 |
| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
What a world we live in, when the
summer movie season features no less than TWO hotly anticipated Mortal
Kombat film releases! After years of ups and downs, when it comes to the
quality of both the games and their film adaptations, the franchise is
undeniably riding high right now, following the release of Mortal Kombat II in
May. That latest cinematic installment was a huge hit with fans, delivering
exactly the type of kombat, karnage, and attitude (with just enough
tongue-in-cheek humor, thanks largely to Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage) that we have
been hoping to see on the big screen for years.
And now, perfectly timed to act
as a victory lap after MKII’s box-office success, Arrow Video is
delivering a 4K UHD and blu-ray limited edition box set, giving their lavish
boutique treatment to the original Mortal Kombat film from 1995, as well
as its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997). Mortal Kombat (1995)
set the gold standard for video game movies, proving that a film adaptation of
a game genuinely could be good, and could deliver something that fans would
love. Annihilation made that seem like a fluke, reinforcing in the mind
of naysayers the wrongheaded idea that “there’s no such thing as a good video
game movie,” although over the years it has taken on a certain disasterpiece
cult status. In both cases though, the films absolutely seem worthy of the
boutique treatment. So let’s dig into this Kollection, and see if it’s a
flawless victory, or a game over.
THE FILMS:
Mortal Kombat (1995):
It is no exaggeration to say that Paul
W.S. Anderson set the standard for video game movies when he made 1995’s Mortal
Kombat, and was the first to prove that it really could work. Before this, Super
Mario Bros had been a notorious critical and commercial disaster, with its
odd “be as different from the source material as possible” concept backfiring
spectacularly (although it has grown into a beloved cult classic over the
years, with that whacked-out strangeness being the very thing it’s beloved for
– and I’ve always been a huge fan, even when that was a hot take). Double
Dragon came and went without anyone really noticing, greeted with an
ambivalent shrug and a consensus that it’s pretty bad. And Street Fighter was
a huge hit at the box office, but a critical punching-bag which for years was
used as a punchline when talking about how awful video game movies can be
(though again, it has been reappraised in more recent years as a camp classic
that is fully self-aware in its silliness, and I love it). Mortal Kombat,
on the other hand, fully understood the central appeal of the source material,
knew exactly how to translate that to the big screen, and even managed to give
us one of the most iconic and genre-redefining movie soundtracks of its decade
in the process. This wasn’t just a very successful video game movie, this was
an era-redefining action movie. As a kid who loved the video games and had been
eagerly awaiting the film, it was everything I had hoped for and more. As an
adult and a film critic, revisiting the film 31 years later… it is still a damn
good movie: just the right blend of well-made and gleefully silly, of serious
action and camp. It genuinely works.
A huge mistake some video game movies
make is trying to run from the inherent video-game-ness of them, or hide that
behind plot elements unrelated to the game. Mortal Kombat does the
opposite, fully embracing its video game origins, and making the most of them
as a central feature. The opening act of the film introduces us to our various
fighters, sets up the concept of the tournament (in a way that faithfully
embraces the games’ lore), and establishes a bunch of visually stunning,
immaculately art-designed “levels” where the fights can occur. Liu Kang and
Raiden’s plot thread introduces us to the lore, Johnny Cage’s plot thread
introduces us to the hard-hitting action and winking humor, and Sonya Blade and
Kano’s plot thread introduces the key stylistic choice of pairing the action
with loud, cool needle-drops. Then when all the characters converge and find
themselves at the tournament, we are introduced to the sumptuous visuals of
Shang Tsung’s island, which is a character unto itself.
But while it embraces the
video-game-ness of it all, Mortal Kombat also understands how to adapt
it into cinematic language that will work even for those who have never played
the game. While it is very faithful to the source material, it also remixes it
as basically an unofficial remake of Enter the Dragon, which keeps it
accessible to action movie lovers who are not gamers. That Enter the Dragon
similarity also helps guide the movie’s approach to action. The one area where
this film is controversial among fans of the games is its rating: Mortal
Kombat is a hard-R, violent series of video games, but the film is PG-13,
which means that it can’t be entirely faithful with regards to the games’
iconic fatalities. It manages a couple – thanks especially to Sub-Zero, since
if a character is frozen solid, they can’t bleed enough for the MPAA to be mad
about it – but in terms of violence, this is a much tamer Mortal Kombat.
But taking inspiration from Bruce Lee’s similarly structured
martial-arts-tournament classic (and inspiration from Hong Kong action films in
general) offers a solution: what the movie lacks in gory special effects, it
more than makes up for in hard-hitting, impressively choreographed martial arts
action. The combat in Kombat is very very good, with fights and stunts
that can hold their own alongside any other notable action film of the day. The
film’s special effects are also (mostly) fantastic, with the elaborate
animatronics used to bring the four-armed Goro to life being particularly
impressive. The movie may have some dodgy early CGI (looking at you, Reptile),
but it also has some excellent CGI, such as Scorpion’s hooks, which are brought
to life in a spectacular way.
