Friday, May 14, 2021

Some More Thoughts on the 'Mortal Kombat' Reboot

So, I already wrote my review for Mortal Kombat. But I realized that there were still a few things I wanted to say about it.  Hence, I decided to compile those scattered thoughts in this article.  Just think of this as the “miscellaneous musings” section that I forgot to put in my original review. Spoiler warning.
  • The more I contemplate about it, the more I’m convinced that the main problem of this movie is making a new character in Cole Young and making the movie revolve around him.
  • A funny comment I stumbled upon while browsing the Internet: “Cole’s superpower is a literal plot armor.”
  • I would have undoubtedly been won over by Cole Young if this was the twist: his arcana turned out being the ability to become a vessel for Hanzo Hasashi’s spirit, transforming him into this universe’s version of Scorpion.
  • While watching, I thought to myself that, among all the good guys, Kung Lao was the most probable to die.  My guess turned out being correct.  Poor Kung Lao.  At least, he got a good amount of badass moments before kicking the bucket.
  • I really hope they do Johnny Cage justice in the sequel.
  • In turn, I hope Cassie Cage – an accurate depiction of Cassie Cage – gets introduced in a future movie.  They can do some time travel stuff to make this happen sooner than later.  Seriously, among all the things that can happen in this new Mortal Kombat film series, seeing a live-action Cassie Cage is the thought that excites me the most.  Cassie rivals her father as my most favorite MK character.
  • I wonder how will arcana come at play once the cyborg ninjas are introduced in the sequels.
  • Mortal Kombat is a B movie as a whole.  But that opening scene is genuinely peak cinema.  If only the rest of the movie also turned out being like that.
  • A more appealing vision for this movie would have been centering it on the bitter rivalry of Scorpion and Sub-Zero and then building the rest of the plot around it.
  • With Bi-Han a.k.a. Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) getting killed at the end of the movie, Noob Saibot is most likely being set for the sequel.  In Mortal Kombat lore, Bi-Han was the original Sub-Zero (i.e. the character in the first game), but after his death, he became a wraith, and took the name Noob Saibot, while the mantle of Sub-Zero is inherited by his younger brother, Kuai Liang (i.e. the Sub-Zero of the second game and onwards).  For the sequel, I hope they cast Iko Uwais for the role of Kuai Liang.  Being Joe Taslim’s co-star in The Raid and The Night Comes for Us, Iko would be make one perfectly poetic casting.
  • Outside of the things Kano say or do, the most hilarious moment in this movie is when Liu Kang kept on sweeping Kano’s feet over and over again during their training.  I thought it was an extremely clever meta gag that alludes to the concept of spamming in fighting games.
  • Again, I don’t play the games.  But Mortal Kombat’s one of the games that I’ve watched gameplay and cut-scene compilations of in Youtube.  And, boy, if they actually manage to adapt all those rich storylines and mythology correctly, the resulting movies would be beyond epic.
  • I want to see in a future Mortal Kombat movie something similar to the battle royale in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat 11, in which an army of good guys and an army of bad guys clash in a battlefield.
  • Also, how about a collaboration with the DCEU for a film adaptation of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (yep, there’s a crossover fighting game like that)?  Lol.  Unlikely to happen.  But it’s a really intriguing idea.  If they actually pull off something like that, that would be a more mindblowing geek event in cinema than anything the MCU has ever done so far (with the probably exception of the rumored three cinematic Spider-Man crossover – fingers crossed! – in Spider-Man: No Way Home).

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