A New Mortal Kombat Movie? HELL YES!
For a long time Mortal Kombat has gotten the short end of the stick as far as content outside of the games goes. Toys have sucked, t-shirts, books or comics have all been garbage, and don’t get me started on the films. While the first one was a fun take on the deadly island tournament formula that was popularized by Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon”, the franchise has never taken off in a way that it deserves, until now.
A new short film called Mortal Kombat Rebirth hit the web today. It’s a 7 minute long, super gritty, real world take on Mortal Kombat that could not only revitalize the movie franchise, but also the video game franchise. It’s directed by Kevin Tancharoen, the man who was behind the camera for the remake of “Fame”, and it’s entire purpose is to show Warner Bros that a that a great movie could be made from the franchise and get funding for it.
Personally I think it’s cast very well so far. I love the real world take on these bigger than life characters. The way they handle them is just as extreme, as ever. Baraka being a made scientist who’s embedded claws into his own arms, and Reptile being a freak of nature all work for me.
Some one recently commented no the video that this approach is “fucking up” something good and original, when I think it’s almost the exact opposite of that. Mortal Kombat itself is an amalgamation of every good martial arts film of the 70s and 80s. It’s premise had been seen before. It’s story was never all that deep or involved, and when it tried to be in later games is when the series fell apart, long before the Mortal Kombat characters tangled with the DC Universe.
I think this could work, and start a cool series of Mortal Kombat films that please the fans, first timers, and set both the movie franchise and the game franchise in a new direction. Here’s hoping Warner Bros listens up and stars production right away. Honestly while I like the video I don’t want Kevin Tancharoen directing. Most of his experience is in music videos. I’d rather see some one like the Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the men behind Crank, Crank: High Voltage and Gamer to do it.
What do you think of the seven minute promo?
I personally thought this was amazing when I first saw it. As much I love the original Mortal Kombat film, I think this realistic take on the franchise would be amazing if done right. Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade is already a great start. I hope some company puts this into production soon.
Posted on June 10th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I was super excited about this video when I first saw it, but when I really thought about it the film really made me unhappy. I don’t want them to set it in a realistic world! I want my magic and soul stealing. I want Raiden the god of thunder! They should make a point to do a video game film that is true to the game and still badass.
Posted on June 10th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I saw that. I almost cried.
Posted on June 13th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Clever premise…this formula could definitely work if they’re not going to be too faithful to the game…if they are…they have some major hurdles.
A lot of what made MK such a fun game was the mystical/magical/fantasy elements and powers all the characters had. For instance, Raiden the thunder god is one of the favourite characters of the game…how would they reinvent that character? Shang Tsung could morph into any other character…or the monstrous Goro? It will be really hard if near impossible to re-introduce all those characters in the “real-world”. And seeing as its in the present day and not the future…they can’t possibly substitute their “powers” for some futuristic technology…shooting lightning or teleportation for instance.
But if they’re not going to be faithful to the game…then that gives them a lot of freedom to do anything they want…it just won’t feel like a MK movie…just something loosely based on the characters/story. It may still be enjoyable though. Who knows.
I’m just looking forward to Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
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