Mortal Kombat II

Asgardians aren’t gods they’re aliens in MCU

Thats funny because Paul WS Anderson directed the original MK and Resident Evil.
I know Ed Boon took inspiration from the original MK and changed parts of the game to match the movie ie Kano being Australian
Meanwhile the only influence the RE movies played on the games in the laser room from the first movie making into RE4.

Race baiting in a franchise like MK is beyond stupid. It has always been incredibly diverse. Tons of cultures represented across the board. This is a problem in the recent games too. They keep making previously white characters Asian, even when they don't need to.

That’s because MK has a very simplistic story as a video game that was easily turned into a tournament movie and all you had to do was add some flair and characterisation that was missing from the SNES games due to the limitations of the hardware and genre. Resident Evil in comparison by the time the movie came out already had tons of characterisation, lore and (overly-)complicated and convoluted story that required a lot of streamlining and compromising so naturally it failed to have similar impact even if the movie certain levels of success. And the only truly compelling and iconic thing about it was the laser room. The AI shit in comparison wasn’t.

I'm pretty sure abandoned that idea because Valhalla is shown to be a thing. Then you've got the Crocodile and Hippo Egyptian gods in Moon Knight. And Gorr The God Butcher.

They keep making previously white characters Asian

The only example is Sindel and maybe Raiden who was named after a Japanese god and based on a Chinese guy from Big Trouble in the first place if you want to consider race to matter with him.
Kitana's original concept was "Kitsune" who was Shang Tsung (then Shang Lao)'s daughter so she was always Asian-y and Mileena is her twin/clone. The real problem with those two is these movies making Mileena black and casting a different Asian actress as Kitana for some fucking reason.

Following the film, Ed and co have always been cool about winking and nodding to adaptations. Scorpion's "real name" being Hanzo Hasashi comes from the MK: Rebirth short, which was just a pitch.

this sounds very bland for mk. wtf

For sure, I wouldn't argue on the inspiration. I just mean, you don't HAVE to pivot after you've done it one way for a while. No one was accusing MK of not respecting these different cultures enough, they just decided to do it for themselves. That was my only point. You're right tho, I was mostly thinking Raiden and Sindel. But also, they made Rain sorta... south asian? Same with Quan-Chi in the latest game.

They abandoned it later when MCU was successful. Early on MCU was very scared to weird out audiences so Asgard didn’t do magic it was technology that’s akin to magic etc. and made potshots at its own expense via dumb jokes so that nothing was too serious

Quan Chi was made a mortal, too, so he had to have some race before he got all the pigment spooked out of his skin to make him the classic chalk white. Him being brown does make it more visually interesting when he gets skin-bleached by the specter.

I don't understand this trend that has wormed its way into all major franchises where you have to show every aspect of a characters origin on screen. Felt there was no reason to explain why Quan-Chi has... white skin? He's a spooky necromancer. Why is Pinhead chalk white?

MK lore was always hacky orientalism tripe. Just focus on the casting with some good fight choreography and action sequences.

Resident Evil in comparison by the time the movie came out already had tons of characterisation, lore and (overly-)complicated and convoluted story that required a lot of streamlining and compromising so naturally it failed to have similar impact even if the movie certain levels of success.

They didn't even try with the RE movies.
The first MK movie had the COMPLETE roster of characters from the original game (Lui Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya, Sub-Zero, Kano, Raiden, Scorpion, Goro, Shang Tsung).
They even included Reptile (a hidden character) AND Katana, from the second game.
The first RE movie includes NONE of the characters from ANY of the games. No Chris, Jill, Barry, Rebecca, or Wesker.

Does this movie at least have a tournament?

Me watching the first movie waiting for the tournament to start:

youtu.be/CFBmIwlrPdY

Quan Chi was played by Richard Divizio (OG Kano) in the subzero game and MK4, then in the PS2 era they kept his big Italian nose and sort of reinterpreted it to make him look south Asian.

Why is Warner Bros fucking up would could be a long term franchise with money making potential?

