Mortal Kombat (1995) Is Kind of Campy, Fun and Packed With Great Music, Though Some Fights Could Use More Setup

Mortal Kombat from 1995 is a good movie and a fun film. It's kind of campy, but it has great music, great choreography and sets that look pretty amazing. My only real complaint is that a few of the major fights could have used a little more setup. I first saw it when it came out, after playing the game when my mom wasn't looking, and I hadn't seen any of the later movies. Alli Reagan had never seen it at all, though she went on a bit of a deep dive into the lore beforehand.

Going back, I realized I'd forgotten almost everything except a couple of key shots. I'd probably only seen it maybe one other time in the 30 plus years since. One of the few things I did remember was the fight against Scorpion in the woods, because it's such a memorable setting.

Mortal Kombat's setup feels a lot like Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon

What I'd forgotten is how similar the story is, at least the setup, to the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon. That film came out in 73, about two weeks after he died. In it, a man named Han has an island and invites top martial artists from all over the world to compete there. I don't know if they all had to survive or if some of them died, so I guess it was Mortal Kombat as well.

It reminded me even more of that film when Robin Shou's Liu Kang walks by and Johnny Cage tells him to take his luggage. That's kind of similar to how Bruce Lee was treated on his way to the island. I think you can't go wrong with that kind of setup. It's just a lot of fun.

The CG, sets and art department impressed me

For the time, I think the amount of CG they used was appropriate, and they were really pushing the limits of it, especially with the backgrounds. Some of the sets were clearly built out for real, and they look pretty amazing. There were the ones with all the rope ladders, and the underworld type space where Scorpion takes Johnny Cage was pretty extensive. It's a really impressive job by the art department.

The story itself is a lot of fun too, and I like that it ends with the Emperor showing up. We're ready for the second one.

The arcade game used digitized actors, and Liu Kang is clearly based on Bruce Lee

I think the game came out around 92 in arcades. I think I played the arcade version, but I definitely played the Super Nintendo version that came out about a year later, first at a friend's house. It was a very violent game for the time. The fatalities were hard to pull off because the button combinations were difficult, and I remember the spike fatality being all bloody and heads getting ripped off.

What made it look so different from Street Fighter, which is very animated looking, is that they basically digitized the actors. I can't remember who played Liu Kang in the game, but I remember seeing them do what was basically mocap. It looked real for 16 bit, which made the violence look even more real. I was very into Bruce Lee then, and it's very obvious when you play that Liu Kang is based on him, down to the bicycle kick and the fighting sounds. Ali suggested they might have taken inspiration from Enter the Dragon, and I'm pretty sure they did.

I think it was a small team that made the game, four or five people if I'm right. I also believe they originally set out to make a Van Damme based game and that didn't work out, so Johnny Cage is meant to be similar to Van Damme. He does the split punch, a Van Damme move, and he's a movie star who is also a legitimate martial artist. I remember Jax being a character, and I think he was Sonya's partner in this, though I'm not certain. Ali heard in her research that Kano comes back, but I don't know in what capacity. I think he was one of those love to hate characters.

The soundtrack was huge, and the game may have helped spark ratings

The soundtrack was really big at the time. I was a skater in high school listening to punk and hip hop, and I'd never really heard a legit techno song. When this album dropped, everybody was listening to it. I think the yelled "Mortal Kombat" is a sample from a commercial for the game, if I'm right, and the song isn't in the game itself, only the film. Ali said it's a fun song and she likes it a lot.

I think prior to Mortal Kombat they didn't have game ratings like they do now, and I think the game was at least one of the reasons the whole rating system got started. I still can't do a lot of those fatalities. I last played 10 and maybe a little of 11, and I remember being able to play as Predator, Rambo and Terminator as DLC.

Robin Shou carried the film as a rare Asian lead

You can tell who's really a martial artist here. Robin Shou is legit, and he's built like a tank. Of course everyone has doubles, but there are a lot of moves where he ends in a pose that shows his face, a very Jackie Chan way of thinking, so it's nice to see him doing so much. I believe Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, who plays Sonya Blade, was Miss USA or something similar back in the 90s, if I'm right.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa passed away last year, sadly. I've never worked with him, but I met him and Robin Shou at Dragonfest, a yearly event that was like Comic-Con for martial arts. It was held by Gerald Okamura, who you can spot as one of the fighters near the end with the bigger build and the very distinct mustache.

It was nice to see an Asian lead in an American film at that time. After Bruce Lee there weren't a whole lot for quite a while, and Jackie Chan was only just arriving in America, with Rumble in the Bronx coming out here in like 94 or something like that. Robin Shou carried it really well, and I would have liked to see him in more big things after this.

Ali did some lore research and still has questions about the tournament

Ali still has questions. The film says the tournament happens once a generation, so if Outworld has won nine, does that mean nine generations? I heard that too, and the way they took Kitana's whole world was that they won 10, but she's been alive for 10,000 years. Is it 10 wins within one tournament or 10 tournaments in a row? I'd like to know that too. When I played the game, I just cared about playing.

From her research, Ali explained that there was an omnipotent god eater whom the gods and titans defeated and broke apart, and the realms are literally parts of its body. Those pieces keep pushing people in power to reunite them, and the tournament exists because you can't just invade another realm. It makes me wonder how much of that was figured out for the original game and how much the later games and movies added.

I also think some characters were pulled from elsewhere. Raiden reminds me of the three lightning guys with the hats in Big Trouble in Little China. Ali wondered if the statues, including one that looked like Odin, were former champions.

The Reptile fight stood out, and I think Robin Shou broke ribs during it

I'd totally forgotten about Reptile, and his fight with Liu Kang was one of my favorites. The stunts in here were fantastic. I think Robin Shou broke like two ribs in that fight and didn't tell anyone so he could finish it. I tried to spot where, and I think it might have been when he got thrown into that pillar, but he took a lot of shots, so that's pretty impressive.

It would be nice if some major fights, like Johnny Cage versus Scorpion, had more setup

Given the camp and fun, I don't really have complaints, but it would be nice to set up some of the fights more. I don't know why Johnny Cage ends up fighting Scorpion in the woods, and that was a major fight. Ali chalked it up to video game shenanigans, comparing it to Tekken's battle mode, where you just jump from one fight to the next.

Ali wanted more fights and more of Kitana, who she understands is a big name in the game. She got a really sweet vibe from her. Kitana survived, so maybe the sequel gives her more.

Should the sequel give Kitana a bigger role in the fighting?