Mortal Kombat *SPOILERS*

[Common Writer]

Nothing wrong with a tournament setting. Bloodsport, The Quest and Enter the Dragon were set in tournaments and they were perfectly fine.

'Zat so?

Were there any sequels to Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, or The Quest?

The answer's No.

Why is that you ask?

Because it is hard to sustain an entire film franchise based on a tournament setting.

A Soul Calibur film would not be limited by a tournament setting. You can adapt it into a grand epic tale that could still remain true to the original source material. And you could have Link debut in a post-credit stinger.

[The Cool Thatguy]

An easy way to sustain the tournament setting is to have all the wins be cumulative instead of consecutive.

The first one spares earth from immediate danger. But if Outworld wins another, the danger is still there

[Immortal Weapon]

'Zat so?

Were there any sequels to Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, or The Quest?

The answer's No.

Why is that you ask?

Because it is hard to sustain an entire film franchise based on a tournament setting.

A Soul Calibur film would not be limited by a tournament setting. You can adapt it into a grand epic tale that could still remain true to the original source material. And you could have Link debut in a post-credit stinger.

Look at how the games escalated. The first game had the tournament in a isolated island in Earthrealm. They lose the tournament than Outworld takes over. In the second game, Shang Tsung kidnaps two of Earthrealms champions to force another tournament immediately after the first in a desperate attempt to gain victory. He also forces the heroes in his home turf of Outworld to do it giving him all the advantage. Even with that he still loses. MK3 they go full invasion.

[CliffHanger2]

'Zat so?

Were there any sequels to Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, or The Quest?

The answer's No.

Why is that you ask?

Because it is hard to sustain an entire film franchise based on a tournament setting.

A Soul Calibur film would not be limited by a tournament setting. You can adapt it into a grand epic tale that could still remain true to the original source material. And you could have Link debut in a post-credit stinger.

ETD probably would have had a sequel if Lee didn't die. Bloodsport actually did have dtv sequels.

[Common Writer]

Look at how the games escalated. The first game had the tournament in a isolated island in Earthrealm. They lose the tournament than Outworld takes over. In the second game, Shang Tsung kidnaps two of Earthrealms champions to force another tournament immediately after the first in a desperate attempt to gain victory. He also forces the heroes in his home turf of Outworld to do it giving him all the advantage. Even with that he still loses. MK3 they go full invasion.

Having every Mortal Kombat film be about the tournament is like having every MCU film being about Contest of Champions. Eventually, that model will lose its luster.

Ideally, a well-adapted Mortal Kombat movie should have more in common with The Raid than with Enter The Dragon.

The first film should focus on a team of commandoes (Jax, Sonya, Stryker) deployed into a Central American tenement ran by a ruthless crimelord Kano. Along the way, they encounter an army of killers, thugs, and strange creatures who wish them harm. Their job is to track down the Black Dragon Cartel and bring them to justice. We soon learn that the Black Dragon is like Hydra, stretching out into different realms of the Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe.

[titanfan]

The Hunger Games somehow did multiple movies the Hunger Games--there's enough MK lore and stories out there that ideas for new content won't be a problem.

[Havok83]

It goes to show you that the only fighting game franchise that deserves a movie adaptation is Soul Calibur. Because Soul Calibur is the only fighting game franchise that isn't tournament-based. It's a sword and sandals epic, filled with a colorful cast of characters, and a flashy visual aesthetic that could dominate a summer movie box office.

SC is not the only fighting game franchise that isnt tournament based

[Common Writer]

The Hunger Games somehow did multiple movies the Hunger Games--there's enough MK lore and stories out there that ideas for new content won't be a problem.

I didn't say it was impossible to pull off, I said it was hard to pull off.

SC is not the only fighting game franchise that isn't tournament based

Well, enlighten me.

[Immortal Weapon]

Well, enlighten me.

Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Samurai Shodown, Skullgirls, to name a few.

[Common Writer]

Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Samurai Shodown, Skullgirls, to name a few.

And all of these games including Soul Calibur will work better as film adaptations than Mortal Kombat would because they aren't tournament-based.

[Immortal Weapon]

And all of these games including Soul Calibur will work better as film adaptations than Mortal Kombat would because they aren't tournament-based.

Mortal Kombat hasn't been tournament based since the third game. MK3 was stopping an Outworld invasion of Earthrealm, MK4 was stopping a netherrealm invasion of Edenia, Deadly Alliance was stopping Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi from resurrecting the Dragon King's army and I could go on.