You could had have asked that question at any time anywhere in the past 25 years. I have no idea how they are still around.

Kitana main character

Oh, we are still doing this shit in 2025 and will continue until Tencent picks up Warner's pieces.
At this point I made peace with the fact NRS and MK will be Chinese owned by the end of the decade.
Frankly I am just tired of it all but it would had been cool if WB had allowed the team behind the animated movies to tackle this instead but you know Warner, if there is a way to repel the audiences, they will go with that.

The RE game series became a lot more action oriented from #4 onwards.

And the Capcom 3D films are pretty much like the Jovovich movies but starring the actual game characters.

OP here-- my understanding is yes, the actual tournament happens this time. "Arcana" stuff is still present but way deemphasized.

This film was greenlit shortly after the first film's run, around 2021-2022. Shooting stalled because of strikes, but the film still wrapped in January of last year. The fact that they didn't rush it out and are testing it heavily means they are more concerned with giving it a good chance at success than some pump and dump. Kitana as the lead probably read as a much better idea just a few years ago.

I'm still annoyed that they filmed Legacy season 3 and never released it

fancast

You have to realize that actors whose careers are on an upward trajectory won't do this shit

Quan Chi's original origin was as an oni that learned sorcery.
He was made a magicless Outworlder in the new world by Liu Kang to make him humble and harmless. He's literally just a guy that was taught spells and taught how to get back into his old role as leader of a bunch of demon assassin ladies because Shang Tsung is a dick who wanted to fuck with Liu's world.

Correct, you really need unknowns. Works fine because the IP is the draw. Mortal Kombat is a known series, even for non-gamers. If they racked up a couple hits when restarting the franchise, they could have attracted bigger talent later on.

Liu Kang is a fuck ass weirdo. Shang Tsung's world has powerful evil versions of characters who are loyal to Shang, proving that Liu could've let his enemies still have a good life, but make them work for good instead. He decided to make them small dick losers out of spite.

He also made the younger Sub-Zero Scorpion AND THEN HE FUCKS OG SCORPION'S WIFE. Cuck universe.

I think the reboot cast was mostly fine. It was the plot and focus on OC Cole that failed.

A fighting game can easily include multiple characters in a tournament setting because the barebones plot and combat matches setup makes it easy to do so, especially when you can also write out people after a defeat so the cast is never too bloated.

It’s way harder to find a way to incorporate multiple different characters who don’t organically fit together or have a place in the type of storyline you’re doing in the movie. Plus with RE the ever changing cast and survival element of the core appeal makes it more sensible to use original, entirely disposable characters you can just kill off. I’m not a huge fan of the RE movies in general but the first one made understandable and decent choices that largely worked and made sense.

I agree, Josh Lawson's Kano was a high point. Great choices for Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Sonya. Raiden kinda sucked. And Shang Tsung had no presence. That was partially shit costume design and writing tho. Black Mileena followed by Asian Kitana in the sequel is also stupid.

They started production on the first movie in like 2018/19, those 2 actors were unknowns back then. Keanu would have been your only marquee actor

Black mileena is especially weird, since if they wanted a dark skinned villainess, Tanya is right there. Makes me wonder how well people in the writing and production process actually know the IP.

The original script? Very little interest in the games. This is where the chosen one dragon tatoo and Cole Young as a descendant of Scorpion shit came from. Greg Russo, who eventually inherited the script, knew the games and tried his best to reconfigure some things, but the script clearly suffered from about 10 years of bloat, rewrites, tinkering, etc. Seriously, Oren Uziel was working on the script around MK: Legacy.

Eh, I think you're making excuses for the filmmakers not giving a fuck. It's 5 fucking characters. It's not hard.
The movie Aliens exists. It's one of the main inspirations for Resident Evil.

Alpha and Bravo team are your disposable kills to satisfy audience bloodlust and raise the stakes.

Jill and Chris are your co-leads.

Barry is the older mature mentor who keeps the hotheaded Chris in check.

Chris can even be in a flirtatious love triangle between Jill and Rebecca.

Wesker is your company man sabotaging the mission from the inside.

