Mortal Kombat (1995)

'Mortal Kombat' is a fast-paced adventure with unbelievable action and acting. The story is told brilliantly and it makes for a fun, edge-of-your-seat martial arts tale. Two men and one woman enter a contest that will decide the fate of the world - a tournament to end all tournaments. It's a very dark, shadowy film that prides itself on a gloomy atmosphere for which to muster its ground-breaking fight scenes. Few movies in recent years can match the grittiness and pure painfulness of these fights. If you're an action junkie, or just someone who wants a gripping, enjoyable movie then 'Mortal Kombat' is just what you need. A story of revenge, pride, power, weakness, determination, friendship, danger, life and death. Superb entertainment - my absolute favourite.

Fmovies: What a classic. Last time I watched it was probably like a decade ago. This movie has tons of special effects from CGI to animatronics, and of course these effects show their age, but they were and are still brilliantly and tastefully done and quite seamless still. The transitions in the effects were imaginative and well considered, and despite 20 years none of it feels cheap. Rather you admire the kind of handiwork that goes into pulling off four arms in a battle sequence or the look of throwing a giant ogre off a cliff.

The set designs were fantastic, very graphic at times with bold striking lines such as that bamboo stick mind trip Johnnh Cage gets sucked into in a fight scene. And then at other times peaceful, such as when Kang Liu meditates, or heavy metal with fierce grotesque gargoyles with poor skeleton souls trapped within. I thought the artistry of this film to bthe marvelous, and the saturated colors to be evocative with strong color keys of red, orange and blue. Not to mention the execution of the customes with their details and exaggerated expressionist feel, Shang Tsung's painted eyebrows for instance.

I liked the movie paid its tribute to its video game heritage in its visual and sound effects. The hits in the fight scenes were satisfyingly powerful but the fight scenes themselves never really veered into the painfully realistic, to which I was grateful (I'm squeamish). I understand that's a trend in game to movie or comic book to movie adaptation to show a director's modern sensibility, but that was unnecessary here. This is a popcorn film, right down to the vocal acoustics in Shang Tsung's reverberating "FINISH HIM!" and you never really felt like you wanted anything more grim.

The actors here were delightfully cheesy. Much memorable and beloved casting here. It could be my nostalgia talking but I don't believe any actor would be more perfect for the roles they played. . . As per IMDb trivia for all that I love Johnny Depp am Cameron Diaz I'm glad as heck they weren't in this film. The actors here never take themselves seriously, not that I think these other actors might, but it's not a mistake that the actress who plays Sonya Blade was also in Billy Maddison. She gets the cheekiness of this film while still being serious about playing her character in at heart dignifying way. . . Her fight scenes did seem actualized and her heart was in it, thankfully.

Enjoy this film, it has all the essentials and a pitch perfect tone throughout. And truly excellent well weathered special effects. It's got to be good when you still think to yourself, "How did they do that?"

I've always believed that video-games will never make good movies. But Warner don't seem to understand what a goldmine they're sitting on when it comes to Mortal Kombat. The franchise has so many characters, complex back-stories, and mythology that it honestly dwarfs the X-Men. There is a huge amount of potential in Mortal Kombat. This juvenile 1995 effort only scratches the surface of that potential, but still manages to be an enjoyable no-brainer.

I remember when this was released back in October 1995. It had been No. 1 at the US box office for three straight weeks. The audience did actually manage to go along with the silly, tongue-in-cheek hokum, and it worked. By modern standards this film is laughably awful. The CGI effects look like they were rendered on a Commodore 64, even when the technology to make much better was readily available at the time. I feel so old thinking about how dated and retro Mortal Kombat is.

A bunch of muscular tough-guys are called to an exotic island to take part in a fighting tournament that could decide the fate of the planet. The Outworld Emperor wants Earth as his new dominion and is one tournament away from victory. His mortal, demonic minions, led by the brilliantly over-the-top Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa as dark sorcerer Shang Tsung, must fight Earth's toughest warriors. All but three are expendable: Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. The film follows them as they fight their way through many colorful environments.

It looks and feels very much like an old-fashioned kung-fu movie. The production design is frequently wonderful, and there's hardly any unlikeable characters. Even 4-armed Prince Goro (brought to life by lovely puppetry) is fun to watch. The story however is paper-thin. Like I said, it could be so much more but the talent or motivation to make such a film in 1995 just wasn't there.

I've never been a fan of Paul Anderson (as a matter-of-fact, he's one of the worst filmmakers currently working), but his US debut is a fun, little pot-boiler with some funky 90s techno.

Mortal Kombat fmovies. "Mortal Kombat" in my opinion is just an awesome movie. I think because I was such a fan of the video games, the days when Sega was the "thang". LOL, way before Playstation there was Sega! But, I really just loved the characters and this story just always appealed to me. I think because also my friends and I enjoyed acting the movie and video game out. No, we didn't kill each other, we just loved the characters.

Yes, despite this being a typical video game movie, I still think it was cool to watch, still to this day I don't mind watching. It has an awesome soundtrack, excellent moves, and a great look and feel to the movie itself. Just let go and have fun with it, if you enjoyed the video games, I think you should enjoy "Mortal Kombat". It's just cool to watch and keeps you on the edge of your seat in excitement!

7/10

The only way I can review this is the pros, cons, similarities, and differences between the game and the movie.

Similarities:

1. The characters from the game series make appearances. Some of these include Kano, Sonya, Rayden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, and Goro.

