Ep 85 - Mortal Kombat (2021)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Mortal Kombat 2021. When Earth's realm is at risk of losing their 10th straight tournament with the Outworld, Raiden waits until there are mere days left before finding out if the warriors of our planet can rise to the challenge and save our souls from enslavement. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Completely overrated. [00:00:28] Speaker C: Hello everybody and welcome back to R Rating. The show where I get together with a coup of my buddies, we take a movie franchise, break it down by individual movie, give it an overall score, and then throw them back up on the board to see where it lands compared to the other movie franchises. This week we are talking about mortal Kombat from 2021, the rebooted version. And I'm joined as always, by Brian and Will. Brian, how are you doing this week? [00:00:49] Speaker B: I'm doing great. Dan, how are you doing? [00:00:52] Speaker C: I'm doing very well. I didn't need full screen on that one. Apparently I'm doing very well. [00:00:58] Speaker B: First thing you do, zoom in. [00:01:00] Speaker C: I apologize, I must have missed that memo. I must have missed that mem. How are you? Doing well. [00:01:05] Speaker A: I'm doing well. Always a pleasure to be here. [00:01:07] Speaker C: Excellent, excellent. Now, Mortal Kombat, this one, 2021, obviously a reboot of the classic franchise, which is of course a movie for adaption of the classic video game franchise. I'm going to start this a little bit differently. Did Will, did you play Mortal Kombat growing up? Is this a favorite of yours game? [00:01:25] Speaker A: So I didn't have the Sega Genesis growing up and that's when it was originally released on sega. So. So I had to go to friends houses to play this, which meant I wasn't very good initially. But I got to watch, you know, my friends do all the wicked sick finishing moves on me. So that was fun. And then I played them off and on throughout the years, mostly just to see some fun finishing moves. [00:01:49] Speaker C: Very nice. What about you, Brian? [00:01:51] Speaker B: So I remember walking from my grandmother's house to 711 where they had the big arcade box of Mortal Kombat. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Nice. [00:01:58] Speaker B: And I would stand trying to peek between the big kids so I could see the screen. And I would actually bring quarters and give it to the big kids so that they could do the moves because I didn't know the moves. And they would do the fatalities and stuff for me just so I could watch. I was that into it. I played almost every single game that is released up through 10. And after that I haven't played anymore because 10 was kind of a let down for me and I. I kind of just grew. It was just a Repeat of this whole thing every time. [00:02:33] Speaker C: That's still very far in the franchise. Like, I. I made it to like 4. So the fact you got to 10 is pretty good. I played a couple of them here and there throughout. But like one through four, I played a lot of. And then I kind of fell off the franchise a little bit here and there. So is it Mortal Kombat 1? Like, not. Not the original one, but I think they made a newer one. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Instead of going Mortal Kombat 1, right? [00:02:53] Speaker C: Yeah. But it had like a decent story. Right? Like, it was kind of like doing the story of 1, 2 and 3. One game. [00:02:59] Speaker B: The. The more recent releases of the video game, they've done a pretty decent job incorporating story elements into it. Not as good as they did in this movie. [00:03:09] Speaker C: Well, [00:03:11] Speaker B: but yeah, story elements into the video game. [00:03:13] Speaker C: Nice. I am gonna. I just stopped for one second. Just real quickly. Brian, you made a joke just a second ago. But I did miss it. Do you not want me to go big screen with you or you? [00:03:24] Speaker B: I don't care. It doesn't matter. I am holding a bad face day. I've got a cracked lip. I forgot to shave. I haven't showered in two days. I've actually got grass clippings on me from the waist down, but you can't see that. So I. I don't care. [00:03:35] Speaker C: I normally would, but I didn't want to upset you if you were actually like, dude, what the. So you look. [00:03:40] Speaker A: You look good to me, Brian. You look good to me. [00:03:43] Speaker B: I'm not so worried about it. I don't actually care all that much, but yeah. [00:03:47] Speaker A: May I ask, you guys played Mortal Kombat more than me? Obviously, like went through multiple games, whereas I just touched here and there. [00:03:56] Speaker C: Sure. [00:03:56] Speaker A: Did you guys actually play like the one player story mode, the tournament, or did you only ever play like multiplayer? Because that's all I played. So the story isn't my like forte on these games. [00:04:08] Speaker C: So the first couple of games, the story is basically non existent. Like it is just like a ladder mode that you go through and then when you get to the very end, it's like Sonya Blade managed to defeat Shao Kahn and brought whatever to her family and good for her second story. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:25] Speaker C: So like I kind of somehow always knew that like Sub Zero killed Scorpion's family and everybody else is just kind of pissed off at each other. Like Kano is a criminal and Sonia's a cop. But like, like super basic stuff. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:39] Speaker C: It wasn't until significantly later in the franchise where they Started, like, really putting in a plot line and, like, trying to actually connect the fighters in some meaningful or unmeaningful way. But I did. I did enjoy whichever Mortal Kombat 1. I think it is called Mortal Kombat 1 that did kind of have a storyline. Like, you play for one fighter for, like, four or five matches, and then it would jump to the next fighter, and you play with them four or five matches. But it would continue on the story as opposed to just being like, this is Sonya Blade story. It's like, no, this is Sonya Blade's part of the bigger story. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:05:08] Speaker C: I liked that quite a bit. Unfortunately, in this movie, we get. No, none of that. We don't even get a tournament. We don't even get a tournament. One of the major things I wanted to touch on. You already kind of jumped on it is like, what is Raiden doing in this movie? Like, [00:05:26] Speaker B: what an absolute fail. [00:05:27] Speaker C: It made me weirdly nostalgic for the 1995 edition, where at least he's, like, trying to bring them together and trying to help them. This one, he just shows up. You're like, oh, you guys suck. Yeah, you guys suck. He comes back, like, 20 minutes later. Oh, you still suck. Yeah. All right, we're gonna lose. And, like, that's all he does the entire movie. Like, why did you get these people together three weeks beforehand? [00:05:47] Speaker B: And then after, like. Like, Shao Kahn comes and tries to beat him up, and he gets his. Like. Or no, Goro comes to beat him up at his house, and he gets his gold suit. And then Raiden's like, that was all part of my plan. Thanks for making my warrior tougher. You're. You're a fucking blowhard. You didn't do. [00:06:04] Speaker C: Dude. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:07] Speaker C: His superpowers is getting beaten up. Like. Like, he's got, like, a suit on. [00:06:12] Speaker B: He's literally getting beaten up. It's so dumb. [00:06:15] Speaker C: Good for you. [00:06:18] Speaker B: Raiden's superpower is to use his best move after. He should have used it, like, every time. He's like. He's like, we're now in a realm where Shao Khan can't reach us or, you know, not. I keep calling him Shao Khan. What's. What's the big guy's name in this one? Shao Kahn's the other. The king of. Of the other place. Can't reach us here. And I'm like, why didn't you do that in the first place? [00:06:46] Speaker C: Right? [00:06:46] Speaker B: You could have put them there and trained them until the tournament started. Instead, we put up, like, this stupid barrier thing. You're dicking around the whole time. You don't even help them. You don't train them. You don't do anything. It was such a waste of time. [00:07:00] Speaker A: The plot holes with Raiden are so crazy in this movie. Even at the end, he's like, I'll just teleport you guys and your enemies on a one on one battle in a tournament like fashion, just so you guys can take them out one by one. Why wouldn't you just teleport them away from Earth in the first place? When they came to Earth to kill all the humans? Like, it didn't make any sense. [00:07:25] Speaker B: I don't know. Teleport the bad guys above the spikes in the pit and drop them. I don't see anything. There's so many things you could do with his ability and he doesn't do with it. [00:07:35] Speaker C: Teleport all five of you to one enemy, beat the crap style, move on to the next one. [00:07:40] Speaker A: I know, I know. [00:07:41] Speaker C: Why are we being honorable here? [00:07:43] Speaker A: So funny. It was. I mean, it is one thing I understand. Raiden wants to be honorable, but in the end, he still breaks the rules of before the tournament anyway. So like, it's just like the, the, well, horseshit plot in this movie is just almost laughable, but just so cringe worthy because they're so serious about it all. [00:08:07] Speaker C: They. I think he makes mention. I mean, Shang Tsung says it first where he's like, there's nothing against having conflicts before the tournament. And is that Raiden's way of just being like, oh, you're right, there isn't. And that's why he does it. Like, where. Where does this loophole come from? He all of a sudden just accepts and it's like, yeah, okay, let's go. Let's go for that. [00:08:23] Speaker B: I think it's an absolute oversight in the. The writing. The. The whole story. It's just. I'm not even sure if it's oversight. I. I think that they were just like, I don't care. Let's just. This isn't what people are here for anyway. They're here for the fight scenes and the fatalities. That's what they want. They want the Easter eggs from the video game. And you know what? We did get that. We got some pretty decent choreographed fight scenes. I think it was better in the beginning and they got worse as the movie went on. [00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah, hit. [00:08:50] Speaker B: And we had some pretty cool fatalities. Unfortunately, it was like all the fatalities was. In fact, most of the characters in this movie were like the D list characters from the video games, right? We only had a couple of. Of mainstays. And, and aside from Scorpion and Sub Zero, like, like Raiden sucked. You know, Shang Tsung was. He looked like. He looked like. I don't even want to say what he looked like. Like, there were issues with a lot of the characters in this movie that were really bad. [00:09:23] Speaker C: So, yeah, I dare I say it. And I'm gonna make some people in the audience pretty happy when I say this, and some others probably pretty mad. I think some of the casting was better in the 95 version. Like, the movie looks better now in 2021 because obviously things have just gotten better. Has a bigger budget and whatnot. But the 95 version, as much as we rag on it, like, Christopher Lambert's Raiden was pretty good. The actor who plays Shangchi was incredible. The, the. The fact that it had some semblance of a plot where it's like, hey, we're gonna get the fighters and go here and fight in a tournament. And then that's what actually happens. That'll just keep telling us about stuff that we're going to maybe see in the next movie like this. In a weird way, I don't love the 95 version. I love the soundtrack. I kind of was just watching this being like, man, I kind of wish you were watching the 95 version. [00:10:08] Speaker B: And they didn't even give us the [00:10:09] Speaker A: soundtrack in this one. Come on. Movie. [00:10:11] Speaker C: They threatened it a couple of times. There's a couple of times where it gets close and it's just like, just give it to me. Just give it to me. [00:10:19] Speaker B: I will say there were. There were a couple times when they had like these bass drops and beats and dark tones that created a scary vibe, a real intense feel. But sometimes they overdid that a bit to like, they're like, oh, hey, you're supposed to feel like this is an intense moment. And I'm like, well, if you just show me an intense moment, maybe I'd believe that. Right? Overbearing music. I did like some of the sound, but I. It was a bit off putting at times as well. Yeah. [00:10:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:50] Speaker A: Okay, well, let's get to the elephant in the room here, guys. [00:10:53] Speaker C: Oh, [00:10:55] Speaker A: what's your take on this Cole Young character who is not in any [00:11:02] Speaker B: of the video games? No loss. [00:11:07] Speaker C: I don't know why they spent so much because, like, okay, so it starts off with Scorpion and Sub Zero, and some people are like, okay, we know this story. Why are you giving us the one thing we know? Give us something new I. I think that was actually one of the better scenes in the movie is the opener. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Agreed. [00:11:20] Speaker B: Yes. [00:11:20] Speaker C: I really like both those characters. And then they give us this brand new character we've never seen before. They never really get to the point where they make him cool or fun or relatable. [00:11:29] Speaker B: Literally gets his ass kicked. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Or likable. [00:11:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Or likable or reliable or anything. [00:11:35] Speaker C: Like, he just is this character. And like, I kind of understand if you want to have that stupid character that you have to explain everything to because we, the audience might not know what's going on. So here's your character you can explain something to, but you could have had that been Jax. And he also just doesn't know what's going on. Like, nobody seems to really know what's happening. Sonya Blade is also just doing this, like, Mad Men thing with, like, the pins on the board, trying to figure out what's going on. Like, none of our heroes know what's going on. Thanks, Raiden, for figuring that out for us. So why did it have to be this brand new character who has no charisma whatsoever? Why isn't that just a player in the game? Hell, make it Kano. Kano was incredible the entire movie. Every time he's on screen, I was laughing. I had a good time. Have that be our in. And he's a drunk who doesn't know what's going on. So you can easily explain everything to him. And he's funny while he does it. Like, that is your star. Run with it. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Cole Young was the biggest downer of this whole movie. And it's unfortunate because he's the guy we're supposed to be like, oh, yeah, I can relate to this guy because I also don't know what's going on. But he was just a wet noodle. And I. I don't know about the actor. The actor's probably a fine actor, but this character and development or lack thereof, was just so painful to watch. [00:12:57] Speaker B: And. [00:12:57] Speaker A: And of course, we can throw back to like, the original Mortal Kombat movie where it was pretty much like, what's his name? [00:13:06] Speaker B: The. [00:13:06] Speaker A: The freaking Hollywood guy. He was that kind of role of like, okay, what is this? Let's figure this out. And now we get him next movie. And they teased him all, yeah, Johnny Cage. They teased him all this movie. And now we're getting him. And this movie actually made me want to watch the next movie less. [00:13:26] Speaker C: Oh, see, I'm the opposite. I'm the exact opposite. I feel like this movie wasn't good, but it had a lot of potential. And I'm hoping that they can take all that and make the next one, which theoretically should be about the tournaments. And it's got Carl Urban, who I really enjoy, and he's gonna be the Johnny Cage, theoretically, the main character. Like all of the advertisements for this are pointing us towards Carl Urban's. Johnny Cage is the lead. So, like, you fix the fact there's no tournament. You fix the fact that I now know who the main character is in the gaming realm. Like, if you just give me the good fight scenes with something I actually can sink my teeth into, even a little bit. Even a little bit of seat sinking, I might actually enjoy the next one. [00:14:07] Speaker A: I see where you're coming from. I guess for me, it just makes me so angry that this was their plan. Their plan was this was an intro crap movie to get you excited for the next movie. And it's so blatant. And then they, on top of that, find Urban to. To star in it. And he's like, so amazing. And I'm like, you had all of that ability in this one. They did it in the 95:1 or whatever. Like, it's gonna be the 95:1 all over again. Only updated actors and updated graphics. [00:14:46] Speaker C: I'm gonna, I'm gonna like, that's kind of what I want. I kind of want a 95 one again with better graphics. [00:14:53] Speaker A: They could have given that to us already. And that's what pisses me off. And I'm like, your second movie, I'm out of here. [00:15:00] Speaker C: I will agree with you 100 on that. There's no reason this movie needed to exist. This, the. The next one, assuming it is what we want it to be, could have easily been the first one. And like, okay, you don't know who Cole Young is. Great. I watched an entire movie, I still don't know who Cole Young is. So, like, that's not really a factor. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah. What about you, Brian? [00:15:17] Speaker B: What are your thoughts here? I. I want to know, is there anything about this movie that you guys did like? Because I do have several things actually did enjoy about this movie. Do you guys have anything, any redeeming qualities here? [00:15:29] Speaker A: Sure, there's probably a couple. [00:15:34] Speaker C: I'll go, I'll go. I'll go again. I liked the opening scene. Like the entire Japanese scene with Shank Scorpion. Sorry. And his family sub zero coming in. It wasn't perfect, but it was probably the best looking scene in the movie. Well choreographed, well done. I enjoyed that aspect of it. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Overall. [00:15:56] Speaker C: The movie looks pretty good for what it is. Ah, it's might. That might be about the extent of it, unfortunately. [00:16:05] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Yeah. Shoot. I was still looking for stuff. [00:16:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:12] Speaker A: What did I. [00:16:14] Speaker C: Okay. [00:16:15] Speaker A: I didn't mind the casting. As far as looks. The casting was fine. I thought they all kind of looked like the characters. And I actually thought Sonia Blade did a pretty good job. [00:16:28] Speaker B: Really. [00:16:29] Speaker A: I thought she was good at, like, she seemed like a Sonya Blade. Like, she's very on top of it. She's gonna get this done. She's, you know, a militant type person. I felt that fit the role of what I know of Sonya Blade. [00:16:45] Speaker B: I. I disagree. I felt she. She seemed, like, needy, and she was always after her birthmark, you know, her little mark. And let's not get into that. Like, she. She. She felt like she