Mortal Kombat (1995)

Three unknowing martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world.

Director:

Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers:

Ed Boon (video games), John Tobias (video games),

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Lambert	...	Lord Rayden
Robin Shou	...	Liu Kang
Linden Ashby	...	Johnny Cage
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Shang Tsung
Bridgette Wilson-Sampras	...	Sonya Blade (as Bridgette Wilson)
Talisa Soto	...	Kitana
Trevor Goddard	...	Kano
Chris Casamassa	...	Scorpion
François Petit	...	Sub-Zero
Keith Cooke	...	Reptile (as Keith H. Cooke)
Hakim Alston	...	Fighting Monk
Kenneth Edwards	...	Art Lean
John Fujioka	...	Chief Priest
Daniel Haggard	...	Assistant Director
Sandy Helberg	...	Director

Storyline

Based on the popular video game of the same name "Mortal Kombat" tells the story of an ancient tournament where the best of the best of different Realms fight each other. The goal - ten wins to be able to legally invade the losing Realm. Outworld has so far collected nine wins against Earthrealm, so it's up to Lord Rayden and his fighters to stop Outworld from reaching the final victory...

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Plot Keywords:

tournament | mortal kombat | island | sorcerer | lightning | 

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Taglines:

Test Your Might

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for non-stop martial arts action and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

The Threshold Network

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 August 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Combate Mortal

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$70,360,285 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Threshold Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jean-Claude Van Damme turned down the role of Johnny Cage to do Street Fighter.

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Goofs

Jax's name is misspelled as "Jaxx" in the end credits.

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Quotes

Jax: Trust me, Sonya!
Sonya Blade: I only trust one person, Jax, and you're talking to her.

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Crazy Credits

Snake and insect action was monitored by the American Humane Association, which commends the filmmaker for his responsible and sensitive treatment of even the smallest of Earth's creatures.

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Connections

Referenced in The Nostalgia Critic: Double Dragon (2008)

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Soundtracks

"What You See / We All Bleed Red"
Written by Mikal Moore and Lance Branstetter
Performed by Mutha's Day Out
Courtesy of Chrysalis Records Inc., a division of EMI
Under license from CEMA Special Markets

User Reviews

Awesome adaptation!

The only way I can review this is the pros, cons, similarities, and differences between the game and the movie.

Similarities:

1. The characters from the game series make appearances. Some of these include Kano, Sonya, Rayden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, and Goro.

2. Scorpion has his iconic "Get over here!" accompanied by the blades that stick out from his hands.

3. Each character for the most part have relatively similar backgrounds when it comes to the movie and the game.

4. MK theme was present in a few fight scenes. The kick-ass theme song that sticks in your head was used in the opening credits and the closing ones.

5. Three words: Johnny Cage's nutshots.

Differences:

1. Little to no, and I mean NO, fatalities are present in the movie. There is a lot of MK-like action throughout but the one thing that truly made the games awesome is completely left out. To fill you in if you haven't played the games, fatalities are pretty much an attempt (and success) at you being able to brutally murder your opponent in as gruesome style as possible.

2. No blood. I understand that New Line is trying to make the movie more appealing to wide varieties of audiences, but Mortal Kombat without blood isn't Mortal Kombat. This is probably the reason why no fatalities are involved.

Pros:

1. The movie has some damn good action scenes in it. They were simply entertaining to watch and each fight didn't drag out for a long excessive period of time.

2. The acting wasn't mediocre like I believed it would be. Like so many other game-to-movie crossovers the major appeal is to display the perception of how games "should" be made. I put 'should' in quotes because it fails most of the time, but Mortal Kombat managed to put all of that behind it and made a pretty good movie.

3. Paul W.S. Anderson. Again he has managed to do an awesome job with these video game adaptations. Although it was after, his best work I believe was with the Resident Evil movie seven years later. Personally, I think he's best when it comes to adapting, which is a rare cause when it comes to these types of movies. For example: Uwe Boll. Worst director of all time and he always managed to ruin some pretty good games (House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Far Cry, Postal).

Cons:

1. The CGI. Oh my lord was this film's CGI terrible. I mean it was just simply AWFUL. Goro looked like it was animated by a first grader. The visual scenery is great and all the money probably went towards making that aspect look real but they completely ignored this very one distracting aspect.

2. The costumes weren't bad, but they weren't as good as I would have expected. I like how Reptile was a ninja, but Rayden doesn't look anything like he does in the games. An argument can be made that he was in mortal form during the video games to compete in the tournament so that's why they look so differently, but I object to that because he looks just so ridiculous.

3. Like I stated before, no blood is present. It's understandable that the attempt was made to make it PG-13 and all but if this could be remade with more blood...a lot more blood, then it could be made better. That's not something I would usually say, but hey, it's Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat is all about brutality.

Despite the cons and differences it doesn't make this movie any less enjoyable to watch. It's all around pretty good, could have been better, but I'm still fine by what I received.