MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!
I remember when this movie came out and I had to go see it with my gamer friends. I mean I was like 10 at the time and my parents drove us to go see a movie in which the premise is about Earth’s best fighters fighting ninja’s or whatever in a fight to the death. I was excited that yet another fighting video game getting the big screen treatment, but after Street Fighter showed no one fighting in the street or whatever, this movie looked like it had all the dark marking of the video game I played for hours on end, but with none the fatalities.
Once that opening yell of MORTAL KOMBAT came over the speakers, I just buckled up and prepared to watch a video game come to life.
Following the failure of several previous human defenders, mankind’s last chance lies with egotistical action film star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), tough but beautiful special agent Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), and vengeance-minded hero Liu Kang (Robin Shou). Under the guidance of inspirational sorcerer Lord Rayden (Christopher Lambert), this unlikely trio faces off against a series of terrifying alien adversaries. As in the video game, the martial arts battles are the true point, with standard fighting combining with magical touches supplied by computer-generated effects. The dramatic content often resembles a Saturday morning cartoon, but Jonathan Scott Carlson’s appropriately dank production design and the visually spectacular battle sequences made the film a hit amongst younger fantasy-action fans, spawning a sequel and a TV show. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
This movie had everything that a video game raised child like myself wanted or needed in a movie. It had awesome fight scenes, plenty of my favorite characters from the game, one of the most killer soundtracks out there and it was based on a video game. That’s all I needed when I was a kid. I didn’t care that the movie had terrible dialog delivered in over serious tones by Christopher Lambert or Robin Shou. I didn’t care that the plot was so convoluted and ridiculous that it made no sense with it’s arbitrary rule breaking and dumb story. And the acting? Hahahaha, hammy at best. Listen, I wanted was them to act out interesting fight scenes and I got that.
The most memorable part of the movie, and still is by my standards, is the fucking epic soundtrack. Opening theme song to the soundtrack is the sort of music you listen to when you want to psyche yourself up for some sports or other physical activities. The opening yell goes into a thumping (I am not a music critic so stay with me) electronic and rock beats to just get you moving. And it’s not just the opening song that seals the deal, but every other song on the soundtrack is amazing. From bands like Orbital, Gravity Kills, KMFDM and Type O Negative lending industrial, hard hitting rock to the proceedings, you got a great soundtrack.
You know, I am going to end it on that note. I mean the movie is what it is, which is a decent martial arts action flick with sub-par acting, but then again, I just wanted to see some Mortal Kombat action and I got that. So I will close out with a few clips from the motion soundtrack while I try and find my copy of it somewhere in the house.