Paul W.S. Anderson is a very strong
audiovisual director. He has a fantastic eye for art design and shot
composition, and a music video director’s sense for how the soundtrack works as
an integral storytelling component. This ultimately is the true key to Mortal
Kombat’s success, as the movie consistently looks and sounds absolutely
thrilling, and sweeps the viewer along with vibes that are just as integral to
the experience as the action. One could gripe that the plot is shallow and
superficial, the characters basically just archetypes, and the whole thing
rather silly – and none of these things are unfair criticisms – but none of
that really matters, because in Anderson’s confident hands, the movie sells it
all with vibes and energy and an infectious sense of fun. The script is good
enough for what it needs to do, if a bit broad. The cast is solid, doing their
best with the fairly broad material and one-dimensional characterization. Robin
Shou, Bridgette Wilson, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Trevor Goddard and
Christopher Lambert are all extremely fun and memorable, and totally understand
the assignment, with just the right amount of scenery-chewing. And Anderson
ties it all together with visual panache, pacing that never lets up on the
thrills, and an expert understanding of just how much a banger soundtrack
elevates popcorn-movie action.
It took years for any other filmmaker
to adapt a video game to screen nearly as successfully as this. Even Paul W.S.
Anderson himself struggled to replicate what he accomplished here: his Resident
Evil movies were undeniably a huge success, and they have their devoted
fans, but that series is a bit more in line with Mario Bros in the sense
of being a dramatic departure from the source material which is largely just
its own thing. What he captured here is kind of lighting in a bottle: a very
successful distillation of what fans love about the games, and also a movie
that works beautifully on its own. Fans may now be debating which is the better
film, 1995’s Mortal Kombat or 2026’s Mortal Kombat II, but this
movie was the reigning champion for over 30 years, and has earned its status as
a classic, of both video game movies and action cinema.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997):
And then this film comes along, and
immediately stops the franchise dead in its tracks. Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation stands alongside Halloween 5 as a cautionary tale of
what happens when a studio gets greedy and wants to get more money out of a
surprise box-office hit as quickly as possible, rushing a sequel to screens far
too quicky to do it right. The goal here was not to make the best possible
sequel to Mortal Kombat; the goal here was to make a sequel to Mortal
Kombat as fast as possible, no matter what. The result is one of the most
calamitously terrible major studio blockbusters ever made. Some fans now
embrace it as a disasterpiece ironic camp comedy, but I still think this film
is wretchedly terrible, to the point of being difficult to sit through.
Everything that the first film does so
well, this one sabotages. Most of the action is sloppy and loose, clearly the
result of being shot far too fast to pull off any good or interesting
choreography. The soundtrack is much weaker this time, and does not match the
first film’s iconic combination of action and pounding electronic music. The
story and mythology collapses in upon itself, making very little sense at the
best of times, and occasionally becoming borderline incoherent. And while the
first film is successful thanks to Paul W.S. Anderson’s impeccable control over
visuals and pacing, OG-film-cinematographer turned first-time director John
Leonetti’s work is messy and lacking vision; an inexperienced director trying
and failing to keep control of a sinking ship.
What is most shocking about Mortal
Kombat: Annihilation is that it is a substantially more expensive
production than the first film, but appears in every way to be far cheaper.
Visually it is a sloppy mess, with ugly and unconvincing digital compositing
and a sickly color grade, both of which look unfinished (and according to
behind-the-scenes reports, probably are unfinished). The special effects are
awful this time around: there is some truly abysmal CGI to be found throughout
(those animalities…), and the two major “boss” characters, Sheeva and Motaro,
both look shockingly cheesy and cheap, compared to how spectacular Goro looked
in the first film. Motaro, the centaur, in particular is comically bad. Aside
from a couple quick shots in his one and only fight, we never see him move; he
is always just standing still, his horse body and back legs clearly an
inanimate prop strapped into the actor. It’s the kind of goofy
non-special-effect that you would expect from a microbudget film, not a major
blockbuster.
All of these flaws come back to the
same one root problem that doomed Mortal Kombat: Annihilation right from
the start: there was simply not enough time to make this movie any good.
Producer Lawrence Kasanoff was determined to get the second Mortal Kombat
film into theaters a mere two years after the first, in a misguided attempt to
strike while the iron was still hot. With no script, no story, and no vision
for exactly what this sequel should be, the production team was stuck with an
impossible problem: needing to go from literally nothing, to a finished film in
multiplexes everywhere, in such a punishingly short window.
