If there’s a game that defines the term ‘’controversial’’, it’s either going to be the Grand Theft Auto series or Mortal Kombat. While Grand Theft Auto continued to stir up problems within the late 2000s, Mortal Kombat, which was a fighting game created in 1992 by Ed Boon and John Tobias, was one of the originators of the ‘’video games are bad for kids’’ wave, with its explicit showing of violence and gore on easy to play arcade machines causing parents and higher ups to bar and even sometimes ban the games in several areas. But despite this (or more rather because of this) the game was massively successful and with success comes opportunity to make a movie. While it certainly faced its own form of backlash due to the record of video game adaptations not fairing to well, a film was still released in 1995 and the results were definitely mixed. With the earth in threat of being invaded by another realm known as Outworld, the lord of lightning Rayden (played by Christopher Lambert) tries to put together a group of mortals who can defeat the feared tournament host Shang Tsung (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and his prized champion Goro (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). The three that he chooses to win in this tournament are arrogant movie star Johnny Cage (played by Linden Ashby), Shaolin Monk Liu Kang (played by Robin Shou) and special forces officer Sonya Blade (played by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras). Despite the three of them not fully understanding the magnitude of the situation at hand until they see the supernatural threat that these combatants pose on themselves as well as the world, they will be forced to adjust and accept their destiny when they are thrown into the ring and forced to fight to the death in the tournament of Mortal Kombat. When it came out, the critical consensus for the film was largely negative, but it was a commercial success at the box office and was received much better by fans, with many to this day proclaiming it as one of the best video game adaptations of all time.

Making a movie based on Mortal Kombat would be tricky to handle due to its clear submersion in being a loud and proud game that wanted to exploit its bloody and graphic nature to children. It didn’t hide that it was that specific game that probably shouldn’t be for children but was highly popular with children. It’s aware of its controversial nature and is happy it has it, and that causes issues when not just making a film , but making one during the 1990s. Whereas nowadays, the balance between what we can show to kids is a bit more lenient and allows for some interesting experimental films and shows, the 90s was not a period where things could be dark or edgy and instead had to be safe, non-threatening and marketable above all else, which led to the movie being PG-13 and ultimately removing the gore and violence (a stable to the franchise and arguably its core element). Despite this, it doesn’t have to automatically ruin the movie as it has a pretty decent simple narrative layout that could work for a film, as telling a story of martial artists being tasked with saving the world by fighting off multidimensional supernaturally gifted foes in a tournament-style competition sounds pretty cool by itself, but how it fails is how it told. The director for this movie is Paul W. S. Anderson, who would later go onto work on the Resident Evil movie franchise, and from this first true outing behind the helm, it shows some of his less than perfect attributes. While not doing a terrible job, it’s clear the movie could’ve utilized a stronger, more eccentric, or unique director to bring something fresh and different to a franchise this outlandish. The script by Kevin Droney is also very weak, not only in how it writes its characters and how many cliched lines and plot points are forced into this film, but also just on a basic level of how nothing feels new and distinct, and it leaves what should be a strikingly unique film feeling generic and by-the-numbers.

Mortal Kombat stands strong thanks to its gore, but it has also proven throughout its multiple games to have pretty cool looking characters with good backstories and move sets. While it was still in its infantile stage when the film was release, the first game had memorable designs and names that would make for fun roles and fitting additions to a movie of its calibre, but they are arguably the thing that kill this movie the most. If the story is weak and the blood and gore is missing, at least it could have some interesting likeable characters to hold the movie together, and these characters are at best forgettable and bland and at worst insufferably annoying. From the main cast of characters, you can definitely tell they put in effort in places to get actors that look the part, but either through the poor script and directing or if it was just the individuals themselves, no one really comes off as great in this. Rayden is annoyingly lacking in personality and presence, but Christopher Lambert’s hilariously awful voice for the character at least makes him a little funny to watch, Shang Tsung occasionally can look pretty cool and intimidating in certain shots, but his over-the-top moments just make him fall flat pretty hard, and Goro is a technical achievement with the impressive puppeteering, but his lack of personality and his awkwardly lame ending hurts the character strongly. The leads are botched incredibly hard and each tap into a specific form of poor character handling; Liu Kang is incredibly bland, and his actor isn’t very strong, Sonya is nothing more than a woman needing to be saved in the end and the actress is not convincing in the role, and Johnny Cage is insufferable throughout the entire film, only existing to spout dumb lines.

Even if the movie is a failure in all these other departments, one thing that everyone gives this movie credit for even after all these years is how closely it tried to replicate the look and atmosphere of the original games, and on that level, the movie actually does a surprisingly good job. The locations and areas they film in, along with the overall production design by Jonathan A. Carlson looks very nice and are filled with that gritty yet creative personality that Mortal Kombat thrives on. It helps that they are real locations as it gives it a more traditional martial arts film feel to it which the movie really needed more of as opposed to a Power Rangers kind of feel. The costumes by Ha Nguyen are perfectly bright and popping with color, making their specific characters stand out as strongly as possible despite very little lines given to specific ones, and the physical nature of the movie is appreciated when it comes to the costumes, sets, puppets, and martial arts. The movie does feature some truly terrible CGI, but it was common for the time period to have awful effects, and this movie does try to be more practical than it actively could have been. It is a shame then that despite the actual stunt work going on in the movie (from both real stunt performers and the actors themselves), the fighting isn’t anything that amazing. It clearly isn’t awful and the effort these actors put in does show in that department, but from a choreography and cinematography level, no fight scene is really interesting or engaging (outside of one during the middle of the film involving Johnny Cage and Scorpion). Another thing that everybody agrees on is that the musical score for this film by George S. Clinton, specifically the song that plays throughout the movie, is amazing. The disco feel that it brings to the movie is strangely perfect and it carries with it so much hype and energized joy that it will get you pumped up for stuff that isn’t even that good, it’s a wonderful tool to distract the audience.

This movie acts like a very easy guilty pleasure film for several people who grew up in the time period and wanted to see the movie and got pretty much what they were expecting to get, but how much of that is pure nostalgia? As a whole, the movie is clearly awful; with a bland story, awful writing, horrible characters, and a lack of style and gore that really gave the game a specific edge and personality. On the flip side though, this movie doesn’t feel like such a corporate shill, as it clearly has elements that showed that some of the people behind the helm loved the games; the costumes, the fighting, the sets, the music, even some of the casting choices, it doesn’t feel like a project without some love behind it. It is a good guilty pleasure movie in that regard because even if it’s not good, some people will be okay with what they show and enjoy the parts that do hit them in a specific spot. It’s definitely a messy product, but what video game movie isn’t, and If this is your specific cup of tea, then whose to stop you from enjoying it?

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