[Guy_McNichts]

If a Kitana movie would be considered a solo while having Jade and Mileena, the a movie starring Liu Kang can also be a solo despite having other characters. As it stands, this just pedantry over what qualifies as a solo.

hareluyafan1 pretty much said what I would've.

My comment about Games of Thrones getting shittier? That wasn't a smart ass comment, that was legitimately my view/opinion going by widespread hearsay afterwards. If you took offense to that, then that probably has more to do with your feelings towards that show than my intent. I was acting in good faith there, so I don't know what else to say. Frankly, I or you can say whatever the fudge we want or think about films/tv/streaming shows and should be considered acting in good faith if it's reflecting real opinions. Twisting people's words and intent however is not good faith. If you do not agree that there's a difference between those two things, then we have no shared ground to even argue on.

I wasn't offended that you said Game of Thrones was shitty, I was pissed that you interpreted my use of it as simply an example of plot structure as a one-to-one comparison, which struck me as being deliberately obtuse.

Not really. It wouldn't be an ensemble - some characters are too small to be more than support/minor antagonists who only show up to get fatality'ed. Any one movie would only focus on 1 to 3 main leads. To put it better, some characters are like Scarecrow in the Dark Knight trilogy, and some are the bus driver Joker kills in The Dark Knight.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this, because what you're suggesting sounds like a waste of time. As I said in my previous post, I don't see much mileage in a "Johnny Cage" movie and a "Liu Kang" movie before we even get to the actual tournament.

The big issue with Mortal Kombat's story is its most compelling characters are the ones with little to do with the main story. So, I suppose, if they were to make a MK shared universe of movies, it wouldn't be like Marvel where the key characters get a solo and the tournament is like the Avengers, it would start with the tournament movie featuring everyone and then we'd get spin-off movies on the other characters like Kuai Liang, Kitana, Scorpion, etc.

And all of these games including Soul Calibur will work better as film adaptations than Mortal Kombat would because they aren't tournament-based.

The only MK games that focus on tournaments are the first two. Literally ever MK game after that is about a war or just the characters fighting their own battles.

[Vakanai]

All this discussion about a TV show, so I thought I'd ask

Is Mortal Kombat Legacy worthwhile? It's on HBO Max.

Fighting any good?

Acting any good?

It's kind of an anthology, so each episode varies. But they're all short, so I'd say it's worth it. The best episodes in my opinion are Sonya and Jax vs Kano (pre-laser eye tech) and Scorpion vs Sub-Zero (I kind of prefer it to the one we got in the new movie's first 7 minutes). I would definitely give them all a watch.

[Vakanai]

I wasn't offended that you said Game of Thrones was shitty, I was pissed that you interpreted my use of it as simply an example of plot structure as a one-to-one comparison, which struck me as being deliberately obtuse.

In that case...it's definitely more a your interpretation of what I said problem, cause I said nothing at all about using it as "simply an example of plot structure as a one-to-one comparison."
Like, all I said was from reviews it seemed like a show that got worse as it went on, at least towards the end. I mean, I was a bit more dismissive in my comment about it than that, but I certainly don't see how you got that plot structure argument out of it...I honestly didn't make any comment about plot structure at all...

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this, because what you're suggesting sounds like a waste of time. As I said in my previous post, I don't see much mileage in a "Johnny Cage" movie and a "Liu Kang" movie before we even get to the actual tournament.

Agreed, with the obvious caveat that I think your big sprawling overcast and overstuffed streaming series with a trillion different subplots per limited season sounds like the waste of time.

The big issue with Mortal Kombat's story is its most compelling characters are the ones with little to do with the main story. So, I suppose, if they were to make a MK shared universe of movies, it wouldn't be like Marvel where the key characters get a solo and the tournament is like the Avengers, it would start with the tournament movie featuring everyone and then we'd get spin-off movies on the other characters like Kuai Liang, Kitana, Scorpion, etc.

That'd be fine with me, as long as the tournament movie was better than the one we got...

[Agent Z]

I have to respectfully disagree with you there. If it has just one or two other characters in supporting roles (like the example of Jade and Mileena) then it's still a Kitana solo. After all the movie needs somebody to be the main antagonist (in that case Mileena).

If it has an entire roster's worth of characters, then it is no longer a solo movie. By this reasoning, Mortal Kombat 95 is not a Liu Kang solo movie. He's the main protagonist but it doesn't focus only on him.

This presumes that all the characters are playing a role other than simply appearing.

Even then, Liu is more than capable of holding an entire movie on his own without an entire roster.

Let me put it this way. Would you consider Spiderman: Homecoming to not be a Spiderman solo film because Iron Man appears in it?

No.