Paul W.S. Anderson had no interest in
coming back for a sequel under these conditions (or possibly at all), so the
first film’s cinematographer was promoted to director, despite clearly not
having the experience to helm a film under such tight time constraints. Almost
the entire cast dropped out as well, with only Robin Shou as Liu Kang and
Talisa Soto as Kitana returning. Everyone else was recast, always with inferior
results; even veteran character actor James Remar is pretty terrible as a
recast Raiden. The newcomers to the cast generally fare even worse, with
supporting-villain trio Musetta Vander (Sindel), Deron McBee (Motaro), and
Marjean Holden (Sheeva) aiming for scenery-chewing villainy, but landing in
cringy pantomime camp that provides more unintentional comedy than menace.
Go-to 90s-television villain actor Brian Thompson (The X-Files, Buffy the
Vampire Slayer) does a respectable job of bringing menace and gravitas to
the role of Shao Kahn, but stuck with a clearly-rubbery costume and
embarrassing dialogue, the character still ends up feeling more like one of the
mid-budget TV heavies he’s used to playing, rather than the big bad of a major
blockbuster film. He never comes remotely close to rivaling Cary-Hiroyuki
Tagawa’s creepy but charismatic Shang Tsung in the original.
The odds were against this production
from the start, and director Leonetti and company could not pull off the
miracle that would have been required for it to be any good. Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation is a train wreck. It’s up to the viewer whether it is an
enjoyably campy, lovably bad train wreck, or just a miserable one to sit
through (I think it’s the latter, but I know it has its appreciators), but it’s
a train wreck either way. Annihilation
quite literally did a fatality on the Mortal Kombat franchise, and it
took over two decades before we would see another theatrical film. I can think
of very few cases where the first film in a franchise is so good, and the second
film so terrible.
- Christopher S. Jordan
THE ARROW LIMITED EDITION:
Mortal Kombat:
The question on everyone’s minds
regarding the new 4K UHD disc of the first Mortal Kombat film shot on
35mm film in 1995 is, for such a CG laden effects and color heavy film with
vistas that are at once still pioneering as well as antiquated, can Paul W.S.
Anderson’s iteration truly benefit from the 2160p upgrade? Having seen it over the years on laserdisc
and DVD formats, it came as a shock just how strong this new Dolby Vision
mastered restoration truly looks.
Colorful and saturated with warm reds, oranges and purple hues, the set
pieces remain extraordinary and the 4K presentation preserves the ornate and
expansive production design beautifully.
One area which was curious was the use of CGI which one would fear looks
somehow worse or more dated when processed through the 2160p rendering. Thankfully, many of the digital effects of
Raiden transporting himself through bolts of lightning around the set look more
polished with the deeper black levels of the Dolby Vision playback. Some of the creature effects like the
digitally rendered Reptile still look kinda tacky and of the Brett Leonard era
of computer-generated imagery but the light and contrast levels of this release
are so good they hide the seams that were somehow much more noticeable on the
DVD edition. Sound wise the film is
offered in original DTS-HD 5.1 surround as well as lossless stereo and the 5.1
mix with the thundering theme song everyone is familiar with comes across
powerfully on the soundstage.
In terms of extras, Arrow Video have
ported over two archival featurettes detailing behind-the-scenes footage of the
production but what fans will really want to dive into are the two newly
recorded audio commentaries with PWSA and comic book podcaster Dave Baxter as
well as four newly-filmed interviews with some of the key cast and crew members
including Johnny Cage actor Linden Ashby, cinematographer and Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation director John R. Leonetti, producer Lawrence Kasanoff and
creature suit effects performer Tom Woodruff who had just come off of Alien
3. Also included are original
trailers and an image gallery of production photos.
Of the interviews, all of which were
fascinating for differing reasons, the two which stood out in particular were
John R. Leonetti’s and Lawrence Kasanoff.
As Chris Jordan will mention, Leonetti stems from a longstanding
Hollywood lineage dating back to Singin’ in the Rain and is plainly very
proud of his background and still speaks highly of Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation. In contrast, producer
Kasanoff is much more down to Earth and economical, speaking of the uphill
battles in getting the project to be taken seriously by executives who balked
at it altogether and were shocked when they had a hit on their hands. Speaking of Annihilation, Kasanoff
points to there being ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ and that for all the
extra money spent some of the more elaborate effects shots were more or less
unfinished despite going into theaters.
Linden Ashby and Tom Woodruff are fun to listen to but the dichotomy
between Kasanoff and Leonetti’s versions of the story surrounding Annihilation
was indeed telling.
