Mortal Kombat *SPOILERS*

[Castle]

Honestly, now that I am much older and I guess wiser, I have to admit on film, mortal kombat has a quite ridiculous story that just may not be ever great to do in a 2 hour film, despite how genius it works in games, think of it. a great fighting tournament every century or so, and one side has to have 10 straight wins to invade earth? this does not scream Oscar worthy story.

The series would have been better as a tv mini series, I believe there was one in the 90s based on Kung Lao

[Vakanai]

Those are streaming numbers. It did about 22 mil on its opening weekend in US Theaters GvK did 31 million opening weekend but MK is a rated R movie. It is sitting at 50 million dollars worldwide with 55 million dollar Budget.

I think the numbers are good but it hard to gauge success right now. I think should be a lock for a sequel but mixed reactions for fans can't be good for its chances.

I really don't care if the negative fan reaction kills it. I'm just a dirty casual who hasn't really gotten into a MK game since the 90s. Honestly from the outside looking in I was just here for the violence/gore, and the Scorpion and Sub-Zero stuff. So I kind of got the parts I was most looking forward too, not really sure a sequel's going to top that. Hell, they even wasted Goro. I know they've still got a hundred characters or so left, but the most iconic ones to us casual observers are gone now.

[Vakanai]

Honestly, now that I am much older and I guess wiser, I have to admit on film, mortal kombat has a quite ridiculous story that just may not be ever great to do in a 2 hour film, despite how genius it works in games, think of it. a great fighting tournament every century or so, and one side has to have 10 straight wins to invade earth? this does not scream Oscar worthy story.

The series would have been better as a tv mini series, I believe there was one in the 90s based on Kung Lao

Honestly, Bloodsport basically has the same plot minus the every century and earth invasion parts. I mean it doesn't have to be Oscar worthy, but clearly a movie based on a great fighting tournament can be better.

[Vic Vega]

Without getting into the merits of this movie itself ( since I haven't seen it yet), I will say the decision to not have Johnny Cage in it is baffling to me.

Oh I get the filmmakers reasoning.

But its bold of them to assume that A) this movie will do well enough to start a franchise ( they may have been right tho) and B) people would want to spend money to see a solo Johnny Cage movie, a project I can't comprehend no matter how I try.

Close as I can come is a martial arts version of the Wizard of Oz where Oz is the Outworld and Johnny Cage is Dorothy but played by Ryan Reynolds.

If there is any character in the MK franchise that merits a solo movie its Scorpion. They killed his family, he either died then came back or sold his soul for power while alive and now he's come to get payback on the peeps that killed his family.

[Havok83]

Johnny wasnt in this bc he wasnt needed. I dont think his inclusion would have changed anything here. They clearly set him up for the next film so he wasnt forgotten. Are they actually in talks to do a solo film for him?

[Wildling]

Those are streaming numbers. It did about 22 mil on its opening weekend in US Theaters GvK did 31 million opening weekend but MK is a rated R movie. It is sitting at 50 million dollars worldwide with 55 million dollar Budget.

I think the numbers are good but it hard to gauge success right now. I think should be a lock for a sequel but mixed reactions for fans can't be good for its chances.

It's also because MK doubled what people thought would be its box office opening (Demon Slayer did the same, which is good news for the industry in general), so if home viewership was also strong, I wouldn't be shocked to hear a sequel announcement later to support the post-GvK narrative about Warner leading the theaters recovery charge.

But it's true it's early to tell.

[Cyke]

Johnny wasnt in this bc he wasnt needed. I dont think his inclusion would have changed anything here. They clearly set him up for the next film so he wasnt forgotten. Are they actually in talks to do a solo film for him?

"Not needed," but Cole Young took Liu Kang's agency as the Chosen One and Johnny Cage's role as the audience surrogate. Ultimately the studio engineered "not needing" Johnny because they created a character who could take on two roles for the price of one.

I suppose in some other universe the studio created a new ninja that killed his own family and is getting revenge on himself. That takes care of Sub-Zero *and* Scorpion.

-----

(one thing I really liked about the first movie, even way back then -- Johnny Cage is the big hero everywhere else in the world *except* the tournament. That didn't mean he sat out on the sidelines, though, and he made himself useful in keeping up with the actual hero of the story. It'd be much more cliche for him to be jealous of Liu Kang or to wallow in disillusionment, but he kept up instead.)

[titanfan]

Without getting into the merits of this movie itself ( since I haven't seen it yet), I will say the decision to not have Johnny Cage in it is baffling to me.

Oh I get the filmmakers reasoning.

