Watch the trailer: Could 2021’s ‘Mortal Kombat’ movie be good?
Millennials & gamers alike can rejoice; the trailer for Mortal Kombat 2021 has dropped from the sky with the force of a stomping Sheeva. The film is a longtime coming from the Mortal Kombat franchise – one that began with the release of its first game in 1992.
Since then, the game series has ascended to legendary status, as fans born during & after the time Mortal Kombat 1 was released enjoy the fully evolved versions of the games that continue to come out on the latest gaming consoles.
The Mortal Kombat franchise comes with far more than just games, as the elaborate MK universe has produced TV series, comic books, and multiple feature films. However, the films of Mortal Kombat past have been widely criticized as falling flat, squandering the potential of the gruesome, outrageous, and thrilling video game series.
First films
In 1995, the first generation of fighting gamers as we know them rushed to theaters with the ferocity of a Liu Kang fireball; the first Mortal Kombat film was released.
Fans were able to see their favorite characters alive and on the big screen for the first time, but the film left something to be desired; we only got a handful of characters, and the fight sequences were tame enough to watch with mom & dad (yawn). Fans wanted more, and, of course, Hollywood delivered.
1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation sought out to correct the mistakes of 1995’s Mortal Kombat, and managed to fall even shorter than the latter film; Mortal Kombat: Annihilation managed to give us more characters, but an even shottier story with even tamer battles (was seeing Cyrax spew oil over a bloodied Ermac too much to ask?).
We saw fatalities in both films, but nothing like the ones that resulted in a 1993 U.S. Congressional hearing about the dangerous nature of video games and the need for censorship.
The Mortal Kombat films of the 90s are anything but toasty, so what can we expect from Mortal Kombat 2021? The trailer gives us some clues that the new Mortal Kombat has made new efforts to give the fans what they want.
Refreshed reboot
The trailer for Mortal Kombat 2021 cuts right to the chase as we see everyone’s favorite frozen ninja Sub-Zero in the first few seconds. The people behind Mortal Kombat 2021 appeared to have done their research; no one’s going to see a Mortal Kombat movie without Sub-Zero.
It isn’t long before we see blood as Jax Briggs sees his arms shatter, and fans realize this ain’t your grandma’s Mortal Kombat movie.
The bloodbath continues as the trailer rages on like an eight-move combo, and it becomes abundantly clear Mortal Kombat 2021 will be the first R-rated Mortal Kombat movie (finally) and audiences will see why the first Mortal Kombat game had so many parents calling their senators in a battle for their children’s innocence.
Furthermore, we can see that Mortal Kombat 2021 has traded mixed martial arts displayed in every one-off 90s action movie & action-figure looking white men posing as Asian henchmen for more realistic choreography and a refreshing cast of newcomers.
Mortal Kombat 2021 seems to target the audience that made the franchise rise to legendary status as the trailer features only O.G. characters millennials came to know & love in the 90s & early 2000s, trading Mortal Kombat 11’s Skarlet for Mortal Kombat II’s Kung Lao.
However, the focus on original characters doesn’t mean Mortal Kombat 2021 will completely ignore the evolution of the game series; the trailer shows slow motion sequences mid-fight, a consistent function in the latest Mortal Kombat games – the ones the next generation has played through at nauseum.
Despite some overused CGI and little clues of the film’s narrative, the Mortal Kombat 2021 trailer looks way more promising than the franchise’s early efforts, and fans are wondering if we’ll get the first great Mortal Kombat movie in 2021. Fans will have to wait until April to test their might and find out, when Mortal Kombat 2021 is released in theaters & HBO Max.