As a tidbit of fan service, Arrow
Video and other boutique labels rereleasing older films have been making
concerted efforts to make the disc menu for the film interesting again. Back in the DVD era, menus were animated or
had footage and full motion video in the background and for some reason the
Blu-ray era has mostly done away with the practice, preferring generic menus
with blank and boring buttons for the playback or chapter selection options. In the case of Mortal Kombat, however,
they’ve put together one of the coolest and most exciting disc menus in years
if not for the 2020s. In a supercut set
to the title track opening the film which itself became a radio hit, the menu
cuts between key highlights of the characters being mentioned in sync with the
song lyrics. The result takes a film
some might’ve either loved or hated or found mediocre, whatever your stance,
and supercharged it into a synergistic and dynamic little piece of video film
editing. The Arrow Video team, whether
you like this film or not, absolutely 100% gets the appeal not only of Mortal
Kombat but for the home video collector’s justifiable longing for the
slickly and cleverly designed disc menu.
This little menu playing on repeat until you select the film is a
pitch-perfect appetizer to this time capsule of 1990s martial-arts driven
videogame-to-film action.
- Andrew Kotwicki
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation:
The second Mortal Kombat film
also comes to us from Arrow in a brand-new 4k restoration from the original
negative, this time approved by director John R. Leonetti. The restoration
looks fantastic – if we’re talking about the technical quality of how the film
has been translated from negative to 4K UHD, and not the aesthetic of the movie
itself. Detail is sharp and crisp, the image looks filmic and not overly
processed, and the colors and contrast really pop. The purple-heavy color
palette of Outworld, and the strong usage of shadows, really benefit from UHD
and HDR. However, this fantastic technical presentation also serves to strongly
underscore what an ugly, ugly film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is, much
of the time. The shoddy compositing, hideous digital skies, atrocious CGI, and
ugly, weirdly cheap-looking character designs are put under a microscope when
the film is made to look as clean and sharp and crisp as it possibly could.
Arrow has done stellar work in their technical presentation; their great work
just makes clear how not-great the original work on the production was.
The extras on the disc are excellent.
The three new interviews are all fascinating, and they make me sincerely wish
that I could enjoy the film more than I do. Sindel actress Musetta Vander
describes the film as a wonderful experience to make, and describes the cast
and crew as a wonderful group of people. Her stories about her work on the
character, her time on the international production, and the role it played in
her career are all very interesting, and make it clear that Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation was a far better experience to act in than I find it to watch.
The interview with stuntman J.J. Perry, who plays Cyrax, Scorpion, AND Noob
Saibot in the film, is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in martial
arts cinema and stunts. The interview is more about his career in general than
just this film, and it is filled with fascinating tales and anecdotes about the
stunt industry and martial arts movies. And the interview with composer George
S. Clinton is likewise essential – and interestingly, much more about the first
film than the sequel, as he wrote the music for both, and clearly was just
recycling ideas the second time around. If you’re a music-lover, and especially
if you admire the first film’s iconic score, hearing him talk about how he
developed that mix of techno beats and taiko drums is fascinating, and he also
has some great tales of working on the score with guitarist Buckethead. This is
one of those cases (as I mentioned in my review of Arrow’s disc of Spawn)
where I genuinely enjoyed these extras more than the film itself.
The disc also has two commentaries,
although they are not as good as the interviews. The commentary with comic book
expert and podcaster Dave Baxter is pretty interesting and full of cool
details, but it’s still held back by the reality of how he’s talking about a
pretty bad movie. And the commentary with director John R. Leonetti feels much
more like an interview than a conversation, and is pretty stiff and dry.
Leonetti also still seems to very much be in PR mode when discussing the film,
and doesn’t get entirely honest and tell his side of the story about what was,
according to others, a notoriously messy production; he is definitely trying to
put a more positive face on it. There are times when he gets more honest, and
either reveals some juicy details or comes very close to some and then pulls
back (he does come right out and say that Christopher Lambert didn’t return as
Raiden because the studio did not want to pay him what his contract from the
first film stated he’d earn for sequels - yikes), but in general, the track is
more guarded and PR-ish and less candid than I’d like. Also, weirdly Leonetti
does not seem to be aware that that is not Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage in the
opening scene, and is a lookalike replacement actor instead, which seems to be
an indication of the director’s apathy towards the film that he’s bringing to
this track.
While I didn’t enjoy the commentaries
as much as the interviews (and again, that may have more to do with my feelings
about the film itself), overall this is a very nice special edition for a
not-very-good film. Arrow have done admirable work with the transfer, and the
interviews especially are excellent. Fans of the film – or even detractors who
just want to learn more about the production and the people who were caught up
in it – should find much to like here.
- Christopher S. Jordan
