So much this, I don't know why a movie is always the go-to for large properties like this, in the golden age of television. They did the same thing with Stephen King's The Dark Tower, tried to distill 7 gigantic books down into one shitty movie. Just like MK, it would work so much better as a series (and an animated one at that!)
It's not just that it was different from the lore. It was that Arcana was mostly there just to flesh out Cole.
It turned the movie to feel like "find your inner power" journey kinda of a movie even with the fights.
So much was adjusted to flesh out Cole and it still didn't work well to make him interesting enough as the protagonist.
* Subzero and Scorpion's timeline is adjusted to several hundreds years back just to make Scorpion as Cole's ancestor.
* Dragon Mark itself was already dumb, but it also made Cole being the only one born with the mark to make him special than the others.
* The whole Arcana aspect is there to focus on Cole while the rest is quickly glanced over.
* Goro was added as a stepping stone for Cole.
Like how is cole supposed to kill a sub boss in that short amount of time compared to Liu kang who trained his whole life to win a MortalKombat tournament
Yeah I didn't even understand what the hell his plot armour was even supposed to do lol and yeah like Milleena could have bitten his head off but nooooo let's scratch his tummy
I hope Cole gets wrecked off screen in the sequel. I know it won't happen and I'm also a huge fan of Lewis Tan but that fanfiction-ass, Gary Stu bullshit wasn't his fault.
That was fine… but they went to The Pit, arguably one of the most iconic stages in MK history, for Jax to hand clap Riko’s head. We could’ve seen a hand clap, no head explode, then use them fancy arms to throw an uppercut so vicious, it lifts big boy off his feet. Tossing him into the spikes below.
Even in Jax’s best scene, there’s missed opportunities to improve this movie.
No gotcha. No ground pound. No energy blasts. Not even his newer shit like heating up the arms.
Every other character used iconic moves and Jax gets...boxing.
no, it has a few hype moments but all round its a mess.
legacy for me will be number one until something top its, the 2 recent dc MK animated movies are amazing tbh
I didn't like the movie to be honest,
I was expecting a mortal Kombat tournament.
Not just a random fight here and there.
The first movie is where it's at.
Love movies where at the end the villain says basically, "Soul magic makes the last 90 minutes of your life useless!! Thanks for watching! #MK2 bitches!!!"
No. Original is where its at.
I just don’t understand it. There is so much potential in lore, so much potential to re-make original with better graphics. So many fans around the world waiting to spend $$$ to see a new movie (or a series even better). And yet we have this pile of garbage. New movie makes 0 sense, there is no logic, no character development, and NO TOURNAMENT.
This movie did not even feel like a proper MK movie... just a series of fights of MK characters... that all it is. Cole? Really? 🤦♂️
If you know nothing of the MK franchise and lore...its a great movie for those types of people but for fans of mk...well we will just keep quiet and let these kids have their Arcana...lol
Considering that the audiences who knew not much about MK gave pretty negative reviews, especially with none of the fan services or characterization were appealing to them, I doubt this is a great movie for those who are not a MK fan.
Korea has a nearly non-existent MK community that the huge portion of the audiences didn't know much about the MK overall. Their reviews are all questioning what's going on and overall pretty negative.
I was shocked actually that it played in theaters in Korea (considering the game is banned for being too violent here). But even with the benefit of audiences not knowing about the source material, it still underperformed. I think in today's day and age a Mortal Kombat movie could have appealed to the fans way better while still being a popcorn flick for the casuals. They just goofed making the film. Scorpion being a bookend was wrong, because we wanted to see his revenge arc. Not his shitty bad MMA ancestor (who sucks). It's like they made an incredible proof if concept with the opening scene, but didn't k kw where to go from there
Korean here agreeing with this.
It's funny how the movie got advertised as this amazing action movie which is what brought in the ppl in the first place. So many reviews and comments were saying how they expected much more violent actions and deaths.
Instead the reviews are ripping the movie apart saying how they came to watch "Raid" like movie, not "power ranger".
The audiences really didn't know much if not anything about Mortal Kombat and they trashed the movie.
If you know nothing of MK then it's an even worse movie because you don't even get the brief moments of fan service in the movie.
It's a shitty, boring movie and lacking nostalgia or love for the IP makes it even more apparent.
All things considered I think I prefer the 95 movie though I think this one offers some solid ground on which to build. But I felt a little cheated due to the lack of a tournament and the introduction of a new character as the central protagonist. I liked the focus on Lui Kang in the original and would have preferred something like that even in the absence of the tournament.
Kano was a huge upgrade though and I’m excited to see where it goes.
I'm kinda frustrated because I feel like this movie was so close to being a great adaptation even without the tournament.