But its bold of them to assume that A) this movie will do well enough to start a franchise ( they may have been right tho) and B) people would want to spend money to see a solo Johnny Cage movie, a project I can't comprehend no matter how I try.

Close as I can come is a martial arts version of the Wizard of Oz where Oz is the Outworld and Johnny Cage is Dorothy but played by Ryan Reynolds.

If there is any character in the MK franchise that merits a solo movie its Scorpion. They killed his family, he either died then came back or sold his soul for power while alive and now he's come to get payback on the peeps that killed his family.

I think they mentioned HBO Max as spin-off possibilities and not just a movie. Both Cage/Scorpion and even Sonya/Jax could work well as HBO-Max mini-series or one-shot movies.

[Vic Vega]

"Not needed," but Cole Young took Liu Kang's agency as the Chosen One and Johnny Cage's role as the audience surrogate. Ultimately the studio engineered "not needing" Johnny because they created a character who could take on two roles for the price of one.

I suppose in some other universe the studio created a new ninja that killed his own family and is getting revenge on himself. That takes care of Sub-Zero *and* Scorpion.

-----

(one thing I really liked about the first movie, even way back then -- Johnny Cage is the big hero everywhere else in the world *except* the tournament. That didn't mean he sat out on the sidelines, though, and he made himself useful in keeping up with the actual hero of the story. It'd be much more cliche for him to be jealous of Liu Kang or to wallow in disillusionment, but he kept up instead.)

This was my thinking on the matter. Why is Cole there when you have Johnny Cage ready to serve as audience surrogate it's practically the entire point of the character.

... don't get me started on that Liu Kang stuff...

[Username taken]

This was my thinking on the matter. Why is Cole there when you have Johnny Cage ready to serve as audience surrogate it's practically the entire point of the character.

... don't get me started on that Liu Kang stuff...

That Cole Young guy was so darn generic.

I'm not necessarily knocking the actor but the way it was written..he wasn't given any interesting to do and/or say.

[The Cool Thatguy]

That Cole Young guy was so darn generic.

I'm not necessarily knocking the actor but the way it was written..he wasn't given any interesting to do and/or say.

Agreed.

It's funny, I saw an article about how the director wouldn't allow discussion of a sequel on the set, yet this entire thing was setup for the next one.

Hopefully Cole dies :P

[Immortal Weapon]

This movie would have been stronger if they let the Scorpion and Sub-Zero rivalry carry it. If they weren't going to give us the actual tournament they should have done that.

[MindofShadow]

This was my thinking on the matter. Why is Cole there when you have Johnny Cage ready to serve as audience surrogate it's practically the entire point of the character.

... don't get me started on that Liu Kang stuff...

Because some producer demanded it because he thought it was a great idea in his head and the director and writers had no choice.

What I can't really understand, with Coles character... is why they made him an over the hill shitty MMA fighter lol? If that is your surrogate... why not make him a GREAT MMA fighter? It is like the director was trying to make him "not johnny" as much as they could so they could juse Cage the next movie.

And also, using Goro to be killed off was... baffling. They had obvious mooks to kill with the other guys (i barely remember the henchmen tbh) and then used GORO to be killed by the worst fighter of the bunch lol? of course "death is just another portal" but odd decision.

Plus you could have saved CGI money not having Goro lol.

(the fact this movie only cost 50 mill is nuts tbh.)

[MindofShadow]

Are these good numbers?

Personally for me

Godzilla had to be seen in theaters. So I saw it in theaters when I got a chance

MK didn't lol. So I got HBO for the month and watched it at home.

[Surf]

And also, using Goro to be killed off was... baffling. They had obvious mooks to kill with the other guys (i barely remember the henchmen tbh) and then used GORO to be killed by the worst fighter of the bunch lol? of course "death is just another portal" but odd decision.

Plus you could have saved CGI money not having Goro lol.

(the fact this movie only cost 50 mill is nuts tbh.)

Damn, that was the entire budget? Oh we're definitely gonna get two more of these, 'Rise of Liu Kang' it is then.

Facts on Goro. There was no build up to him and not for nothing, he showed up on Earth lol. That would have been an entertaining sequence alone if you were going to go that far. TBH, not like there ain't a few other goons with 4 limbs in the clip but Goro was the first we got introduced to back in the day, didn't like seeing him taken out by the lamest character in the movie.

Which brings up another point for the sequels, hey producers- YOU DON'T HAVE TO ACTUALLY KILL YOUR OPPONENT IN ANY VERSION OF THE MK GAMES! Back in the day after you learned or saw all the Babalities, unless it was a really tough match, in my little group a high kick to put somebody off the stick was enough.