some exceptions I experienced growing up, like Bloody Roar, for example. But usually those exceptions either have one or the other aforementioned point I look for and I can compensate for whichever one is missing in other creative outlets. More on that in another video.
But yeah, when it came to being introduced to Mortal Kombat THE GAME, I didn’t really know that much about it as a kid. And that’s mostly because -- as stated in previous videos -- my mother is very Christian and was HELLA overprotective of me when I was a kid.
She refused to let me play MK because of the blood and fatalities
I had to play Final Fantasy 8 in secret because I knew she was gonna trip if she saw Shiva’s outfit
Before my natural hatred of OG trilogy Kratos properly spawned, my mom forced me to return a copy of God of War that my best friend got me for Christmas on some “There’s only one God I’m allowing in my household, and he ain’t about War” tip.
(I mean, History says otherwise, mom. But go off, I guess...)
So technically one could say that my first experience with Mortal Kombat was the 1995 movie.
Of course I didn’t see it in theaters, but I initially caught it on HBO or another equivalent. And my God did I enjoy it.
/To me, Mortal Kombat 95 painted a proper picture of the overall story the first two games told in a way for someone like me -- a tween who didn’t have a chance to play it at the time -- could easily understand./
I say that because by the time I truly got invested in fighting games, a lot of the ones I regularly played -- Tekken and Bloody Roar -- already had sequels.
Because there was no set Story Mode for a lot of those games yet -- the first time I was exposed to a true Story Mode for a fighter was like, Mortal Kombat 9 -- I had to go by the premise of the sequel to find out which character’s run in the previous game was the one that was properly canon in the lore.
For example: Tekken 2 was my first Tekken game. Kazuya was the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, thus making him and his Devil form the main boss and Heihachi and Jun Kazama the main protags for that game.
Y’know, if you read the manual the game came with.
When I played OG Tekken for the first time in order to learn how things escalated to where they were in 2, I saw in the game and read in the manual how the conflict between Heihachi and Kazuya started.
So in order for me to get the story behind Tekken up to that point, not only did I know I had to play Kazuya’s playthrough in Tekken 1, but out of all the characters in the game, his run was more than likely the one that was canon.
/What I liked about Mortal Kombat 95 was that, yes; there was definitely a main point of view the movie followed in the form of Liu Kang. But the other important characters that existed at the time like Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage and Kitana also received ample amount of screentime in order for their arcs to be explored as well, since the three were initially part of the group ensemble representing Earthrealm./
As a matter of fact, this movie was the one that showed me that one of the best ways of adapting a story from a fighting game to either film or television is best done as an ensemble piece.
/Other than being campy in its own right, one of the things I think puts the Mortal Kombat movie over the Street Fighter movie was that because they cast Van Damme as Guile, they put more attention on him and Cammy as opposed to Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li -- the main and essential characters of the franchise./
/And while everyone can easily declare Scorpion and Sub-Zero as the most POPULAR characters in the franchise, considering that the original three games are about stopping Shao Khan from invading and ruling Earthrealm, having the story surround the PROTECTORS of Earthrealm was more than likely the best bet./
And while focusing on the ones that are essential to telling the story of Mortal Kombat 95 like Liu Kang, Johnny Blaze and Sonya Blade so the movie wouldn’t feel overcrowded, while setting up others that would come later on down the line in the video game’s timeline like Jax in the sequel that does not exist
/Mortal Kombat 95 was able to distribute proper pacing in its storytelling, development with its main characters, cool-looking fights and effects for the time they were made in despite not holding up to todays standards, and all while staying as faithful as possible to the source material./
And while nowadays the best form of medium to do a PROPER adaptation for something as big as a fighting game -- considering how big the rosters have grown and how many characters FROM said rosters are considered main and side characters that are detrimental to the narrative -- is a tv or a web series in order to cover everything
I appreciate that Mortal Kombat 95 was able to be the first movie based on a fighting game that was able to successfully show that making a movie based on every important aspect of the game its based on is, in fact, possible
So here’s hoping the 2021 movie only improves on the foundation the 1995 one set for it. (pauses) Also, here’s to finding out just who the hell Lewis Tan is playing in it.
So with that being said Readers, YOUR homework assignment for the day: Write in the comment section below what YOU love about the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie.
Y’know, if...if you do.
Do you have any special memories associated with the movie? Does it hold a nostalgic place in your heart? I’d LOVE to know your thoughts.
