Mortal Kombat *SPOILERS*

[Immortal Weapon]

I liked the movie. I agree with everyone that Cole added nothing. He was painfully generic and added nothing to the plot. How come his arcana turns him into the gold ranger while everyone else just gets a fireball?

[hareluyafan1]

Well, considering how Hollywood copies Asian cinema ideas

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

yet barely gives leading roles to actors of Asian descent, I'm not exactly shedding tears.

Understandable but how often have they specifically said "we don't want any Asian guys?" Not often I'll bet. I'd be fine if they gave an artistic reason for not including Johnny, but to flat-out state that he was left out entirely because of his skin colour is an admission of racism.

Yes I know, it's not even remotely close to physically assaulting people because of their ethnicity and the like, but it's still discrimination. It's still wrong. And as the saying goes, "two wrongs do not make a right."

Admittedly I'm not well versed in MK lore, so idk how important Johnny cage is

He's one of the core good guys and has been since the start.

[Castle]

well...eh....er.....I.......yiesh.

I have just finished watching it.

This movie was quite bad, I am very very disappointed. it felt really low budget with the worst power rangers kind of acting. cheesy and corny dialogue and sort of poorly directed. the action fights totally expelled the story, or what was the small part of the story.

The 1995 Film is the superior movie in every way. I am too tired to type, I will go into full details hopefully tomorrow.

I am giving this movie a C-.

It was a shocking let down, or have my standard gotten too high? no I dont think so. the movie was quite awful. Perhaps I need to give it a second rewatch but this film sort of made many of the mistakes Mortal Kombat Annihilation made.

[Castle]

Not entirely serious, a bit glib (I think that's the term) but not completely joking. Consider this, Johnny Cage was left out specifically because he's a white guy (the director himself has said this). You have Liu Kang (traditionally the main character), Kung Lao and Raiden. That's three Asian guys. Yet according to the person I replied to (titanfan), having one white guy who isn't a villain (and is a supporting character, not the main one) would be "whitewashing."



Agreed.

However and this is a big However, they needed to have gone for a far much better actor to play Raiden in this new film. Lambert was a class act and nailed Raiden, his acting was Oscar worthy compared to this new actor playing Raiden.

What a bad twist of fate. in the 1995 film, Raiden, Liu Kang and Shang Tsung, gave the best performances. In the 2021 film they gave the worst acting.

I am just confused right now.

[hareluyafan1]

However and this is a big However, they needed to have gone for a far much better actor to play Raiden in this new film. Lambert was a class act and nailed Raiden, his acting was Oscar worthy compared to this new actor playing Raiden.

I've heard the same thing from other sources.

I think I'll probably skip this movie.

[The Gold Stream]

i think 95's shang tsung is more iconic than lambert, his "it has begun!" is still memed, plus they brought Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa back for mk11. But yeah lambert is the best raiden, I even prefer him to the monotone game version

[Castle]

I've heard the same thing from other sources.

I think I'll probably skip this movie.

No, please don't skip it. if you are a fan of the overall franchise, watch it. it is good for fans to know all the good, bad and ugly but yeah those sources would be right because MK is one of those movies were you will expect fair and honest reviews, but I guess you have been fairly warned on how bad some things turned out.

[Castle]

i think 95's shang tsung is more iconic than lambert, his "it has begun!" is still memed, plus they brought Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa back for mk11. But yeah lambert is the best raiden, I even prefer him to the monotone game version

Ironic that the movie had many pop culture refences. Kano refers to Raiden as Gandalf. he also made some harry potter and magic mike references all like in one scene or one act. it is like the movie was trying too hard to be hip and cool.

As for the Gandalf reference. Lambert stomps more as a Gandalf-like character in that arena down to the cynical humour much better than this new one


Nothing in the new film come closes to this scene with Raiden.
Maybe it was a good thing this movie did not get a full release at the box office. it may not have surpassed the 95 film at the USA Box office.

[CosmiComic]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.



Understandable but how often have they specifically said "we don't want any Asian guys?" Not often I'll bet. I'd be fine if they gave an artistic reason for not including Johnny, but to flat-out state that he was left out entirely because of his skin colour is an admission of racism.

Yes I know, it's not even remotely close to physically assaulting people because of their ethnicity and the like, but it's still discrimination. It's still wrong. And as the saying goes, "two wrongs do not make a right."



He's one of the core good guys and has been since the start.