This film was greenlit shortly after the first film's run, around 2021-2022.

I am surprised that piece of shit did well enough for a sequel to be approved that fast given it was Dragon Ball Evolution with 20 minutes of MK references.

The reputation of the franchise is in a very delicate position as of now given how poorly MK11 and MK1 were handled. Early buyers got fucked right in the wallet, and while UMK11 shaped up as a good game in the end, MK1 launched almost immediately after with plenty of problems. MK1 is a bad a game with an even worse story mode and it amplified all the issues of MK11 to the point I ignored the game but remained hopeful NRS would fix the game similarly to UMK11 but it seems MK1 will be abandoned soon enough taking with it the good will the fans had on NRS and it is not NRS fault, it's Warner's.

The worst part is that NRS knows what the fans want and WB Games won't let us have it.
Similarly, this movie also sounds like dogshit the executives wanted and not a product made to be enjoyed.

Yeah I don't know why there's a RE apologist in here. Anderson didn't even fucking try and he admits that, he just took "zombie and underground facility" and then did his own shit. You could 100% make a good film out of the source material.

It's weird how much the reboot references Annihilation, of all things.

magic dragon birthmarks/tattoos

characters must learn how to use their arcana powers, like how Liu Kang had to learn how to use animality

no actual tournament in the story, but in the penultimate fight the heroes decide to split up and 1v1 the villains

They should had changed Cole with Kai, presto.
Kai is the other Lui Kang like OC from MK4, they did not even need to make Cole and I would had liked that better.

10 years

And it is just dragon ball evolution and the fuckers have the nerve to go on striker every other month.
All writing should be done in Korea or just let LLMs handle it.
Total Writer DEATH.

Yeah I don't know why there's a RE apologist in here

NTA but as someone who grew up with the PS1 RE games and RE4, I really liked the live adaptations .I had a blast watching them with my siblings and friends on theaters.
They were goofy and campy in a very enjoyable way. I am a fan of Milla Jovovich kino.

Meanwhile the lore accurate CGI movies were boring as shit to watch and not exactly better:
youtube.com/watch?v=Ki9TniAUA1Q
You really don't play RE for the story.

Something like Dead Space would make a decent movie as a 1:1 adaptation.

I hear you. To be clear, MK11 sold incredibly well. But yes, with MK1 the backlash from players was far more pronounced (in contrast to MK11, which seemed to play really well with casuals). WB has made it known they'll only be working on 3 IPs when it comes to gaming: Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat and Batman. I think the next MK game will be a make or break moment, and a clear indication of what the future of the series will be. While not directly related to the success of the games, the film's reception will matter as well.

I’m just explaining the basic logic how adapting things work. Especially in the 2002 era. You take elements that seem the most appealing (hence the basic RE2 setup everyone loves that works well for a movie and allows more logical ways for the story to unfold without major contrivances and lore bs) and make them fit the overall original story frame that is suitable for a single movie without any type of grand decade long franchise roadmap plan from the start. You don’t try to be 1:1 with the games because that’s not doable. Of course with every new sequel where there is no planning and just big splashy climax twists at the end this creates more problems down the line but that’s a different matter.

The first Resident Evil movie is a zombie flick where nearly the entire cast has to be killed in order for there to be stakes and tension. Most of the characters won’t be having much character development or time to shine. Why waste familiar characters by immediately killing them off? RE at that point had gone through like half a dozen different POV protagonists, and they changed in every game so you don’t even have one specific character that really has to be in the movie and you’re just pissing off fans when their favourite isn’t in it.

Could they have done it better? Sure. But the first movie didn’t do anything particularly wrong or egregious when the job is to adapt something like RE that doesn’t easily translate to a standard survivor horror action movie without needing tons of changes.

RE absolutely can easily translate to a standard survival horror action movie without tons of changes. Team goes to mansion, picked off by zombies. Other team shows up to investigate, split up, pursued by zombies and horrendous creatures, mad scientist reveal, evacuate, set up sequel in Raccoon City. I could be describing any zombie/monster/horror film here. In fact, I am describing several. I don't take your point. I think Anderson just wanted to do his own thing. Not because he needed to.

