Eventually, studios and filmmakers will crack the code of video game movies. We’ve arrived at a time where there are more good superhero movies than bad ones, but for decades superhero movies could never figure out how faithful they should be to the source material and how much they should try to appeal to the uninitiated. Video game movies are in a trickier position because while superheroes had decades of narratives to pull from, video games sometimes don’t even have stories (what is the narrative ofPac-Man?) and only as technology has improved have games put more effort into crafting compelling characters and plots rather than using them as the thinnest premise for the gameplay.
And yet even as video games have put more effort into their stories, movies adapting those games have struggled with bringing them to the big screen. TheAssassin’s Creedgames have a vast mythology that allows them to span eras, but the 2016 movie was largely a dud.Tomb Raider, which released moves back when the games had thin stories and a reboot when the games got more plot-heavy, struggled to really figure out how to translate the franchise’s appeal from one medium to another. Even a hit likeSonic the Hedgehogmakes the bizarre decision to take a character whose defining trait is speed and stick him in a car for most of the film.
But way back in 1995, directorPaul W.S. Andersonmanaged to figure out how to take a thin video game plot and make it into a fun movie withMortal Kombat. Bizarrely, Anderson would go on to then take the horror seriesResident Eviland basically make it into an action franchise, but that’s another story for another time. WithMortal Kombat, he walked the line of taking the video game seriously enough that there would be references for fans, but also understanding you needed some kind of narrative that would appeal to people who had never played the violent video game.
RELATED:Get Over Here! you may Listen to the New ‘Mortal Kombat’ Movie’s Techno Syndrome Theme Right Now
The solution, with a screenplay credited toKevin Droney, was to basically rip off the 1973Bruce LeeclassicEnter the Dragon. For those who have never seen it, the plot is that there’s a criminal overlord who runs a martial arts tournament, and in order to take down that criminal overlord, various martial arts good guys go the tournament, but they each have their own personal reason for competing. This plotline grafts well onto the game, where the stakes were that you needed to “win” Mortal Kombat to prevent the forces of Outworld from taking over Earth. The challenge was how you fit such colorful characters into that framework.
Anderson correctly figured that the more you tried to explain these people, the worse off you would be. Taking time to explain why Kano has a metal eye or why Sub-Zero can control ice doesn’t add to your story, and only emphasizes the ridiculousness of what’s going on. It’s far better to accept them at face value and hope that an audience member who has never playedMortal Kombatrides with it. Anderson wisely uses this latitude to let the film be as fun as possible, like a scene where Johnny Cage and Scorpion are fighting and then are transported to some kind of hell dimension made of up cobwebs and ladders. Where is this dimension? How did Johnny Cage get out of it when he defeated Scorpion? Where did he get the autographed photo he used for his fatality like he does in the game? It doesn’t matter!
This willingness to embrace the silliness of its premise is what makes 1995’sMortal Kombatso much fun. Rather than turning away from the more outlandish aspects of the game, it leans into them, and trusts that the audience will stay with it. Naturally, there will always be audience members inclined to pick apart every element of a film that doesn’t have some tortured explanation, butMortal Kombatknows how to be breezy and work from its simple plotline to give people the fights they’re looking for. It’s a testament to how well the film works that these fights remain PG-13 despite being an adaptation of a game known for its R-rated violence. In this way,Mortal Kombatstrayed from the source material, but still gave fans enough of what they wanted to feel like a true adaptation.
It’s not thatMortal Kombatis a “great” movie. It’s cheesy, the acting is wooden, and the final scene makes no sense, but it doesn’t matter because on some level,Mortal Kombatknows what it is, and doesn’t feel ashamed of it. It’s not trying to “elevate” the game nor is it trying to make a buck so quickly that it completely disregards what people like about the source material. Instead, it walks the line between two competing audiences—fans and everyone else—and manages to make something that serves both. Even if you had never playedMortal Kombat, you understood the concept of a martial arts tournament and evil forces that want to take over the Earth. 1995’sMortal Kombatdidn’t need to be amazing; it just had to be fun, and as the years have shown, that’s been a high bar most video game movies fail to clear.
KEEP READING:Director Simon McQuoid on How the New ‘Mortal Kombat’ Is Inspired by Korean Cinema
