Movie Debate #65: Mortal Kombat (1995)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

[mbd39 | 2,026]

I remember this movie being average, which is pretty good for a video game movie. 5/10

 

[SailorScoutMandy | 782]

I think it's one of those it's so bad it's good kind of movies. You know better than for it to be a true blockbuster. 

 

But anyone seen the trailer for the new one? It looks great. 

Mortal Kombat 2021

 

It'll be free on hbo later this month if you happen to be a subscriber. 

[RH | 4,924]

I enjoyed it as a kid, but didn't love it. I could tell it was "bad" but it was consistent and you were still seeing all of your beloved MK characters which I always loved, even if the story was mediocre.

I never saw the Street Fighter movie, but from the bits and clips I've seen, this looks like the better fan service.

I gave it a 5/10, much like the SMB movie. As a kid, I would have given this a 7, probably. I'm sure I wouldn't rate it that high today though. 5 is probably accurate, maybe a 6.

[a3quit4s | 4,104]

6 - the literal definition of its so bad its good

[JamesRobot | 5,807]

6.  I definitely enjoy it whenever I happen to catch it.  I think I fired it up on streaming once last year.

[Hammerfestus | 3,861]

6. As a kid I thought it was so cool to see .  It didn’t really make any sense and the acting was pretty bad but did anyone expect it to be fine cinema?  I was smack in the middle of the target demographic for a movie about THE controversial, edgy video game of the day.  It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen it.  At this point the thing I remember most about it is that I was annoyed that my parents taped over the second half of the movie with Species...at first.

[DefaultGen | 5,414]

I can’t remember a single thing about this movie, for whatever that says about it. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

19 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

I can’t remember a single thing about this movie, for whatever that says about it. 

Not even...

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

It was average and fairly forgettable. 5/10.

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

i love this movie. i paid $ for the dvd.

ive seen it at least ten times.

[themisfit138 | 523]

It is a solid 6. It’s a good cheesy martial arts movie. 

[fox | 1,668]

Enter the Dragon with supernatural stuff.  Good fights.  Good effects. cheesy one liners.  Bangin soundtrack.

best movie in the video game genre

[twiztor | 851]

i love this movie. the writing and acting aren't any great shakes, but the action is great for the time. i don't even think it's "so bad, it's good" (although that describes the Street Fighter movie pretty well), i just think it's a solid action flick. Seeing the MK characters on screen was great, and even the cheesiness of CGI Reptile didn't distract from the rest of it. 

8/10.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Definition of a "6" on the stated scale.

The movie was TONS of fun when it came out, being in the target age group, but I'm not going to pretend that it is a "must watch".

[Jono1874 | 144]

I really like this movie. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's entertaining. It also has the distinction of being appealing to non fans of video games. I remember most of my family digging this movie back when it came out because of how ridiculous it was.

I think it helps that you can tell that everyone involved in making it seemed to be having a great time. That infectious sense of fun and joy bleeds out of the screen and makes up for the distinct lack of regular bleeding that you'd expect from a Mortal Kombat movie.

I really do hope that the new movie doesnt take the source material too seriously.  I think the series lore was meant to be taken with a grain of salt.  The writers were in on the joke, so to speak.

If the reboot movie ends up being edgy and grimdark I don't think it'll be as well regarded as this one is.

6/10

Edited April 12, 2021 by Jono1874

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

Never saw it, but always kind of wanted to.  But also, I never really expected much from it.  I've seen enough scenes to know it's not an amazing movie.  If anyone watches the Kill Count, they just did this movie a few days ago.  

[AstralSoul | 502]

6/10. I wanted to rate it higher for it's nostalgia factor but it's just not a very good movie. However it is fun to watch and I think, for the time, they did a decent job translating MK to the big screen.

[PII | 1,886]

On 4/11/2021 at 1:13 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

Not even...

didn't realize it had MKII Characters...

[Murray | 2,449]

Any soundtrack with Fear Factory is ok in my book.

 

[Webhead123 | 679]

It's a movie based on a video game. If you go into it expecting anything serious, you're fooling yourself.

I have my fair nostalgia for the film. I saw it in theaters. I had the (killer) album. I enjoyed it for the shlocky, fan-service-y romp that it is. Yeah, the acting is mostly pretty groan-worthy, the special effects are (and always were) rather cheap and laughable and it's very much a product of the 90's...but it manages to be one of those films that is kind of enjoyable for exactly those reasons. You can tell that the film doesn't take itself all too seriously and is willing to have a bit of fun with the premise. Christopher Lambert's Raiden is kind of a wink to the audience in that way.

Personally, I recommend folks watch it at least once and just keep in mind that, yeah...it's a movie about a 90's fighting game franchise. Have a little fun with it. Enjoy some of the set pieces. Laugh at how ridiculous the whole premise is.

It may be silly 90's action-shlock but I still love it and there's some fun to be had here. Just stay away from the sequel. 

7/10

[Webhead123 | 679]

On 4/11/2021 at 6:29 PM, fox said:

best movie in the video game genre

Yeah, I gotta say...it's not like there's much competition but the MK movie is probably still the best video-game-put-to-film out there.

[SailorScoutMandy | 782]

Okay who else watched the new one? 

 

I think it was great and thought the fight scenes were well done. Pretty sure there is going to be a sequel. 

[fox | 1,668]

1 hour ago, SailorScoutMandy said:

Okay who else watched the new one? 

 

I think it was great and thought the fight scenes were well done. Pretty sure there is going to be a sequel. 

I saw it.

Special effects and kills are legit but way too much exposition. Like audiences are stupid I get it, but who wants to hear about tattoos and arcana or something. Back in the day when someone said "Kano has a laser eye" we just said "cool" but now audiences ask "why?" as if that is some sort of plot hole. Who cares?

Weird they went out of their way to introduce a new protagonist who ends up not really being the protagonist.

Spoiler

Also, so the master plan was to divide up the bad guys, but team up to gank them anyways? I guess bad guys were always rolling deep too, so no need to be honorable, but doesn't make your heroes look strong when they only win because of a team up.

Yeah they are setting it up to be a series, now that they got the characters and world established they can get right into the tourny proper.  I guess that is cool assuming there will be a sequel, of course I guess you could always just play the games and find out how that works out.

[Tanooki | 4,939]

I saw it last night on my parents hbo account.

I was mostly impressed, very well done and with its own take on things.  The one part I didn't like, the hero, at least for most.  Just a whiny ass walking emo target that just gets thrown around.  Somehow he went from hack to mad skills with body armor at that last couple of fights?  Really?  For awhile i thought it would be him turning into Scorpion, so they did a really nice job on that one.

I have no issue with the introduction and break down as much as was done on the characters, then again, I've only bothered to casually keep up with the franchise since the point it went beyond MK4 as it just lost interest with me being some wonky tekken overkill button mash annoyance.  I'm old school, love the original two.