The Mortal Kombat movie reboot is quickly barrelling towards theaters, and here's exactly what needs to be done to get it right this time around. The newest cinematic installment of the classic video game series is being directed by newcomer Simon McQuoid and produced by James Wan, based off a script written by Greg Russo. Fans of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise don't have to wait too long to see their favorite characters hit the big screen, as the movie releases on January 15th, 2021.
Mortal Kombat is already in the middle of a ton of new content with Mortal Kombat 11 recently releasing The Joker as a DLC character as well as the first trailer for the new animated film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge. Despite this, fans are waiting with bated breath for the new live action film to truly capture the world of Mortal Kombat in a way that the original film series did not. The creative team of the film has already done the work to convince fans that the movie will be everything they hope for with producer Todd Garner promising that Scorpion and Sub-Zero will be done justice in the reboot.
However, it's hard to forget the past, and the 90s Mortal Kombat films certainly left a bad taste in the mouths of fans. There's a lot of context within the mythos of Mortal Kombat and a lot of distinct elements made iconic by the games, which means that the reboot has a lot of ground to cover to get it right.
Intricate and Well-Choreographed Fight Sequences
Mortal Kombat is first and foremost a fighting tournament. The series is unique in the sense that, unlike a lot of other fighting games, the very DNA of Mortal Kombat's story is baked into the idea of combat. The characters are gathered together from different backgrounds to compete in an inter-dimensional battle to the death for the fate of the universe. The destinies of entire worlds depend on certain characters and their prowess in battle, which means audiences have to truly buy into the stakes set up by the fight sequences.
This is something that the original two films sorely lacked. While the fight sequences in the first Mortal Kombat weren't exactly bad, they also weren't exceptional or memorable in any way, and the less said about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation the better. Mortal Kombat is a franchise that exists on the merit of how cool the fights between characters are, and even more than that, fights in the series develop character and personality. They need to be staged and shot in a way that showcases the techniques mastered by the combatants, including all the "fatalities" that fans of the game loved.
Something else that was missing from the original franchise is the video game's proclivity towards absurd and extreme violence. Back in the 90s when the original films came out, studios were less likely to take a gamble on R-rated blockbusters, which is why they were both only rated PG-13. However, as any fan of the franchise knows, a massive draw of the games are the intricate and over-the-top fatalities that can be performed by characters in-game. The reboot needs to incorporate this in the spirit of the series, and recent successful R-rated movies like John Wick and The Raid 2 show that there is an audience for this type of tone.
Don't Be Afraid of Mortal Kombat's Storytelling
While fighting games are usually rather light on actual story, Mortal Kombat has its own very intricate and very complex mythos, spanning hundreds of years and across dozens of different realms. The basic story revolves around the Thunder God Raiden forming a team of heroic fighters to represent Earth in Mortal Kombat, an inter-dimensional tournament established by the ancient Elder Gods to prevent the denizens of other realms from laying claim to realities not their own. However, in the span of 11 games (not counting spin-offs and remakes), the lore has expanded rapidly, introducing new and exciting characters far beyond what fans could have imagined back in 1992.
A big problem that a lot of video game adaptations suffer from is taking too many liberties with the source material. Studios have to play an extreme balancing act with adaptations, making the source material palatable enough for new audiences while also honoring the pre-existing fanbase of that material. For example, the 2016 adaptation of Assassin's Creed disappointed fans with its treatment of the game's story. It's only natural that certain things get changed just for the sake of accessibility. However, Mortal Kombat already has a wealth of lore and mythos to explore in live-action, so Warner Bros. doesn't need to worry about coming up with anything to supplement the story.
Mortal Kombat Should Not Take Itself Too Seriously
While the stakes are always high in Mortal Kombat, the series also maintains a degree of levity throughout that gives it a unique tone unto itself. This is the same series that gave us characters such as Meat and Mokap, a fighter who's entire backstory is that he's a motion capture actor sucked into the Mortal Kombat tournament. The series has never taken itself as seriously as some other video games, and that is a big factor as to why it's stayed so popular in the public consciousness.
The film needs to also retain that same tone. While the movie shouldn't be an outright comedy, it also shouldn't shy away from embracing some of Mortal Kombat's more ridiculous elements. The film shouldn't feel the need to over-explain any one aspect of the lore, as the laissez-faire attitude carried by the series allows it to get away with a lot. Mortal Kombat has always been a video game franchise that's embraced its more wacky and over-the-top components, and if the movie aims to do the same thing, then 2021's film will rejuvenate a franchise that disappointed so many fans in the 90s.