Cole dies in first 20 minutes

Only good part, but Johnny Cage was always a fucking garbage character.

Not watching it unless they bring back my favorite Chinese actor, Christopher Lambert

The 2021 movie is a good example why that kind of approach doesn’t work. In fact there’s countless bad horror movies that show going to a place and presto, monsters, doesn’t translate to a good movie. If the 2002 movie had RE1 cast it wouldn’t have made it any better. Of anything people would be complaining how out of character everyone is and how wasteful it was by killing all but one of the cast

Don't forget the 90s-00s were full of adaptations that were trying to modernize the source material.

Blade is regarded as a great superhero film now but it's sort of a terrible adaptation. Comics Blade is British, wears regular clothes and is just a regular vampire hunter who is immune to vampire bites. The movie made him American, gave him the cool all black outfit, and added the half vampire powers and an OC mentor.

The last four Mortal Kombat games include story modes that are essentially full CGI movies. Makes it feel a bit futile to still make movies out of this franchise.

Difference is that comics Blade sucks.

I don't want to further derail the thread here, but I guess I want to say that the most recent reboot isn't a good example of why a faithful adaptation doesn't work. That film is an example of what happens when you watch a YouTube playthrough of the game and write scenes based on what you're seeing.

To use Mortal Kombat as an example: you don't need to make things 1 - 1 with the game for it to be "faithful." In the game, Reptile was not a lizard creature thrown into a statue that turns into a ninja. But his appearance somehow still felt like that surprise hidden boss battle from the original MK.

You don't have to do everything beat for beat, and you can still find ways to make the drama and tension work better on screen. But it is silly to pretend there isn't a middle ground between a tweaked adaptation and a completely different cast of characters, setting, and frankly, vibe.

It's just funny to me how Mileena was cast as some black lady and offed without a care in the first movie when she's by far the most popular female character in the franchise

The first sucked cock. why would you think this sequel 5 years later would be better?

First, Nice Trips.
Second, FFS just give us a Kollection.

Restore the old MK Kollection that was Steam, it went down because GFWL shut down and WB Games did not bother to update the game or MK9 on PC for that matter. I was lucky I grabbed MK9 right in time before it was delisted. A second Kollection with MK Deadly Alliance, Deception and Shaolin Monks for newer systems and online play would be great. We have been asking for a re-release of those games since forever.

That's really what the fans want, afterwards maybe something like Shaolin Monks 2 or something.
I genuinely miss Konquest mode.

black Mileena

asian Kitana

What the fuck are they smoking?

You sound like the executives who are fucking up the movies. There are things you can explore in a film that you can't in a game. You are bound by very different rules. You can tell a dynamic and interesting story that pulls from the best of the game and disregards the limitations of the medium. That is basically exactly what MK 95 did.

Wesley Snipes Blade was definitely inspired by what Blade looked liked in 90s comics.

Hell, Blade showed up in Spider-Man TAS years before the movie and its almost exactly like the movie.
youtu.be/QecIfnKauWA

We have been asking for a re-release of those games since forever.

No, "we" have not. They were pretty bad games in their time.

Insane that in this time of remasters for a quick buck, we don't have the arcade games or the 3D era games playable on modern consoles at all. Konquest mode is fucking killer. The Krypt in MK11 got me so pumped up. MK1 removing it altogether was one of a million reasons that game sucked.

Sydney Sweeney

ahahahahhahahaah

Who gives a shit if they suck? Remasters are in right now. Pay some mobile games company $10/hr to upscale some textures and sell all three for quick cash. I will not lie and pretend I wouldn't buy those for some quick nostalgic fun even if the gameplay sucked. I'd still have more fun than playing MK1.

Who the fuck wants lore accuracy in a tournament fighter game movie? You want a decent enough story with good fights, that’s it. The second story becomes emphasis it gets bad.

Remasters are in right now

Not of crap nobody wants to buy.