needed, like, approval or something. And I just didn't picture that from Sonia. I would have appreciated her character going in there and being like, I don't need your mark to kick your ass. That is what I wanted to hear from her. I didn't feel that. I felt like she really did want it, and Kano knew that and was taunting her about it too. And it was like a plot point, and just. She just felt kind of wanting, like, needy and. And I don't know. I. I didn't like her character at all. I mean, you're not wrong. [00:17:24] Speaker A: It was very scripted and very predictable that. That storyline of her and Kano, but they didn't have the same Kano, Sonya backstory or friction from, like, the previous installment. Right. Like, right. So they had to take this angle to have them still butting heads. It was really wonky. And I. I agree it wasn't a good story element, but I just thought, like, she was fairly badass. She was one of the most competent fighters there, and she did get the job done. So I appreciated that. Whereas, like, Jax was like, I'm in the movie now. I'm out of the movie, and nobody really cares about where I am or what I'm doing or what happened to me. Oh, and I'm back in the movie, and now my metal arms are growing as we speak. So, like, that is a horrible character compared to Sonya. Looks really good to me. I don't know. [00:18:15] Speaker C: She looks good by comparison. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Flexing with his arms crossed. Showing off his arms, like, the whole movie. [00:18:20] Speaker A: Like. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Like, we get it. Your arms are gonna get ripped off. We know it's coming. We get it. We get it. Like, it was over the top. [00:18:28] Speaker C: Yeah. I thought it was pretty Funny seeing him with his little, like, baby robot arms. Just like, oh, my goodness. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Kato made like, does that come in adult size? Like, that was so funny. Oh, my God. KANO absolutely stole the show from start to finish. I love every scene he's in. I love the actor, love the character. Love that he gets his laser eye first and beats everybody over the head with that. Like, I got mine first. That was fantastic. Loved the character, loved all that stuff. I didn't mind Jax. He was clearly, like, just there to show off his arms. Like I said, I didn't like Sonya. The one thing that I really did like about this movie was that they gave a reason for some people to have, like, laser beams or fireballs and stuff, which was. It was cheesy. It was cheesy. But I've never seen them do it in any other movie that made any kind of sense. And in this one, it was like, hey, if you're chosen to be a combatant, you can gain an arcana, is what they called it. Yes. And your arcana will come out after you've had your ass kicked enough or you get angry enough or whatever. And it comes out. I kind of like that it had a structure like that. Because before we just had people who. Some people could shoot laser beams and some people could just punch somebody in the balls. And that was about it. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:44] Speaker B: You know, and I didn't like that. [00:19:47] Speaker C: It was interesting to me that, like, Liu Kang, who knew exactly what to do, and maybe that's it. Maybe he knew how to control it better. Like, hit Kano with a fireball. That did literally nothing to him. [00:19:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:57] Speaker C: And then Sonya has those rings and put a hole through somebody like, Fatality. Right off the bat, you're just like, oh, okay, so these are not all made equal. Good enough. [00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Liu Kang was training kano, so he did a light fireball, right? He really. [00:20:13] Speaker B: Well, he did have the big fire dragon in the tar pit. So, you know, he went Super Saiyan there at the end. But I just like that they gave us some structure to the rules, which we didn't normally have in some of the other movies. And that always irked me. It. They just, like, some people just had superpowers and they acted like that was normal. And in this movie, they took people who were normal out of a normal world and they put them into the world of Mortal Kombat and gave structure to it and gave us reasons why, you know, some people are shooting laser beams now. So. Yeah, I. I like that part. [00:20:45] Speaker C: While we're Talking about the arcana. I do have a quick question for you because maybe I missed it. We didn't talk like we normally do. This is my second time watching this movie. I don't know if you guys have seen this before or often. The beginning scene with Scorpion and Sub Zero, obviously Scorpions unlocked his arcana and knows exactly what he's doing. He is overpowered for a good chunk of his movie. Scorpion they describe as being the like, best fighter of his time or the best ninja in Japan. He doesn't have an arcana though. Right. Even though he does have the symbol on his arm or did I miss it? [00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't see a symbol, but he was like barely covered for most of it, I think. [00:21:22] Speaker C: I thought we did see a symbol on his arm at the like. [00:21:26] Speaker B: Yeah, he's dead washing something. Yeah. And he's got it on his wrist. That's right. Yeah. [00:21:30] Speaker C: So he's got the symbol. He's a massive, like, legendary fighter. So much so that we still care about him like throughout generations. Like Sonya Blade has a picture of him somehow. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Yeah. He also lives in hell for 300 years. For some unknown reason we don't really understand. [00:21:45] Speaker C: Maybe that's it. Maybe the teleportation to hell was his arcana kicking in just like. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah. It kept him alive and well and without aging. Although something. Yeah, age either. Which is weird. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I thought. I thought that stuff was weird. We didn't get explanation about Sub Zero or Scorpion. The aging. I. I thought about that too. I was like, wait a minute, this Cole Young kid is like 30 generations down the line or something. How is Sub Zero still not any older than he was? [00:22:15] Speaker C: I mean, cryogenically freezing just like built into him. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:19] Speaker C: Just like every other. You don't need me. Just. Yeah. Maybe I'll come back when I'm needed again. [00:22:25] Speaker B: That was another thing I liked. I liked the look of Sub Zero. I liked the look of Scorpion. I like the way they went with that. The Sub Zero outfit was a bit bulky and a bit much. Kind of looked like a Batman suit a little bit. Still look cool, though. I mean, it just looked cool. It's not supposed to make sense, but it looked cool. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Young's outfit, I'll tell you that. [00:22:46] Speaker B: Cole Young's outfit was done well. He was a cross between the Mummy and the original Iron Man. Like, what was that? It was dumb. [00:22:55] Speaker A: It was literally rubbery. You could see it in different. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah, you could see, like when you bend over, you can see it fold up and stuff. I was like, come On. That's terrible. Just paint on a bodysuit or something. [00:23:05] Speaker A: On the arcana thing, I don't fully disagree with you, Brian. I think it was cool that they kind of invested some time into why these mortals have this like supernatural powers. But in the. And correct me if I'm wrong, in the video games, it was like Sonia and Jax and whatever that idiot. [00:23:26] Speaker B: Johnny Cage. [00:23:27] Speaker A: No, Striker. Right. He was in one of them. They were like these militants who had high tech technology and that's what they used for their superpowers. And a Cato had like a freaking cybernetic eye. When he lost his eye, he had that put in. So like the powers came from the mechanical workings and cybernetics and all this high tech. In this movie, cybernetics is arcana somehow. And Jax's metal arms or magic, like it, it, it. You can only take it one way or the other so far. And it really like fell apart when laser eyes come out and Jax's bulky arms grow. It. It just. It didn't feel right to me. Although I like the take of the arcana. I didn't like that at all. [00:24:18] Speaker C: Yeah, that's actually a fair point because you could have easily had him. Like, because they think of the game, he like shoots something out of his hands, like a little. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever. [00:24:26] Speaker C: You could have that be his power. And just the fact that he has metal arms that are already strong from the military grade stuff. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:24:33] Speaker C: It still works, even though they're not technically his arms. That's a fair point. Actually. I didn't really think of it in that way. But that's not. I like that. [00:24:40] Speaker A: Monks building him cybernetic arms that look like little chicken wings. I don't know, that seemed weird. [00:24:47] Speaker C: Agreed. No, I definitely hit up against that. I was like, this is dumb. But okay. [00:24:54] Speaker B: Now is this was the other night, the first time you guys had seen this movie? [00:24:59] Speaker C: It was my second. [00:24:59] Speaker A: That's a great top. Great question, Brian. I thought I had watched this movie a few years ago because I was like, oh, it's free on prime or something. I was like, okay. You know, the. And all the previews are just like the Scorpion and Sub Zero stuff. I was like, okay, it looks kind of cool. Sub Zero's powers look pretty sick. Which they were. [00:25:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:19] Speaker A: And then we started watching the movie and I was like, what, Cole Young, what the hell am I watching? And I realized quite quickly that I had never laid eyes on this catastrophe. [00:25:34] Speaker C: Spoilers for later, I guess. What about you, Brian? Have you seen this before? [00:25:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I watched it when it first came out, because a big fan of the game and I remember enjoying it for the tie ins to the game. And I went in with very, very low expectations. And so I had a good time watching it. I re watched it this time and I was like, wow, how did I. How did I sit through this movie the first time? Because Cole Young ruins the film for you. He's just terrible to watch. It sucks that he's the star of the show. He has no tie ins with the game. Never does have a. Like they don't even bring him into the franchise later. He's not even canon after this movie. It's terrible. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Win a fight on his own. [00:26:18] Speaker B: He doesn't. Yeah, it's horrible. Yeah. His wife has to help him be [00:26:22] Speaker A: Goro of all people. [00:26:24] Speaker B: It's crazy. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Prince Goro was such a waste in this movie that. [00:26:30] Speaker C: That's another thing I wanted to touch on again going back to 95. The first time you see Goro, he is like ripping some dude in half. Like you see him murder a couple of people I think including somebod kind of care about not a main character, but like somebody we kind of care about. It's like he is a goddamn threat in this one. He just kind of shows up in his garage and like. [00:26:49] Speaker B: And he looks terrible. He looks terrible in this movie. Especially when they do the close ups of his face. He looks like some sort of knockoff abomination. Like some you would see like a fan made video of the Hulk or something. Like it was just not good compared to the other stuff where they're adding in the blood and the stabbing and the weapons and stuff. They add that in with cgi. They did a pretty decent job of making that look pretty good. But the, the Goro in this movie was such a letdown. Like that was. The problem is that most of the stuff that I wanted to see either wasn't in here or they did a really bad job of it. The only good things they did was the fight scenes with Sub Zero and Scorpion. And we've seen that to death. I wanted to see something new. I didn't want to see Cole Young new. You know, I wanted to see some other characters that weren't D tier. Like what was the guy with a hammer? [00:27:40] Speaker A: Like? [00:27:41] Speaker B: Major, major letdown. I don't remember what his name was, but he was terrible. Right? And. And then when they got to pick the fights at the end, it's like Jax is like, yeah, I'm gonna fight the guy with the hammer. You'd think he Would want to get his revenge for having his arms ripped off instead. No, let me take the goofy guy who doesn't have any cool skills at all. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Oh man. Though that was Nathan Jones who we saw previously in Mad Max Fury Road as Erectus or whatever his name is. [00:28:15] Speaker B: The big, the big brother. Yeah. Of the Js. [00:28:19] Speaker A: He was much better. [00:28:20] Speaker B: He was much better in Much better Mad Max. Yeah. [00:28:23] Speaker C: Had something to do, if you will. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, [00:28:29] Speaker C: yeah. I, I, Okay. So out of curiosity, you keep saying that the Scorpion Sub Zero thing has been done to death. They're on the same team in the 95, if I remember correctly. Right. They're both working for Shao Kahn. So they don't fight in that Bad guys? [00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [00:28:43] Speaker C: And then do we, I never really saw Annihilation. Do they fight in that one? [00:28:48] Speaker A: Like remember the only thing, the first [00:28:51] Speaker C: time we see them actually fight in a live action film, the video games. It's done to death. The video games. They are the two iconic characters. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I've seen so many of the cartoons and the little sub movies and things that aren't real movies where they, they fight and do this whole story about, [00:29:09] Speaker A: you know, animated one too. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Because Scorpion thinks that it was Sub Zero that killed his family. But it was actually somebody else posing as the Loy Quay or whatever you, however you pronounce that clan and all kinds of stuff. And I don't know, it's just, it's just been done to death. So it was a cool fight sequence. They made the, their powers and abilities. The spear on the chain looked really cool. I mean it looked realistic. Even though it's not a functioning weapon in reality, it's just as good as the hatchet on a string from Prey. Right. But, but it was fun to watch those fights and everything. It's just, I wanted some other fights. [00:29:44] Speaker C: I don't know the name of it, but isn't a blade on a string? Isn't that a real thing? [00:29:48] Speaker B: They do have a. Yeah, yeah. It's like a shuriken on, on a string. They do have that. And he was using it somewhat. Correct. Oh, that was the other thing. That was the other. So I, I don't know Jiu jitsu, but I have sat in my kids jiu jitsu class for going on six months now. And I gotta tell you, when you have someone in an arm bar, you don't switch positions. You go for the tap out. [00:30:15] Speaker A: Okay. [00:30:15] Speaker B: There were so many times when they had them in like in a lock. It was a win. They had their opponent, and then they just wanted to do some stupid, spiffy move where they flip around for no reason. And there were other times when they could have put them in a finishing move, not a fatality move, but like a real, you know, UFC fighter finishing kind of move. And they don't because they want to do something stupid that Hollywood thinks would look cool. Now, I didn't notice that the first time I saw this movie because I knew absolutely nothing about fighting except watching UFC fights at my mother in law's house. But going into this, after watching jiu jitsu being played out in front of me for six months, like, I'm like, that's not how you do that. That's not how you really fight. And so I would have liked to have seen the choreography and the fight scenes go up a notch to a little bit more realism, especially on, like, when the military people were fighting. When Sonia is spinning around and doing stuff, she pissed me off all the time because she'd get him in a lock or a hold, and then like, no, we need her to swing her ass and tits around a little bit more. So we're gonna make this fight continue and show her off in different ways. It was just. It was just a waste. It was like that. I would have just appreciated more of a clean fight that would look. Looked like real skill going on there. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Out of curiosity, because the only thing I can think of is the Cole Young fight at the very beginning where he has the guy in the armbar and then loses it. Do they do that multiple times? [00:31:42] Speaker B: There was a couple times Sonia fighting some people. Yeah, there were a couple times when they had some actual holds and things like that. And. And they. People would just get out of it for some reason. [00:31:53] Speaker C: No, that's right. If it is just Cole Young, then I might come back, would be. Not that I'm defending this movie, but just, like, isn't the point that he's a shitty fighter? Like, isn't that kind of the whole deal with him, that he just gets [00:32:03] Speaker B: his ass kicked constantly when he is in that? I don't really remember what they call that hole that the fighter had him in. And his sister's like, no, don't tap out. What else is he going to do? He is like. He's crucified, locked with, like, cheeks in his face. He's about to have his arm torn out of his torso. And this is a normal person, not even Goro or somebody. And she's like, don't tap out. I'm like, yeah, buddy, tap Out. You're done. [00:32:30] Speaker C: Yeah, you're done. Unless you can make it to the bell, maybe. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, he' done. He was done before he started in this movie. Not too. [00:32:41] Speaker C: All that for 200. I don't know what fighters normally make. [00:32:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:32:44] Speaker C: But getting your ass kicked that badly for 200. Like, I, like, go work at Burger King. My guy, like, yeah, you. That just seems like a lot of headache for 200. Sorry, Brian. Sorry, Will. Sorry. Go ahead. [00:32:53] Speaker A: No, that's okay. They also provide benefits. I know that for a fact. So Burger King. [00:32:58] Speaker C: Yeah, Okay. [00:32:59] Speaker B: I was gonna say, I just mowed lawns today and made more than 200. I guarantee you there's better ways of making money than getting the kicked out of you. [00:33:07] Speaker C: Yep. [00:33:08] Speaker A: To somewhat counter your Sonia, I'm only shaking my business about. Wasn't that the job of Natara, the winged creature who literally just flew around looking pretty just to get ultimately destroyed in a fatality for no reason? [00:33:29] Speaker B: Well, they wanted the flawless victory. Right. Which was kind of hilarious. I don't know. That fatality was, you know, straight from the video game. And I like the fatality and everything. Even as ridiculous as. As. Ciao. What's his name? Chow Lin. I forget his name. He's got the hat. Even as. Yeah, even as ridiculous as that was, I