2. Scorpion has his iconic "Get over here!" accompanied by the blades that stick out from his hands.

3. Each character for the most part have relatively similar backgrounds when it comes to the movie and the game.

4. MK theme was present in a few fight scenes. The kick-ass theme song that sticks in your head was used in the opening credits and the closing ones.

5. Three words: Johnny Cage's nutshots.

Differences:

1. Little to no, and I mean NO, fatalities are present in the movie. There is a lot of MK-like action throughout but the one thing that truly made the games awesome is completely left out. To fill you in if you haven't played the games, fatalities are pretty much an attempt (and success) at you being able to brutally murder your opponent in as gruesome style as possible.

2. No blood. I understand that New Line is trying to make the movie more appealing to wide varieties of audiences, but Mortal Kombat without blood isn't Mortal Kombat. This is probably the reason why no fatalities are involved.

Pros:

1. The movie has some damn good action scenes in it. They were simply entertaining to watch and each fight didn't drag out for a long excessive period of time.

2. The acting wasn't mediocre like I believed it would be. Like so many other game-to-movie crossovers the major appeal is to display the perception of how games "should" be made. I put 'should' in quotes because it fails most of the time, but Mortal Kombat managed to put all of that behind it and made a pretty good movie.

3. Paul W.S. Anderson. Again he has managed to do an awesome job with these video game adaptations. Although it was after, his best work I believe was with the Resident Evil movie seven years later. Personally, I think he's best when it comes to adapting, which is a rare cause when it comes to these types of movies. For example: Uwe Boll. Worst director of all time and he always managed to ruin some pretty good games (House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Far Cry, Postal).

Cons:

1. The CGI. Oh my lord was this film's CGI terrible. I mean it was just simply AWFUL. Goro looked like it was animated by a first grader. The visual scenery is great and all the money probably went towards making that aspect look real but they completely ignored this very one distracting aspect.

2. The costumes weren't bad, but they weren't as good as I would have expected. I like how Reptile was a ninja, but Rayden doesn't look anything like he does in the games. An argument can be made that he was in mortal form during the video games to compete in the tournament so that's why they look so differently, but I object to that because he looks just so ridiculous.

3. Like I stated before, no blood is present. It's understandable that the attempt was made to make it PG-13 and all but if this could be remade with more blood...a lot more blood, then it could be made better. That's not something I would usually say, but hey, it's Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat is all about brutality.

Despite the cons and differences it doesn't make

Mortal Kombat (1995) is my favorite martial arts sci-fi action classic flick based on a video game that I have grown up! I grew up playing Mortal Kombat II video game, I played in a hospital with my friends. I heard about Street Fighter (1994) movie that played Jean-Claude Van Damme in it and that time I thought that movie is one of the best Van Damme movies, that just come out recently in the 90's but boy was I wrong! Street Fighter sucks ass! Jean-Claude Van Damme sucked ass in Street Fighter! Mortal Kombat is the opposite of that film, I love this film to death and it is my favorite Paul W. S. Anderson film that he ever directed! In my honest opinion I think is the best video game movie ever made, that was before Resident Evil movies were made! I love the theme song Techno-Syndrome (7inch mix) by The Immortals! I love this movie to death it is a classic my favorite childhood movie of all time!! Too bad it got a sequel 1997 and ruined this movie. This in my opinion is a classic Sci-Fi underrated martial arts flick that I love it so damn much!!!

"A handful of people on a leaky boat are going to save the world?"

Plot: Three unknowing martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world.

"Nothing in this world has prepared you for this." Summoned to a mysterious island, three martial arts warriors engage in the ultimate battle of good against evil -the supernatural tournament of Mortal Kombat. Starring Christopher Lambert (Higlander), Talisa Soto (Don Juan DeMarco) and featuring world class martial arts champion Robin Shou (Tiger Cage II), it's the most awesome, action-jammed, reality-shattering adventure the Universe has ever witnessed!

In this movie we have a beautiful cast as Christopher Lambert from Highlander, Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson, Robin Shou from Tiger Cage II and Beverly Hills Ninja, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the bad guy, every time I watch a movie from the 90's, I see this guy in it been a bad guy! Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was a perfect choice for playing the bad guy sorcerer Shang Tsung, who killed Liu Kang's brother. I absolutely love this film, it is my childhood film, I love the fight choreography in this movie, the plot and story was really great. I really like the special visual practical effects and the fight choreographer did a decent job showing those martial arts.

It has a beautiful ending, a beautiful song to the movie, I love the fight scenes with Johnny Cage and Scorpion and it is the best one in the movie, the fight scene between Liu Kang and Reptile is perfect the second best martial arts scenes. This is an awesome movie and the games are incredible. That has the REAL Mortal Kombat song. This is a film that is actually about martial arts tournament, it has a great characters. Johnny Cage is my favorite character of all time! Linden Ashby was so great and excellent as Johnny Cage I wish he would play more roles like he did his character. I really love this movie one of the most underrated 90's movies, I really enjoy and love this film it is fun flick to watch and I grew up with it!

Overall: I own this movie on Blu-ray and I absolutely love this movie! I used to had on VSH both of the movies that my mom bought me Mortal Kombat: Annihilation on my wish list and I love this one but Annihilation was such a disappointment I hate that movie. I also don't get why this movie got so many hate? I love this film and I don't agree with critics a