Todd Garner, producer of MK2021 and the upcoming MKII, is that you???

he doesn't like the idea of a slutty big titted Sonia Blade

Glen Powell

lmao

They were bad because they were home console exclusives when SF was still on the arcades so those games were not really explored. Fans have been asking for those with online play for years, I have too.
Armageddon on the other hand did feel half assed.

Its all just nostalgia bait, people will pick up anything for the novelty of it. Bethesda hasn't had a good game out in about 20 years, so they decided to butcher Oblivion and loads of fuckers ate it up.

Mortal Kombat is about a tournament!

A bunch of casuals in here. The tournament was only really a thing in the first two MK games and only one guy died in those two tournaments (Sub-Zero I).

At least the cunt looks like what they've done with game Cage, better than fucking old man Urban

Fans have been asking for those

No they haven't.

I might not have liked Cole on principle, but it's still mean to kill him off. The man has a family. Just have him lose his powers and send him back home.

You want a decent enough story with good fights, that’s it

Too bad it is neither this nor that at the end.
It is shit made by hacks and the end product is only seen solely because people recognize the brand.
Movie studios are riding on the coattails of people with actual talent that made a good product because if the "talent" associated with the movie had any REAL talent, they would be doing an original IP instead ripping off a game studio.

Oblivion is a cult classic and people actually wanted a remaster of that.

Motherfucker, just visit any MK forum or talk to anyone at EVO or anywhere greasy FGC fans hang out.

I think that comes more from the backlash against the recent film being about the tournament almost happening until the film just ends. Any story in the world would be nice, but if you're going to do the tournament film, perhaps the film should feature a tournament.

Kitana main character

I can call anything a cult classic and then say "people wanted it" and I'd be just as right as you. That is sorta how this whole thing works. So I'll go next:

MK Deception Konquest mode is a cult classic, people ACTUALLY want a remaster of that.

Cult classic

Nigger, that game was the Skyrim of its time.
Mainstream as fuck.
The joke here is that Bethesdrones would sooner buy the same game again even if it is a bloated mess with no mods sooner than playing Starfield.
Imagine how bad Todd handled Starfield that even his fanbase doesn't want it.

That out the way Mk Trilogy and Deception are cult classics.

You're a pathetic wuss.

actually MK1's story was a sort of remaster/retelling of DA+D+A's konquest modes

Nobody cares about such a small minority.

Dude less than 1 percent of the fanbase wants remasters of the shitties mk games you can just emulate. They should spend millions to sell 10 thousand copies of shitty games 99 percent of the fans won't touch or care about

You are such a stupid fucking nigger

Mainstream as fuck

Yeah that was kind of the point I wanted to make, it had a lot of fans and those fans still hail it as one of the GOAT games.

HAHAHA. No, MK1's story was a fucking disaster multiverse shitshow trying desperately to capitalize on the most interest moments from those games (and failing.)

Oh look, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung are teaming up again! Wow, they said "Armageddon" and are fighting on a pyramid! Holy cow, did they say Damashi?

Why are you all whining? Killing that cole retard and making Johnny Cage 2nd lead is good stuff

If they're going to toy with Shaolin Monks, they should just make a spiritual successor Fire+Ice/Fire+Smoke or Edenian Twins co-op beat-'em-up instead. Or Reptile+Baraka or Ashrah+Sareena or Deady Alliance or any of the other pairs they have to play with.

Those games' stories are worse disasters, anon. You're just blinded by nostalgia.

Didn't say they weren't, but I'd say MK1 doesn't even come close to what few highlights those games had. You can't convince me otherwise and I'll be super clear why: Multiverse. Always. Sucks.

MK1 finally had Mileena, Baraka, and Reptile as more than disposable minions so...

Multiverse. Always. Sucks.

There's a smooth brained response. That's like me saying every plot element of some sort always sucks. Your a nigger brained retard.

things you can't say about the LGBT

less than 1 percent of the fanbase wants remasters of the shitties mk games you can just emulate

First of all, you stupid mouthbreather cum juggling clown, don't pretend you have hard data on that, faggot.
Those games never had online play and people do want to play them plus the investment to make them happen is minimal.
You are retarded enough to pass as a warner executive.