They don't say it specifically, but do they ever make the effort? Asian men and women are often stereotyped in these movies, or given minor side roles. Detective Pikachu and Godzilla are both based on Japanese media, yet did the lead roles go to Asian actors? No.

I don't think it really counts as racism if they're trying to make room for more Asian characters in an industry historically racist against Asians

[Blue22]

Whelp....I went into this movie with low expectations. As someone who's a big fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise, almost nothing about this movie really excited me from the getgo. Aside from Ludi Lin as Liu Kang. I was actually really happy for him.

Anyway, I went in thinking that it wouldn't be great but it'd at least be okay....and I was still let down, severely. Holy **** this sucked. Like....Mulan remake levels of disappointing. The first two movies weren't anything to write home about either but I'd actually rather see them again than this. They were fun. This was just...a hot ass mess.

They made the same fucking mistake that 2017 Power Rangers made. They're banking on a sequel so instead of making a decent standalone movie, they made an hour and a half long setup movie for a sequel that's not even guaranteed. Oh hey. More Power Rangers connections: Once again Ludi Lin played the most boring character in the main cast. And that's saying something because all of these people are a bunch of joyless bores. Save for Kano. But he might have actually been the worst of the bunch because he would not shut. The ****. Up! Oh my God, it's like he was making up for the fact that Johnny wasn't there. So he had to be twice as quippy and over the top as he normally is.

It’s weird that a movie that makes such an effort to take Mortal Kombat lore seriously could mess that aspect up so spectacularly. Tries to be epic but feels low stakes. The fights are better than the previous attempts but the look of it all is hokey in different ways.
Maybe I’d feel different if I saw it in a theater, but the world felt so empty that everything just seemed small and undercooked. This OC doofus was not engaging and all he served to do was pull focus away from the characters that made this franchise popular. Not a fan.

^This pretty much sums it all up. This whole movie was such a painfully hollow attempt at recreating one of the most engaging fighting game stories I've ever seen.

[Immortal Weapon]

They don't say it specifically, but do they ever make the effort? Asian men and women are often stereotyped in these movies, or given minor side roles. Detective Pikachu and Godzilla are both based on Japanese media, yet did the lead roles go to Asian actors? No.

I don't think it really counts as racism if they're trying to make room for more Asian characters in an industry historically racist against Asians

If you ask those Japanese media companies about American adaptions they don't mind at all that Asians don't get casted in lead roles. They expect changes to be made to make it more palatable to their audience. They often do the same thing when adapting Western IP to their audience.

[Blue22]

Want a real fun time? Go to any MK forum and ask what race/ethnicity Jade is supposed to be. You'll get a wide variety of answers with the only consensus being she's not white.

I was firmly on the "Jade is black" side for a long time. Then MK11 happened lol

You want an even more fun time? Ask a bunch of different MK fans what they think Tanya is.

[CosmiComic]

If you ask those Japanese media companies about American adaptions they don't mind at all that Asians don't get casted in lead roles. They expect changes to be made to make it more palatable to their audience. They often do the same thing when adapting Western IP to their audience.

Of course Japanese media don't care. They have their own movie industry. I'm talking about Hollywood actors of Asian descent

[Blue22]

Being only familiar with this franchise through the first movie, isn't Lui Kang the lead anyway? So Johnny wouldn't be the lead even if he was in this right? you're right, the reasoning is a little weird.

Anyway, watching this with friends tonight.

The reasoning was always weird. They also said they swapped Johnny out for Cole because they needed an audience surrogate character who's not familiar with all the crazy **** that is the MK lore. Which I can understand from a marketing perspective but like.....That's literally what Johnny is. In just about every interpretation of the first game, he's the one fish out of water character. So...basically:

"Well you see, Johnny Cage wasn't in the movie because we needed a character who could be Johnny Cage."

[Immortal Weapon]

The reasoning was always weird. They also said they swapped Johnny out for Cole because they needed an audience surrogate character who's not familiar with all the crazy **** that is the MK lore. Which I can understand from a marketing perspective but like.....That's literally what Johnny is. In just about every interpretation of the first game, he's the one fish out of water character. So...basically:

"Well you see, Johnny Cage wasn't in the movie because we needed a character who could be Johnny Cage."

Sonya can also work in this context. In retellings of the first game, she gets involved with tournament because she pursuing Kano, got captured and forced to particulate. I guess her personality doesn't lend itself for being a lead like Johnny.