thought it was kind of funny. It made me chuckle and laugh a little bit. It was a little cheesy, a little over the top. But you're right. Natalia was there to get killed, and that was it. [00:34:03] Speaker C: And. [00:34:03] Speaker B: And they tried, like, I don't know. She was so hideously ugly to me. Her face, her dark winged stuff, the. The necro form of her. So I didn't really see, like, a sexual kind of pose or anything from that. I was too, just kind of grossed out by, like, oh, man, I can't wait till he cuts her in half. [00:34:21] Speaker C: Well, and I don't think she's a character from the game either. So, like, as soon as she shows up, you're like, oh, she's dead. Oh, she's like, there's no way she's sticking around, is she? [00:34:28] Speaker B: She's from the later games. Yeah, like I said, characters. All these people were from the game, but you don't recognize them because you probably dropped off after super duper Mortal Kombat 16 or whatever. [00:34:43] Speaker A: They put in a lot of work to put in, like, little, you know, nods to other characters that weren't in the movie. But on, like, like you said, Sonia's board of Mystery, there was a Couple of nods to characters on that as well. Well, whatever the indigenous guy is, I can't remember. Nighthawk. Night Wolf. There's a picture of him there, right? And a couple of other characters along the way, which is. That's interesting. It's like, oh, it's nice that they're putting in these characters. I just wish they put that much effort into the story making any kind of sense whatsoever. That would be nice. [00:35:19] Speaker C: All characters I'd rather see than Cole Young. Just. Just throw that out there. [00:35:23] Speaker A: Also a fact. Also a fact. Yeah, that was. That was. [00:35:26] Speaker B: What did you guys think of their version of Reptile? They made him way more into a lizard than. Than a man. What'd you guys think of that? Because Red Tile is a classic character from Number two. [00:35:36] Speaker C: I liked the look of him. But if he's intelligent and invisible and has acid blood and giant claws, like, your first strike, your first strike should be lethal. And then they have to worry about dealing with you after that. But, like, he comes in the room, nobody knows he's there, and he just, like, trips somebody and he's like, yeah, he the bed. [00:35:57] Speaker A: Big time. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Right? [00:35:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:00] Speaker B: I. [00:36:00] Speaker A: All I could think of when I saw Reptile was Mortal Kombat Annihilation with the horrible CGI reptile they had in that movie. And then they, like, force him into this weird bug body, and then he turns into a human character for some unknown reason. I was like, which one's worse? [00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah, which one's worse? Because neither. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Cool. But that one was interesting. [00:36:29] Speaker B: Well, I think the silver lining of this reptile was when Kano once again, Kano to save the day. The freaking knife with the flare on him. And he's like, there, now I see you. And then they start kicking his ass. That was cool. I liked it. It was fun. [00:36:45] Speaker A: That was like, the first KANO finisher from, I think, the first game, first [00:36:48] Speaker B: movie, rip the heart out from number one. [00:36:51] Speaker A: And the only time it made sense for a character to say Kano wins, like, he says it to himself, just, like, super funny. Whereas later, when that other guy's like, flawless victory. That was horrible. [00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:04] Speaker C: I hated both of them. I'm not gonna lie. I hated both of those, like, video game call outs. [00:37:08] Speaker B: Like. [00:37:09] Speaker C: Like, just cringe. But I'm glad it worked for you. Most of Kano worked for me. But that one line, I was like, [00:37:14] Speaker A: no, no, that's the thing. It's like, if anybody could get away with it, though. Oh, volcano character. Right? That's. That's all I'm saying. [00:37:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:37:20] Speaker C: I'LL give. I'll give that to you. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Shang Tsung was annoyingly underutilized [00:37:27] Speaker C: in this movie I didn't like. Again, not really a tournament, but, like, Kung Lao is pretty competent the entire time. And then Shining Songs is like. And just sucks the solid instantly. Like, there's no fight. There's no prep time. Didn't weaken him. His minions didn't weaken him. It's like, oh, you can just do that whenever you want. Oh, like any of these other guys. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Why aren't you just sucking everybody off and calling it a day? [00:37:57] Speaker B: I said it. I'll say it again. [00:38:00] Speaker C: Yeah, well, after last week's mustache ride, we can paint a picture. Oh, Lord. All right, tell me I'm wrong. If you like what we do and you want to help support us, consider joining our Patreon. There's a link down below. Thank you to our producers as well as our executive producer, Dino. And a huge shout out to our head writers, Elder Jam990, Ms. Hillary, and Real Bubba Hotep. Thank you all very much. [00:38:31] Speaker B: Am I supposed to be doing something right now? [00:38:33] Speaker C: You're on big screen, so feel free to say your review. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Sorry, I don't know. [00:38:39] Speaker C: All right, I love. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Stop. [00:38:42] Speaker B: No. [00:38:42] Speaker C: I love how we've been doing this show for two years, and you still have no idea what's going on at any given time. Like, Will. Will go full screen at the beginning. Like, oh, am I not talking? Is What's. What's Will doing there? Here's the Patreon thing. Like, we have a Patreon big screen for you after the Patreon. What am I doing right now? We're scoring these. [00:39:04] Speaker B: I was actually thinking about. I was supposed to talk about the scoreboard at the beginning. I was like, does Dan want me to talk about the scoreboard now? [00:39:11] Speaker A: Anytime. [00:39:13] Speaker C: I give you so little to do, and you still managed to not hit the bar. I love you so much, buddy. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Okay, what can I say about Mortal Kombat? You watch this movie because you maybe love the game. I can't think of any other reason to watch this movie. This movie came in at a 53 for me. It's barely watchable, and I only recommend it if you're a huge fan of the video game and hopefully Dan's happy and the sequel will be what this movie wasn't. But unfortunately, I think it's going to be more. With Will's idea that it's going to be more of a movie. We don't Want to watch? We'll have to see. Tune in next time. For me, right now, this one's a 53. I think the redeeming qualities for this were just some of the choreography, some of the special effects, some of the sounds were kind of cool. But the plot, man, the plot was just one of the worst we've ever seen. [00:40:14] Speaker C: Yeah. So unfortunately, there's not a lot to say about this movie that's good. I think the opening scene with Scorpion Sub Zero I actually like quite a bit. The ending fights between the two of them is pretty okay as well, but the opening definitely outshadows it. And then other than that, the look of this is pretty decent. Like, most of these characters look like I think they're supposed to. They act so somewhat like I think they're supposed to. And the choreography is decent. It's not good, but it's okay. It's passable. Other than that, like, honestly, Kano makes this watchable. Like, Kano steals the show and makes it fun. Like, like if we were laughing, it's because of Kano. If we were enjoying ourselves, it was because of Kano. If we're engaged, it's probably because of Kano. And they killed him before the end of the movie. So good job on that. I we see him coming back to life somehow in the next one. Like, somehow Kano has returned. Okay, good. You recognize the problem that you killed your most exciting and interesting character. Well done on that. But I don't know why we're following around this character. That's not important to the game, not important to the franchise, not very interesting. Hopefully in the sequel they fix that as well by having Johnny Cage be the main character. Although admittedly, Johnny Cage is not my favorite character either, but it's Carl Urban, so I'll give it somewhat of a pass. I did not enjoy this movie very much, but for some reason, it gives me hope that the next one will be better. I I It's weird because usually the sequels are worse, but it feels like this is building up things so that the next movie will be what ironically this movie should have been, which is the Mortal Kombat tournament. If that's true, next week might go up significantly, but right here, right now, more compensating. A59 for me, it's just not very good. [00:41:44] Speaker A: I was thinking to myself, what is the genre of this, this movie? You know, it's an action movie, but I think at this point there's like a action movie based on video games, like, or, or just content based on Video games. Because you've got actually quite good content now from video games onto screen. Most notably probably season one of the Last of Us and the first season of Fallout. They were actually quite enjoyable. I can't say the same about this movie. The writing is just so atrocious. And for some unknown reason throwing in a completely original character makes zero sense for this specific movie. I think they get away with it in like Fallout. This. They do not. They do not. They. You can't explain it away at all. Enough. No reason. No way in hell. Frozen over by Sub Zero that this should have ever been made the way it was. And so that immediately took me out of this movie. And I don't even know the lore of Mortal Kombat. I very well could have. There could have been a Cole Young for all I know. I've only played a couple of the games and just, you know, not even the story. Just beating people up. And I was like, I don't think this is right. And I'm not even a huge fan. And so it immediately takes you out of the movie. And then the Choreo is just not good enough. The CGI sometimes is. There are some neat tricks they do. The highlight for me was the the spewing blood out of out of Scorpion that Sub Zero then freezes into a secondary blade. Thought that was a pretty cool move. Unfortunately, that doesn't do enough for me. Kano was funny. He wasn't in it enough to make it worth it. 45 out of 100. Don't watch this movie. Go watch the 95 movie because at least you'll have fun with the cheesy corniness of it. This one takes itself way too serious for the cheesy corny fun. [00:43:53] Speaker C: And with that we see Mortal Kombat coming off the score of 59, 53 and 45, for a grand total of 52. I think this might be our first movie to debut in the bottom half of our list. This is coming in between Green well tied with Greenland and coming in just above Anchorman. What do you guys think about this? Do you think there's any potential this climbs high enough to make it into the top half? Or is this doomed in the pit? [00:44:19] Speaker B: Well, I think whoever suggested this franchise should probably just leave our rating altogether. [00:44:28] Speaker C: No, it's been fun. [00:44:31] Speaker B: Now that wouldn't have an editor. All right. No, I, I. This is. This is accurate. It's accurate. Like this is where it should be. I'm sorry. This movie sucks. It's not good. And I don't have high hopes for the next one. [00:44:48] Speaker A: I. I agree. I don't have high hopes for the next one. They got Kano right. And they. I think they will learn from that. That. And that's why Urban's gonna come in there and be pretty much a carbon copy of that. And that will be fun to watch. [00:45:08] Speaker B: That's true. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Still gonna be a disaster, I think, because the story they've set up is a disaster so that I don't think they can fix that. Right. Like, Cole Young is gonna be a horrible character no matter what. And we can't fix that unless they kill him. Maybe they'll kill him. We can hope they kill him. That's. [00:45:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I just. I hope. I hope Cole Young just isn't in there. [00:45:34] Speaker A: Yeah, no, he is. He's definitely there. He's like, I'm gonna go find. I'm gonna go find Cage. We're gonna make this happen. [00:45:42] Speaker B: That's not good, huh? Well, that was our rating of Mortal Kombat. What was your rating? Leave a comment below. And while you're down there, be sure to hit that like and subscribe button for more episode episodes of R rating. Next week we'll be back with Mortal Kombat 2, unfortunately, and we're going to be going over that movie to see if this franchise got any better or if it just gets worse.