Nah they're cringe. Youre just a zoomer who grew up with multiverse slop so you don't know any better. It's not your fault

Baraka just becomes an even more useless plot device for Mileena's benefit. Reptile literally has the same story (motivated by the struggles of his race) but now works for the good guys instead.

Are you high? They are nothing alike.
Like the other anon said, at most you have allusions to those games.

MK1 is a shitshow but it did not have to be like that.
Setting MK1 at the time of the first tournament and have the game based on mythology (men vs monsters) would had been cool but everything about MK1 reeks of executive meddling.
Nobody likes Pisstaker, much less the fucking show.
NOBODY asked for Homelander or Omniman.

They remove all stakes, for incredibly obvious reasons. And in MK1, as is often the case in stories that use the multiverse as a plot device, they repeatedly make it clear that it means nothing that happens to anyone really matters. Obviously this is broadly true in video game/comic franchises anyway, but I mean in the immediate sense. The scene you're watching is often rendered completely hollow. The game leans into it to such an extent that they are constantly reminding you nothing matters and its fine. Two Scorpions? One is from another timeline or something. Everyone is the ultimate villain in some timeline, idk. Guys can be girl versions instead sometimes, who cares, etc etc

Chris can even be in a flirtatious love triangle between Jill and Rebecca

Canonically Chris is gay tho

Those games' stories are worse disasters, anon.

Deadly Alliance begins with Shang Tsung straight up murdering Lui Kang outside the rules of the tournament and the plot centers around Raiden trying to stop Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's plot to take over Outworld.

Deception has Shang Tsung, Raiden and Quan Chi temporarily team up as they fuck up big time and revive Onaga. The actual plot happens in Konquest mode which introduces an entire lore dump worth of characters with distinct motivations and it is the second best MK story-wise after MK9.

MK1 merely lost the plot.
It is neither set in the distant past as MK11 hinted.
It is a shitty version of COIE
Nobody knows what the fuck should a Titan do and what the fuck even happened to the Elder Gods?
Titan Shang Tsung in MK11 is all powerful but in MK1 is less imposing than Shao Khan any other day.
Any playable character beats Shang Tsung and NRS did not even bother to boost the final boss like they did Shao Khan in MK9.

Fact of the matter is that you do not know shit.

I'm 37...

I don't want to wait

Capcom only let them make resident evil if they did their own thing or they wouldnt have got the rights hence they invented alice for their films.

The entire time I was thinking on how to fix MK1 shitty plot and I came up with the following:
Instead of a multiverse slop story, adapt something like Twilight of the Gods.

Lui Kang is a phony God and while attempting to create his perfect timeline, he imprisoned the Elder Gods at the dawn of time similarly to what Kronika did.
Onaga is the only character left aware of the changes made to reality from Armageddon to MK1
While Lui Kang fights splintered timelines Onaga sets on a mission to free the Elder Gods.
The Elder Gods return and cast down Lui Kang, then seize the hourglass.
Before the Elder Gods destroy all timelines and start a new, Lui Kang convinces the Elder Gods to at least try some of them to prove their worth in Kombat setting up a new tournament.
The plot twist is that Onaga wins but the Elder Gods decide to merge 3 of the remaining timelines (we aren't told which) and afterwards the hourglass is shattered and reality moves onward.
Onaga is made the ruler of outworld by the Elder Gods which includes half of Earthrealm as gratitude for their freedom.
Lui Kang is a mortal once again.
Earthrealm needs to win the next tournament before it is fully consumed.

Movie starts with Raiden receiving the message from future self

Dropped. Sounds fake and gay.

Kitana main character

No Sub-Zero

Noob shows up in last 15 minutes

Scorpion only shows up at the end

The ninjas are, like, the only reason I would watch that shit, and they aren't even there now? What kind of Mortal Kombat is that?

the first one was total dogshit and this one has the same director?