New ‘Mortal Kombat’ film brings a fresh take to a timeless classic

One would be hard pressed to find a movie genre more derided by fans and critics alike than video game adaptations. Over the course of cinema history, these films have more often than not bombed at the box office and quickly faded from public memory.

An outlier in this genre, however, is Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 film, ‘Mortal Kombat’, which fared well at the box office and managed to capture fans’ imaginations, and is still considered a cult classic.

With a new adaptation out in UAE cinemas now, expectations are high for this modern retelling of a video game beloved by fans across the decades. Here we’ll take a look at the game’s history and its journey to the big screen:

Origin story: The game ‘Mortal Kombat’ was first birthed in 1992 by Ed Boon and John Tobias with publishers Midway Games for the arcade machines. Reportedly, the designer duo initially wanted to make a fighting game featuring Hollywood action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. In its early stages, the game was planned to be a faithful gaming adaptation of the film ‘Universal Soldier’ – complete with Van Damme reprising his role as Luc Deveraux. But when the movie was universally panned by critics, the idea was dropped like a hot potato.

However, the spirit of Van Damme still inhabits the game in the form of the character Johnny Cage, a Hollywood actor and martial artist with something to prove. He is one of the seven original playable characters of ‘Mortal Kombat’, alongside Liu Kang, Kano, Scorpion, Sonya Blade, Sub-Zero and Raiden. Until date, more than 20 different games (11 ‘main games’) have been published in the franchise with the latest being 2019’s ‘Mortal Kombat 11’, which released for the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch platforms. As of 2020, the franchise has sold about 54 million units, third in numbers to Bandai Namco’s ‘Tekken’ and Capcom’s ‘Street Fighter’.

The game: In ‘Mortal Kombat’, players select one of many unique characters to battle against other fighters in a gauntlet-style tournament to determine who faces the final “boss”. Each fighter comes with their own unique fighting style and. One of these unique moves is the fatality or the finishing move: If players quickly pressed the right combination of buttons on the controller, the defeated opponent would be brutally maimed, humiliated or defiled in a manner that is completely original to each character in the game.

Lasting legacy: One of ‘Mortal Kombat’s’ most enduring legacies is the way it influenced the way video games are rated across the board. The gratuitous violence portrayed in ‘Mortal Kombat’ led to the creation of the Electronic Software Rating Board (ESRB), a US government-backed board that determines what video games will receive a rating. The rating is basically used as a quick way or guide to help parents decide if a game is right for their child and they don’t unwittingly expose young children to ultra-violent content.

‘Mortal Kombat’: The 1995 film and its lesser sequel: When producer Larry Kasanoff first optioned the rights to the ‘Mortal Kombat’ franchise to turn into a video game, nobody believed it would work at the box office. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kasanoff said, “I played the ‘Mortal Kombat’ arcade game in [the Midway Games] office for half an hour. I turned to [former Midway Games chief] Neil D. Nicastro and I said, ‘This is ‘Star Wars’ meets ‘Enter the Dragon’. This is not just an arcade game. This is a whole phenomenon’. I said, ‘If you give me the rights to this, I promise you I will produce this, not just in movies, but in every medium in the world’. He looked at me and said, ‘You’re full of crap! It’s just an arcade game!’ That began a three-month process of me trying to convince them that it was more than just an arcade game. They didn’t believe it. Because video game movies had recently failed, like ‘Mario Bros.’, no one believed it. I finally just wore them down and they optioned the rights to me for an insanely short amount of time, which now I would never do, but it was my first deal at my company.”

But the film, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, and curiously released as a PG-13 film, went on to break the video game adaptation curse and grossed $122 million worldwide. The film was praised for its ambitious scope and being surprisingly funny and original. It was also one of the few Hollywood mainstream releases at the time to have an Asian lead actor (Robin Shou as Liu Kang). The film was followed by a 1997 sequel called ‘Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’, directed by John R Leonetti, which was universally panned by critics and audiences. A planned third film was immediately scrapped.

‘Mortal Kombat’: The 2021 film: In the new ‘Mortal Kombat’ film, MMA fighter Cole Young, accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage—or why Outworld’s Sorcerer Shang Tsung has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, to hunt him down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade at the direction of Jax, a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden, the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano, as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies from Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?

“Our goal in bringing this story to the screen was to respect the material and service the true fans, but also create a thrilling experience for moviegoers who might not know the games. We wanted to give everyone a really fun, unrelenting ride, and let film audiences get to know these incredibly cool characters and the powerful energy of this IP. Hopefully we’ve remained authentic and, at the same time, have been able to elevate the MK DNA in a big, cinematic way that hasn’t been done in a very long while,” producer-director Simon McQuoid, who makes his feature directorial debut with the movie, said in a statement.

A new hero is born: If you’re a long-time fan of the franchise, you’re probably scratching your head over this Cole Young character. An entirely new character to the ‘Mortal Kombat’ franchise, Young is a gifted MMA fighter struggling to catch a break in the violent, competitive world of cage fighting. Unaware of his powerful heritage, Young bears a dragon ‘birthmark’ that he soon discovers has made him the target of Outworld’s assassins. About his entry into the world of ‘Mortal Kombat’, actor Lewis Tan, who plays Young, said, “I think the first time I played ‘Mortal Kombat’ was in an arcade, but like most kids who fell in love with the action and fighting, I had it at home, too; I would usually play Kung Lao. And I would sneak and play late and night—and get in trouble! And now look at me, mom!” The actor loved the mix of what McQuoid was offering with his take on the ‘Kombat’ universe. “The story was really cinematic and at the same time grounded, heartfelt, dramatic [and] violent. What was cool for me is to play this father who, in trying to protect his family, discovers his own true destiny.”