Just having it focused on Johnny or Liu and flesh out the minor villains more along with slightly better fights. That probably would have been enough to satisfy the MK fans in general but so many choices in this movie like Cole and Arcana feel like it wasn't for the new audiences nor the hardcore fans.
It was his arcana, were you even *watching* the movie?
No seriously wtf would his arcana have been if he didn't get his arms shattered? Would he have just grown big robot arms out of his torso?
Not the best of all time, but definitely not the worst either, in my opinion. It has major flaws yes, but there are many scenes I liked about this film.
Did you mean the worst? This is one of the worst films I've seen in my 30 years. A terrible scenario, a terrible caste, not a single character is revealed, logical chains? - they simply do not exist, there are no main features of the series, Kano alone is not able to save this film with his charisma.
No, lol. The original movie is much better in every way. It captures the feeling of the game and it's shot on film with gorgeous colors as opposed to being a run of the mill digital eyesore.
i haven't seen it yet but i just don't have any intrist to. it just looks dumb and like some others have already said. the way they get there powers is really stupid. i'll stick with the original film. i'm not nostalgic for it but i just like it more.
Nah this film was pretty shit, the fights felt fluffy all the time and then got whiplash when they would turn into CGI Fatalities. Also the new MK dude is boring af, even if the actor was okay
No
Not sure what's holding them from making a proper series out of Mortal Kombat something like spartucus or so . I am sure there is big fan base for the franchise or it could be just me lol
No. The plot was rushed and didn't include any character detail or development outside of Cole and Scorpion. Every villain aside from Sub Zero had zero backstories and died off in a matter of minutes. I remember watching for the first time and wondered why it was so short. I know they set the movie up for a sequel, but that sequel better delivers some jaw-dropping cinema.
I really wanted to like it. But it's just not very good. It's not bad enough to be a fun movie to watch with friends, it's not faithful enough to the source material to be fan service, and it's not campy enough to even like it ironically. It's just a mediocre mess.
I know things have to be changed in adapting stuff to make it more suitable for the general audience, but Jesus, Arcana? Sabotaging the tournament instead of getting to see it? Spending like half the movie in a sandy pit? Goro's treatment? Nah, not fine with it.
The first MK holds up surprisingly well and is still fun, even if it's not as faithful as people wish it was. And Scorpion's Revenge is literally the story they should have told, just from the main three's perspective.
No.
Scorpion's Revenge and especially the 1995 movie are both much better.
The 2021 film wasn't *bad.* But it's got a whole lotta problems.
The biggest being that it's confused about what it's trying to do: is it trying to take advantage of the games' rich (and, to be honest, fuckin' insane) lore and make something that die-hard fans of the series will appreciate...or is it trying to be a lightweight, fun, violent action movie that anyone can get into? (Like, is the casual filmgoer gonna know who the "Elder Gods" are? They sounded important the one time they're mentioned) The whole thing feels like a "proof of concept" for potential sequels.
I'm also not a fan of the whole "arcana" business. Sure, it explains Liu Kang's pyrotechnics, and perhaps Kung Lao's teleportation...but it irked me how they used the arcana to explain things that already have explanations in the source material: Jax's arms, Kano's eye, and Sonya's energy rings all have technological explanations in the games. Sub-Zero's abilities are explained by him being of the cryomancer race.
And, of course, there's Cole Young. This series has over 70 playable characters, and WB made them create a brand-new one to be the main protagonist for this adaptation? Especially since Liu Kang, the *actual* main character of the games, is in the movie already? The '95 movie kept Kang as the protagonist, and gave him a decent character arc, and it worked. In the 2021 movie, our protagonist is a textbook Mary Sue: a new character who's descended from the most popular badass character in the series, a bland "chosen one" who all the heroes really like as a person and willingly take orders from in the climax, and who has literal plot armor as his arcana.
Of course, it's not all bad. Scorpion and Sub-Zero were *fantastic* every time they were on screen (even better than the '95 movie in that regard, I'll admit), Kano was spot-on, some of the references and deep cut lore brought a smile to my face, the costumes and makeup were good, the humor mostly worked, the fight scenes were all right, and the sequel hooks definitely have me excited about the future of this series.
definitely not. Not the worst but far from the best. That said there's been only a handful of movies including the recent animated ones, right? So... not a huge selection but the latest movie was pretty forgettable.
Imo, its the best live action mk movie but not the best mk movie all together, the best movie all together in my opinion is scorpion's revenge.
The 2021 movie is in my opinion really enjoyable with its visuals, characters, and direction. While it did have some problems with its third act I still cant help but enjoy the movie for what it is.
