• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Jurassic World Dominion Logo

      REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby: Tom Selleck and Ted Danson

      Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • The Bob's Burgers Movie Poster

      REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise

      REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Star Wars New Hope Mark Hamill Carrie Fisher Harrison Ford Luke Skywalker Princess Leia Han Solo

      Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2022
    • Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers Poster

      REVIEW: Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a fever dream of family fun

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 22, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis Presley

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1954-1955)

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 27, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04e03: Sibongile Mlambo, Lily Cowles and Michael Trevino as Anatsa, Isobel and Kyle

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien – Treading water?

      By Salome G
      | June 23, 2022
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi Series: Ewan McGregor and Vivien Lyra Blair as Obi-Wan and Leia

      REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 22, 2022
    • Evil S03e02: Sohina Sidhu and Aasif Mandvi as Karima and Ben Shakir

      Evil S03E02 Review: The Demon of Memes – Delightfully creepy

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
    • Dark Winds S01e02: Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito

      Dark Winds S01E02 Review: The Male Rain Approaches – Loose threads

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
    • Riverdale S06e17: Madelaine Petsch, Camila Mendes and Lili Reinhart as Cheryl, Veronica and Betty

      Riverdale S06E17 Review: American Psychos – Bored

      By Salome G
      | June 18, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds S01e06: Ian Ho and Husein Madhavji as First Servant and Elder Gamal

      Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Episodes 6-7 review (the best and the not-so best)

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 18, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien - Treading water?
    • REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else
    • Evil S03E02 Review: The Demon of Memes - Delightfully creepy
    • Dark Winds S01E02 Review: The Male Rain Approaches - Loose threads
    • Riverdale S06E17 Review: American Psychos - Bored
    • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Episodes 6-7 review (the best and the not-so best)
    • Latest Comments

    Mortal Kombat is still awesome…twenty-five years later

    By Matthew Martin
    | February 2, 2020
    Movie Blogs

    This year, CultOfWhatever is looking back on some of the most influential, transformative, genre-defining, or otherwise cult-favorite films of 1995.

    Believe it or not that was twenty-five years ago.

    1995 was not the biggest year in cinema, nor even the biggest “movie” year of the ’90s, but it was still a year that saw the release of several high profile films. Some of those movies have disappeared from our collective consciousness, while others have endured over the years.

    Up first is a movie that had no business being anywhere near as fun as it was. It’s a movie that defines the idea of an experience “so bad it’s good.”

    Mortal Kombat Poster 1995

    From literally moment one in the film, Mortal Kombat screams its over-the-top attitude. In this case, it’s totally appropriate. In fact, perhaps the most remarkable thing about the movie is how faithful it is to the loud, corny, simplistic, and martial-arts+mysticism-heavy video game.

    Twenty-five years later and there’s probably not another “video game-to-movie” adaptation that was made with the same simple desire to translate the visuals, sounds, and feel of the source material, no more, no less.

    As a result, the movie is cheesy, garish, nonsensical, loud, and simple/dumb fun. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.

    Mortal Kombat 1995 Christopher Lambert Francois Petit

    Of course the movie is not without flaws and just because it comes from a “fun but slight” video game doesn’t mean the movie should be excused for every sin.

    The film can be broken into three very distinct acts. The first act is all set-up; the characters are, in succession given a little teaser to introduce them to the audience. These segments feature the movie at its lowest, simply because it relies on dialogue to establish things…and the dialogue is hoooorible. It’s not just the delivery, which is okay at best, it’s the words on the page. Everything is so on the nose it’s laughable. It reminds me of either the original Resident Evil cut-scenes or, more recently, the opening act of Suicide Squad.

    Things improve substantially in act two, where our main characters enter the Tournament. The flaws of act one disappear for the most part since, for the most part, the dialogue disappears too. The middle of the movie is a sequence of martial arts fight scenes, none of which are meant to be the best of the best on display. These are cartoons brought to life, with people throwing ice waves out of their belts, throwing spears out of their palms, and fighting four-armed monsters with a weakness for getting sucker-punched in the balls.

    Mortal Kombat 1995 Hakim Alston Robin Shou

    Act three manages to be effective as the only section of the movie where the plot is put front and center. Despite paper-thin characters, the motivations of everyone involved are plainly stated so that the audience can, at the very least, follow what is happening and understand what’s at stake.

    I can’t emphasize enough how crucial it is for writers to do that with their movies but how many fail that simple task. There are films with budgets ten-times what it cost to make Mortal Kombat, having stories that make no sense, plots that don’t seem to exist, stakes that aren’t clear, and climaxes that fail to make an impact.

    Mortal Kombat isn’t perfect but it’s as if the writer and director (Kevin Droney and Paul W.S. Anderson, respectively) knew they didn’t have a lot of story to work with, decided it’d be stupid to try and create one to shoe-horn into the production, and just focused on the only things anyone going to see this movie wanted in the first place: All the characters from the game, who look like they do in the game, doing moves from the game.

    Are you taking notes, people who made Assassin’s Creed?

    The biggest complaint I have for the film is how sanitized it is to secure a PG-13 rating. Other than one scene where Johnny Cage defeats Scorpion, there’s nary a hint of gore. If there was ever a movie that needed the “1980’s R-rated violent action movie” treatment it is this one. Mortal Kombat was one of the pioneers of gory games, and its exclusion here is the one thing (other than Sub-Zero and Scorpion wearing sleeves) that feels untranslated from the source.

    Mortal Kombat 1995 Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa Bridgette Wilson Sampras

    Other than that, how can you belong to the target audience and not love this movie? It has a catchy soundtrack, cheesy one-liners, fun (dumb) action scenes, and more “he/she/they did the thing!” fan-service than you can shake a stick at. Is it silly? Sure, but for anyone who grew up a kid in the ’90s, it was awesome…

    And it’s still awesome twenty-five years later.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    1995 MoviesVideo Game Movies

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest
    3 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    KeeperofUnicorns
    KeeperofUnicorns
    2 years ago

    Forget the movie and forget the game, it was the soundtrack that was amazing! I still rock out to some of those tracks today. Good times!

    0
    Reply
    Austin
    Austin
    2 years ago

    All the 90’s nostalgia is hitting me right now. I thought Sonya Blade was the hottest thing back then. And of course, I wanted to be a ninja after watching the show and playing the game.

    0
    Reply
    Gavin the Binge-Watcher
    Gavin the Binge-Watcher
    2 years ago

    It’s been ages since I’ve seen this film and the only thing I remember about it was the fight scenes. I used to rennact them as a kid. I fancied myself as Sub-Zero.

    0
    Reply

    You might also like

    • REVIEW: Grading Detective Pikachu on three levels…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 11, 2019
    • Movie Review: Warcraft – Are you a fan of the game? You better be…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 11, 2016
    • Assassins Creed is exactly the opposite of what it should have been.

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 26, 2016
    • (Rambo) First Blood is still awesome, 35 years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2017
    • CONAN THE BARBARIAN is still awesome, 35 years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 9, 2017

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2022
    • REVIEW: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is Sam Raimi’s Sam Ramiest movie in ages!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 7, 2022
    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • The big movies of 2022

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 18, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz