The more likeable characters from the first movie are recast and, in one case, killed off in mere moments. Now Mortal Kombat: Annihilation? That is a piece of crap. Mortal Kombat was a product of the time, but he kept using the same budget and effects in all his following movies without any excuse. That’s where my problem lies with Paul W.S. Even if the effects hadn’t aged well, it was the new technology and it distracted from how utterly fake everything looked. In the mid-90’s, there was this maybe six month window where mixing CGI with live action was a new and exciting novelty. I understand why people hate it, but at the same time, I think those people don’t remember what things were like when it came out. It’s one of my guilty pleasure movies, up there with Suburban Commando. Let’s start off the list by getting the most obvious one out of the way. I don’t care about how it lacks the refined tournament play of Virtua Fighter 5 or how the Run button is the Holocaust in videogame form or how Human Smoke has an infinite. Though first thing’s first, I’m not going to go the gameplay route with this list.
I figured a trip through the stranger and more unfortunate pieces of output from the Mortal Kombat series might be worth the time. That said, I’ve seen the weird stuff come out of the trademark that still causes me to scratch my head. I even read that mediocre prequel novel where Scorpion was revealed to be the ghost of a murdered ninja merged with his son’s body. I remember the Mortal Kombat 3 Kombat Kodes that weren’t even worth the effort. I remember how the ARCADE version of Mortal Kombat 3 got its own nationally televised commercial. I remember the awful knockoff videogames like Way of the Warrior, War Gods and the never-released Tattoo Assassins. I remember the Mortal Kombat GI Joe figures.
I remember when digitized actor Daniel Pesina rebelled against Midway by appearing in a magazine ad in support for the game Bloodstorm while wearing full Johnny Cage gear.
I’ve been following the series far longer than I have comics and I’ve experienced many of the nuances of its excessive success. From the beginning, it’s been Enter the Dragon mixed with Big Trouble in Little China mixed with Iron Fist with a dash of Godfrey Ho. It’s cheesy, violent fun and – as stupid as it sounds – I’ve always loved the mythology that comes with it all. It’s like the last episode of Mighty Max but without Bull from Night Court being eaten by a giant spider. So he sends a message back to his younger self to cause a massive butterfly effect (butterfly effekt?) and redo history right this time. I mean, before the DC crossover, the game’s story was about an over-inflated cast having to climb the Aggro Crag.
You see, sometime after Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Shao Kahn curbstomps Raiden so hard that Raiden realizes how screwed the entire series has gotten. While the footage has a definite Mortal Kombat II feel, it’s actually a skewed retelling of the first three games thanks to divine time travel. Much like Street Fighter IV, it’s an attempt at a nostalgic return to glory by emphasizing the franchise’s best game. Then a few days later, a new trailer was shown for the new game, simply entitled Mortal Kombat. Two weeks ago, a video was released based on the treatment for a movie revamp that would reimagine the series’ story as more urban and somewhat more down-to-Earth. Recently, Mortal Kombat has been making another push into the consciousness of gamers everywhere.