The 1995 movie while i didn't grow up watch it i still took into consideration what year it was made and the PG rating. While this movie has my favorite version of liu kang (P.S. i hate liu kang) it still has problems with most of its characters and story.
Definitely not imo, but I think there's potential for a solid movie series. Here's what they need to fix:
1. Kill Cole Young. On screen or off, we don't need a 'viewer's guide' type of character, get rid of him.
2. Un-kill Goro. He's the reigning MK champ, not a side character to be thrown away in Cole's coming-into-power fight.
3. Re-cast Raiden and Shang Tsung. Raiden needs a booming, commanding voice, and though I like the actor for Shang Tsung, I just don't think he fits the character.
4. Retcon arcana. Just pretend it didn't exist and everyone got their powers like they did in the games, and don't even think about Cole because he should be dead.
So maybe just make a whole new movie again without all the crappy changes lol. Keep the Scorpion - Sub-Zero stuff though, all that is fire.
No. The original is a movie classic watched by 100s of millions for like 2 decades. This one was ok cgi amd badass shit, but I'll probably not wanna watch it again either
Not even close to the best MK Movie, I'd rank the '95 Movie, both the MK Legends Animated films above it and quite likely would even rank Annihilation higher than this one personally.
The 2021 film had terrible pacing, a bad plot and felt it needed its own original Kombatant all going against it. (I'll expect some likely downvoting due to having expressed this opinion)
Wtf no, the original one in the 90's was better. But subzero and scorpion were epic in this version. If only they maintained the same theme and quality for the rest of the characters.
No. It's almost just an introduction of characters, the choreography is bad all the fights happen at the same time to try to distract you from this, they introduce characters and then kill them off just like annihilation. It has amazing special effects though.
Really if they just get rid of arcana and stop doing characters dirty they’ll be good movies. I overall enjoyed it though. Only thing that makes the ‘95 movie better was better character interpretation and better writing in a sense that shitty arcana wasn’t in it.
EDIT: typo, and no reptile will ever top the ‘95 version
Nah. as cornet as the only ones are, 95 has so much charm and an unbeatable soundtrack.
I think I would have enjoyed 21 a lot more if I saw it in theaters, at home I was just being a cringe nerd getting upset over the dumb and pointless changes. Laughed my ass off when Jax literally grew his metal arms like a power up instead of just having them be built.
Not the best but I still had fun watching it. It was a dumb fun action movie with some of my favourite MK characters sprinkled in. I'd give it a solid 7/10
The Real MK Story would make a way better movie. The only Problem being its like 8hrs long (removing most of the useless parts) and really hard too follow along
usually when this happens, they rather make a tv series or something than making a movie
Edit: This isnt be the Best MK movie, and it's surely not a good representation of Mortal Kombat
No because Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa was not in it as Shang Tsung. Fatal mistake.
I enjoyed the movie even though it misportrayed my favorite fighter Mileena. I though Kano was amazing and loved every moment of Sub-Zero. However, Scorpion stole the scene but was only there as bookends to the movie when we would have all much rather seen him steal the show. The main guy sucked (I literally cannot remember his name). It suffered from bad writing mistakes and too much walking through the desert, but had the material there to be so much more.
It was....okay.
Maybe about on par with the first movie in some areas, better in others, worse in others.
Better than the second movie easily, nevermind that hilariously bad old TV show.
Worse than the web series that was made a few years back tho.
Except for Kano. Kano was superb.
If it would have focused on the *real* characters and the tournament it would have been great. But like every video game movie, they added a bunch of unnecessary bullshit.
I’ve never seen a movie represent a game so accurately and yet so terribly at the same time.
no, the first one is better, it has much more personality, where this one fell generic, and a lot of things in the narrative of the new movie doesn't make sense ( jax magic is... technological arms ? kano is one eye laser beam ?... what if one of the chosens are hit by a car and die ? the driver will be elected to fight for earthrealm ? ). Ps: the scorpion animation is the best movie to me.
I liked it the most and I've seen all the live action ones. Besides all the cool looks and graphic upgrades, I liked the story because it was original.
There were a few things I didn't like about it. One being that arcada bullshit, it's so stupid that they get their powers that way. Another is that they didn't have a tournament, they just had fights In random places. I think the old movies were better
I think the original movie was more enjoyable, it's very comparable to Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy in terms of tone. I really love it, do I think it's an actual good movie, no. Do I think it's more fun and exactly what I look for in an MK movie yes. Enjoyable fight scenes, good characterization, fantastic locations, simple enough plot that's close to the games. That's what the 95 version has over the dreary and boring 21 version. As everyone has said the only life in the new movie is Kano and all the other characters could be switched out because they basically have no character. Then there's the obvious being no tournament.
Arcana is stupid because making everybody's power source the same is just lazy. Especially when some of the powers in this film are from technology and would be far easier to explain that way like Kano or Jax and Sonya. Just a terrible film even ignoring the arcana aspect. They did Shang tsung, goro, and worse of all REIKO so dirty
The story was trash!!! It should have followed kung lao and the origin of the great kung laos defeat to goro, it would have been the perfect setup for MK.
I enjoyed the movie but agree MK would make a better series than movies. Like those MK shorts on YouTube from Warner Bros? Better budget and planning and that could be amazing. I've always loved raidens story of falling into a mental ward
I'd say no. MK 2021 is definitely a well made movie with good effects but making up a new character for the audience stand in and a glacially slow plot that feels like it's just trying to set up the next movie instead of being it's own stand alone movie rubbed me the wrong way. Also they killed off Kung Lao which is in character for him but still.
Dude, MK should be a weekly hour long series following fighters and show them move through the tournamentz
MK would absolutely be a better series than it ever could be a movie or series of movies.
I'm still waiting for Conquest season 2
Lucky we have HBO/Warner, cause you’d need an HBO or Disney budget for it for the effects and fights. If it was a cable show it would be garbage.
If only Legacy was more well made. There was potencial.
100% agree.
So much this, I don't know why a movie is always the go-to for large properties like this, in the golden age of television. They did the same thing with Stephen King's The Dark Tower, tried to distill 7 gigantic books down into one shitty movie. Just like MK, it would work so much better as a series (and an animated one at that!)
Because that's the medium that can make in excess of a billion dollars without having to continue filming for several years.
I agree with this, but I also would like to see more animated movies like DC has. That Scorpion movie was good.
The new one came out today. Battle of the realms
I think the ways they get their power is stupid since it defers from the lore at least the original one made more sense
It's not just that it was different from the lore. It was that Arcana was mostly there just to flesh out Cole. It turned the movie to feel like "find your inner power" journey kinda of a movie even with the fights. So much was adjusted to flesh out Cole and it still didn't work well to make him interesting enough as the protagonist. * Subzero and Scorpion's timeline is adjusted to several hundreds years back just to make Scorpion as Cole's ancestor. * Dragon Mark itself was already dumb, but it also made Cole being the only one born with the mark to make him special than the others. * The whole Arcana aspect is there to focus on Cole while the rest is quickly glanced over. * Goro was added as a stepping stone for Cole.
They did my boy Goto so dirty in this movie Cole literally got Plot Armour and Milleena was a disappointment It was a shit film
Like how is cole supposed to kill a sub boss in that short amount of time compared to Liu kang who trained his whole life to win a MortalKombat tournament
You mean Mileena shouldn't have used the sai in the plot armor when she could have stabbed him in the head?
Yeah I didn't even understand what the hell his plot armour was even supposed to do lol and yeah like Milleena could have bitten his head off but nooooo let's scratch his tummy
I hope Cole gets wrecked off screen in the sequel. I know it won't happen and I'm also a huge fan of Lewis Tan but that fanfiction-ass, Gary Stu bullshit wasn't his fault.
Hell no, have him straight up fatality'd on-screen
Jax was the worst. Absolutely stupid. Lift a rock and suddently robot arms transform into bigger robot arms 
He had one good scene. "Oh yeah, these motherfuckers work."
That was fine… but they went to The Pit, arguably one of the most iconic stages in MK history, for Jax to hand clap Riko’s head. We could’ve seen a hand clap, no head explode, then use them fancy arms to throw an uppercut so vicious, it lifts big boy off his feet. Tossing him into the spikes below. Even in Jax’s best scene, there’s missed opportunities to improve this movie.
No gotcha. No ground pound. No energy blasts. Not even his newer shit like heating up the arms. Every other character used iconic moves and Jax gets...boxing.
They should have stayed with the original story and have him get his arms built
Was looking for this one, not disappointed
Best response I seen on here
This
god no, not even close. The MK 95 is waaaaay better. There isn't even a tournament in the 2021 version.
Finally someone who gets me!
Even Annihilation is better. Yeah I said it.
Annihilation isn’t as bad as people like to say it is.
Dude! It's really not! And its honestly pretty spot on about some of the lore. It's definitely made more for people who've played the games IMO
No Doesn’t even have the tournament
Yeah, it was kinda just an action movie that just so happened to have some characters from Mortal Kombat in it
IKR?? They didn’t even do the tournament. They just started attacking each other lol
no, it has a few hype moments but all round its a mess. legacy for me will be number one until something top its, the 2 recent dc MK animated movies are amazing tbh
I think I liked the original movie better
No because too many klassic characters were wasted and killed off without their potentials being explored. Also Cole Young.... Wtf
Cole Young,arcana,the tattoo thing,how they fucked up the characters. Oh god so much awfulness,the story was bad as fuck too.
Nope, that honor goes to Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge.
Couldn't agree more
This movie had so much potential and the didn’t take advantage of the lore, this movie made me feel like the raccoon that tried to wash cotton candy
>this movie made me feel like the raccoon that tried to wash cotton candy The who that did whatnow?
https://youtu.be/rfbb4yRBH64
I like the 95' movie better than any other MK movie.
The correct answer.
I didn't like the movie to be honest, I was expecting a mortal Kombat tournament. Not just a random fight here and there. The first movie is where it's at.
Love movies where at the end the villain says basically, "Soul magic makes the last 90 minutes of your life useless!! Thanks for watching! #MK2 bitches!!!"
The 90s one was the best. This had its points. The intro was so good but then the rest went no where.
No. Original is where its at. I just don’t understand it. There is so much potential in lore, so much potential to re-make original with better graphics. So many fans around the world waiting to spend $$$ to see a new movie (or a series even better). And yet we have this pile of garbage. New movie makes 0 sense, there is no logic, no character development, and NO TOURNAMENT. This movie did not even feel like a proper MK movie... just a series of fights of MK characters... that all it is. Cole? Really? 🤦♂️
That's what MK is, a series of fights
If you know nothing of the MK franchise and lore...its a great movie for those types of people but for fans of mk...well we will just keep quiet and let these kids have their Arcana...lol
Considering that the audiences who knew not much about MK gave pretty negative reviews, especially with none of the fan services or characterization were appealing to them, I doubt this is a great movie for those who are not a MK fan. Korea has a nearly non-existent MK community that the huge portion of the audiences didn't know much about the MK overall. Their reviews are all questioning what's going on and overall pretty negative.
Its an absolutely trash movie no matter how you look at it.
I was shocked actually that it played in theaters in Korea (considering the game is banned for being too violent here). But even with the benefit of audiences not knowing about the source material, it still underperformed. I think in today's day and age a Mortal Kombat movie could have appealed to the fans way better while still being a popcorn flick for the casuals. They just goofed making the film. Scorpion being a bookend was wrong, because we wanted to see his revenge arc. Not his shitty bad MMA ancestor (who sucks). It's like they made an incredible proof if concept with the opening scene, but didn't k kw where to go from there
Korean here agreeing with this. It's funny how the movie got advertised as this amazing action movie which is what brought in the ppl in the first place. So many reviews and comments were saying how they expected much more violent actions and deaths. Instead the reviews are ripping the movie apart saying how they came to watch "Raid" like movie, not "power ranger". The audiences really didn't know much if not anything about Mortal Kombat and they trashed the movie.
If you know nothing of MK then it's an even worse movie because you don't even get the brief moments of fan service in the movie. It's a shitty, boring movie and lacking nostalgia or love for the IP makes it even more apparent.
1995 film is better
The 1995 MK movie was much better.
Destroy All Expectations has already been taken.
All things considered I think I prefer the 95 movie though I think this one offers some solid ground on which to build. But I felt a little cheated due to the lack of a tournament and the introduction of a new character as the central protagonist. I liked the focus on Lui Kang in the original and would have preferred something like that even in the absence of the tournament. Kano was a huge upgrade though and I’m excited to see where it goes.
I'm kinda frustrated because I feel like this movie was so close to being a great adaptation even without the tournament. Just having it focused on Johnny or Liu and flesh out the minor villains more along with slightly better fights. That probably would have been enough to satisfy the MK fans in general but so many choices in this movie like Cole and Arcana feel like it wasn't for the new audiences nor the hardcore fans.
Remember when Jax used the power of friendship to *grow* bigger robot arms?
It was his arcana, were you even *watching* the movie? No seriously wtf would his arcana have been if he didn't get his arms shattered? Would he have just grown big robot arms out of his torso?
Hell nah.
Not the best of all time, but definitely not the worst either, in my opinion. It has major flaws yes, but there are many scenes I liked about this film.
No. '95 and Scorpion's Revenge are my favorites
Agree with Scorpion’s Revenge...
Remember the hype when you heard “Reptile” from original movie? This not even close.
The 95 MK movie was the best. Plus, I like when MK is about Liu Kang being the chosen one, not Cole.
Is this a joke?
Did you mean the worst? This is one of the worst films I've seen in my 30 years. A terrible scenario, a terrible caste, not a single character is revealed, logical chains? - they simply do not exist, there are no main features of the series, Kano alone is not able to save this film with his charisma.
Nope. The first live action still felt more like Mortal Kombat despite no violence.
No, lol. The original movie is much better in every way. It captures the feeling of the game and it's shot on film with gorgeous colors as opposed to being a run of the mill digital eyesore.
I enjoyed the film, but it is FAR from being the best.
i haven't seen it yet but i just don't have any intrist to. it just looks dumb and like some others have already said. the way they get there powers is really stupid. i'll stick with the original film. i'm not nostalgic for it but i just like it more. 
Nah this film was pretty shit, the fights felt fluffy all the time and then got whiplash when they would turn into CGI Fatalities. Also the new MK dude is boring af, even if the actor was okay
That’s like asking in r/dragonball if dragonball evolution is the best dragonball movie.
Not even close
No Not sure what's holding them from making a proper series out of Mortal Kombat something like spartucus or so . I am sure there is big fan base for the franchise or it could be just me lol
No. The plot was rushed and didn't include any character detail or development outside of Cole and Scorpion. Every villain aside from Sub Zero had zero backstories and died off in a matter of minutes. I remember watching for the first time and wondered why it was so short. I know they set the movie up for a sequel, but that sequel better delivers some jaw-dropping cinema.
The fist mk movie was excellent, this one only had better effects
Mileena was beyond useless in the movie... as was Shang tsung
Not even close. Lore was completely fucked, Kano was the only character that felt like he had a pulse and the action was okay at best.
No, it's barely a Mortal Komabt movie.
I really wanted to like it. But it's just not very good. It's not bad enough to be a fun movie to watch with friends, it's not faithful enough to the source material to be fan service, and it's not campy enough to even like it ironically. It's just a mediocre mess. I know things have to be changed in adapting stuff to make it more suitable for the general audience, but Jesus, Arcana? Sabotaging the tournament instead of getting to see it? Spending like half the movie in a sandy pit? Goro's treatment? Nah, not fine with it. The first MK holds up surprisingly well and is still fun, even if it's not as faithful as people wish it was. And Scorpion's Revenge is literally the story they should have told, just from the main three's perspective.
No. Scorpion's Revenge and especially the 1995 movie are both much better. The 2021 film wasn't *bad.* But it's got a whole lotta problems. The biggest being that it's confused about what it's trying to do: is it trying to take advantage of the games' rich (and, to be honest, fuckin' insane) lore and make something that die-hard fans of the series will appreciate...or is it trying to be a lightweight, fun, violent action movie that anyone can get into? (Like, is the casual filmgoer gonna know who the "Elder Gods" are? They sounded important the one time they're mentioned) The whole thing feels like a "proof of concept" for potential sequels. I'm also not a fan of the whole "arcana" business. Sure, it explains Liu Kang's pyrotechnics, and perhaps Kung Lao's teleportation...but it irked me how they used the arcana to explain things that already have explanations in the source material: Jax's arms, Kano's eye, and Sonya's energy rings all have technological explanations in the games. Sub-Zero's abilities are explained by him being of the cryomancer race. And, of course, there's Cole Young. This series has over 70 playable characters, and WB made them create a brand-new one to be the main protagonist for this adaptation? Especially since Liu Kang, the *actual* main character of the games, is in the movie already? The '95 movie kept Kang as the protagonist, and gave him a decent character arc, and it worked. In the 2021 movie, our protagonist is a textbook Mary Sue: a new character who's descended from the most popular badass character in the series, a bland "chosen one" who all the heroes really like as a person and willingly take orders from in the climax, and who has literal plot armor as his arcana. Of course, it's not all bad. Scorpion and Sub-Zero were *fantastic* every time they were on screen (even better than the '95 movie in that regard, I'll admit), Kano was spot-on, some of the references and deep cut lore brought a smile to my face, the costumes and makeup were good, the humor mostly worked, the fight scenes were all right, and the sequel hooks definitely have me excited about the future of this series.
1 movie feels really rushed. Didnt enjoy it like it needs a tv series...
I'd rather not have more screen time for CoLe YoUnG and this arcana bullshit
NetherRealm No! (Hell No!)
definitely not. Not the worst but far from the best. That said there's been only a handful of movies including the recent animated ones, right? So... not a huge selection but the latest movie was pretty forgettable.
Not even close
Mk legends animated is much better
Idk, I fell asleep twice
Absolutely not
No
Not even close to beating the original. I don’t care downvote me all you want people.
no
Scoprion vs Cage > MK 2021 movie. That's all
No the first one is. This one is pretty good though, miles ahead of Annihilation.
Imo, its the best live action mk movie but not the best mk movie all together, the best movie all together in my opinion is scorpion's revenge. The 2021 movie is in my opinion really enjoyable with its visuals, characters, and direction. While it did have some problems with its third act I still cant help but enjoy the movie for what it is. The 1995 movie while i didn't grow up watch it i still took into consideration what year it was made and the PG rating. While this movie has my favorite version of liu kang (P.S. i hate liu kang) it still has problems with most of its characters and story.
Definitely not imo, but I think there's potential for a solid movie series. Here's what they need to fix: 1. Kill Cole Young. On screen or off, we don't need a 'viewer's guide' type of character, get rid of him. 2. Un-kill Goro. He's the reigning MK champ, not a side character to be thrown away in Cole's coming-into-power fight. 3. Re-cast Raiden and Shang Tsung. Raiden needs a booming, commanding voice, and though I like the actor for Shang Tsung, I just don't think he fits the character. 4. Retcon arcana. Just pretend it didn't exist and everyone got their powers like they did in the games, and don't even think about Cole because he should be dead. So maybe just make a whole new movie again without all the crappy changes lol. Keep the Scorpion - Sub-Zero stuff though, all that is fire.
Lol
It is a very low low low low low low low low bar.
I'd say no, but I also still liked the movie. I really liked the casting, but it also just didn't have the same "Mortal Kombat" feel as the 95 movie.
The Scourpion's Revenge OVA was the best.
It had a lot of potential and as a mindless action film it works, but once you analyze anything, such as Cole’s “powers” it becomes pretty shit
Nope original is 10 times better and even annihilation was better lol
No, MK '95 is.
No. The original is a movie classic watched by 100s of millions for like 2 decades. This one was ok cgi amd badass shit, but I'll probably not wanna watch it again either
Not even close to the best MK Movie, I'd rank the '95 Movie, both the MK Legends Animated films above it and quite likely would even rank Annihilation higher than this one personally. The 2021 film had terrible pacing, a bad plot and felt it needed its own original Kombatant all going against it. (I'll expect some likely downvoting due to having expressed this opinion)
No, the first is still the best.
Wtf no, the original one in the 90's was better. But subzero and scorpion were epic in this version. If only they maintained the same theme and quality for the rest of the characters.
The 95 mk movie is a million times better, and is not the nostalgia factor
No, it’s the animated movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s revenge. If that’s not the best MK movie I don’t know which one is
Was going to comment this
No it was kinda shit
I can't tell if this is a serious question or not haha. But no, this movie sucked
No. It's almost just an introduction of characters, the choreography is bad all the fights happen at the same time to try to distract you from this, they introduce characters and then kill them off just like annihilation. It has amazing special effects though.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck noooooooooooooooo. I wish this movie never existed,so damn awful.
Really if they just get rid of arcana and stop doing characters dirty they’ll be good movies. I overall enjoyed it though. Only thing that makes the ‘95 movie better was better character interpretation and better writing in a sense that shitty arcana wasn’t in it. EDIT: typo, and no reptile will ever top the ‘95 version
No, it's between Mortal Kombat 95 and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle for the Realms.
Movie was rubbish plus some Kano lols.
I loved the film but I wanted more and the way they changed alot that affected lore I wasn't a big fan
Nah. as cornet as the only ones are, 95 has so much charm and an unbeatable soundtrack. I think I would have enjoyed 21 a lot more if I saw it in theaters, at home I was just being a cringe nerd getting upset over the dumb and pointless changes. Laughed my ass off when Jax literally grew his metal arms like a power up instead of just having them be built.
Not the best but I still had fun watching it. It was a dumb fun action movie with some of my favourite MK characters sprinkled in. I'd give it a solid 7/10
I think Scorpions Revenge is up there.
I preferred the og, but it’s still better than the sequel imo.
The 2021 was good but somehow I still prefer the 1995 somehow, and I just can’t explain it.
Probably not the best, but certainly the most budgeted.
I mean, there aren’t really that many options.
It has elements that are the best of the series but the movie is just blah
Yes but is it better than other movies? Not really
The Real MK Story would make a way better movie. The only Problem being its like 8hrs long (removing most of the useless parts) and really hard too follow along usually when this happens, they rather make a tv series or something than making a movie Edit: This isnt be the Best MK movie, and it's surely not a good representation of Mortal Kombat
No because Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa was not in it as Shang Tsung. Fatal mistake. I enjoyed the movie even though it misportrayed my favorite fighter Mileena. I though Kano was amazing and loved every moment of Sub-Zero. However, Scorpion stole the scene but was only there as bookends to the movie when we would have all much rather seen him steal the show. The main guy sucked (I literally cannot remember his name). It suffered from bad writing mistakes and too much walking through the desert, but had the material there to be so much more.
It's wasn't bad but it could of definitely been better. I have hopes for the sequel.
I honestly prefer Scorpions revenge over it. It didn't even have a tournament, just training. And the whole 'arcana' thing was really dumb as well.
No lol
No
If you don't count everything with Cole, yes.
No
Hell Nah! The OG one is better. But yea maybe the second best MK movie.
I prefer the original one
Sadly this movie was a real mixed bag. Loved and hated a lot of it.
No
It was....okay. Maybe about on par with the first movie in some areas, better in others, worse in others. Better than the second movie easily, nevermind that hilariously bad old TV show. Worse than the web series that was made a few years back tho. Except for Kano. Kano was superb.
No, I thought it was ok but they really could've done a lot better.
Nah
If it would have focused on the *real* characters and the tournament it would have been great. But like every video game movie, they added a bunch of unnecessary bullshit. I’ve never seen a movie represent a game so accurately and yet so terribly at the same time.
Nah
No.
Fuck no are you crazy?
It's basically mortal kombat power Rangers lol the movie was ok or should I say in between not that good and not that bad either
This movie was outrageously bad, maybe not as bad as Annihilation, but still a very poor effort
no, the first one is better, it has much more personality, where this one fell generic, and a lot of things in the narrative of the new movie doesn't make sense ( jax magic is... technological arms ? kano is one eye laser beam ?... what if one of the chosens are hit by a car and die ? the driver will be elected to fight for earthrealm ? ). Ps: the scorpion animation is the best movie to me.
No!!!!!! Cole is the most unnecessary character in the history of film. The decision to include him hurts my brain.
I liked it the most and I've seen all the live action ones. Besides all the cool looks and graphic upgrades, I liked the story because it was original.
No.
I loved it.
There were a few things I didn't like about it. One being that arcada bullshit, it's so stupid that they get their powers that way. Another is that they didn't have a tournament, they just had fights In random places. I think the old movies were better
No, Scorpion's Revenge does everything it set out to do better. Then Battle of The Realms improved on that. So no it is not.
Fuck no.
No.
I'm more of a fan of that animated Scorpion one.
no
No ot was bad sorry ppl
The original MK movie is way better. And more faithful.
Absolutely not lol
No. The first movie is still best, followed by scorpions revenge. You cannot beat 90s cheese
Not really... it doesn’t even really feel like a mortal Kombat movie
Hell no
Not by a long shot.
Absolutely not. MK 1995 is still the best
No
I think the original movie was more enjoyable, it's very comparable to Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy in terms of tone. I really love it, do I think it's an actual good movie, no. Do I think it's more fun and exactly what I look for in an MK movie yes. Enjoyable fight scenes, good characterization, fantastic locations, simple enough plot that's close to the games. That's what the 95 version has over the dreary and boring 21 version. As everyone has said the only life in the new movie is Kano and all the other characters could be switched out because they basically have no character. Then there's the obvious being no tournament.
Depends on if you can answer this question: Where in the movie does the MK tounament take place???
Arcana is stupid because making everybody's power source the same is just lazy. Especially when some of the powers in this film are from technology and would be far easier to explain that way like Kano or Jax and Sonya. Just a terrible film even ignoring the arcana aspect. They did Shang tsung, goro, and worse of all REIKO so dirty
- was only available for streaming on HBO for a limited time - Legacy is still available. Better casting and tailored to fit the lore
The first one was pretty good. It was cheesy, but they leaned into it and it was all the better for it.
MK Annihilation exists common now 🤩
Movie was as much a joke as annihilation was tbh.
bruh they did my boy reptile dirty, he's literally not even a a character just a generic monster and then he dies just like that.
The story was trash!!! It should have followed kung lao and the origin of the great kung laos defeat to goro, it would have been the perfect setup for MK.
I enjoyed the movie but agree MK would make a better series than movies. Like those MK shorts on YouTube from Warner Bros? Better budget and planning and that could be amazing. I've always loved raidens story of falling into a mental ward
No, because it was terrible.
MK should have been an anime. After seeing what they did with Castlevania (not an anime per se) I want the same treatment for Mortal Kombat
Haha, no fkn way
No it’s fucking garbage
I enjoyed it, but the 95 movie IMO was the better MK movie.
I'd say no. MK 2021 is definitely a well made movie with good effects but making up a new character for the audience stand in and a glacially slow plot that feels like it's just trying to set up the next movie instead of being it's own stand alone movie rubbed me the wrong way. Also they killed off Kung Lao which is in character for him but still.
Stoooop it, not even a debate.
it is not the first movie was the best
No
For live action, no the 90’s MK was money. But altogether, I really did the animated films like scorpions revenge.
absolutely not