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Video game movies don’t exactly have the greatest reputation. In fact, some of the worst films ever made were video game adaptations (i.e. pretty much anything by Uwe Boll). However, one of the few shining beacons of the genre is 1995’s Mortal Kombat, which managed to keep the spirit of the game intact, while also being a good film in its own right.
Then, after the abysmal sequel Mortal Kombat Annihilation in 1997, the franchise lay dormant until Mortal Kombat (2021). Unfortunately, the film wasn’t great either. It was overly self-serious, added unnecessary new characters, and made bad changes to the lore. Even more unfortunately, it was commercially successful. Warner Bros. is reportedly moving ahead with a whole Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe. There are some changes a sequel could make that would put it back on the right track.
Spoilers for Mortal Kombat (2021)
9 Show The Tournament!
One of the most unfathomable decisions that the 2021 Mortal Kombat film makes is that there’s no Mortal Kombat in it. To be fair, the lack of an actual MK tournament isn’t entirely unfathomable. The ’95 original made such an undeniable impression in pop culture, so much so that the famous “Techno Syndrome” theme song comes from the film, not the games, that it makes sense that the new film would try to carve its own path.
The issue is that the path they chose was to simply be a prelude to the tournament, constantly mentioning it in dialogue, giving the whole movie a “when are we getting to the fireworks factory” feel. If it had forgone the tournament entirely, it might’ve worked, since only a couple of games in the franchise have it anyway. But since the film gives it so much weight so far, it would be disastrous not to include it in the next film at this point.
8 Set The Film In Outworld
The new Mortal Kombat sequel could stand out from the ’90s Mortal Kombat films by being set in Outworld like in the Mortal Kombat II game. The ’95 movie was based on the first game, so it took place on Shang Tsung’s lush island, located between the realms.
Then the film’s sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation skipped the plot of Mortal Kombat II entirely to focus on the story from MK3 (where Shao Kahn used Sindel to merge the realms illegally).Audiences got glimpses of Outworld in both films, but they’re always brief. Furthermore, neither contain any iconic game stages like The Deadpool or The Living Forest.
7 Better Fight Scenes
Probably the most unforgivable problem with the 2021 Mortal Kombat film is that the fight scenes were simply subpar. If there’s one thing not to mess up in a Mortal Kombat film of all things, it’s the fight scenes. That’s not to say they were terrible – the actors and stunt performers were obviously putting it in the work, and it shows. But unfortunately, it had the modern action movie problem of framing everything too close, lighting it too dark, and editing too quickly. The original ’90s films predated both Blade and The Matrix in bringing Hong Kong-style wire-fu to mainstream Hollywood, so something closer to that style – or a least pulling the camera back and editing less frantically – would be great to see in the sequel.
6 No More Cole Young
No offense to star Lewis Tan, who did his best in a thankless audience surrogate role as Cole Young, but Cole is probably the biggest problem with the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie. He’s as interesting as a default Kreate-a-Fighter, and with just as much personality. And while Tan has done well in other roles – and, even better, knows how to fight – he’s wasted in this role and this franchise.
5 Finally Bring Back Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage, the egotistical movie star-turned-Earthrealm champion, is a fan favorite for a reason. For one, he arguably has one of the biggest character arcs in the Mortal Kombat franchise, outside of maybe Scorpion. He also has some of the most iconic moves in the game, such as The Shadow Kick and, of course, The Nut Punch.
He was also the highlight in the ’95 Mortal Kombat movie, thanks in large part to actor Linden Ashby’s charisma, comedic timing, and ad-libs (including the famous “Those were $500 sunglasses” line). It’s that kind of levity that was mostly missing the 2021 movie, other than Kano, who was the highlight for this reason. But with Kano dead, Cage seems like he’d be a worthy replacement.
4 Make Liu Kang The Chosen One Again
With the sequel hopefully minimizing Cole Young’s role and importance, it would be imperative to make Liu Kang the de-facto Chosen One of the Mortal Kombat universe once more. And after the 2021 film changed the game’s lore by having Liu Kang’s Shaolin Monk comrade Kung Lao killed by the villain Shang Tsung, it gives Kang an edge and motivation that’s stronger than Cole’s at this point.
That’s not to say Liu Kang has to be the main character, per se. The new Mortal Kombat sequel could pull a Big Trouble in Little China where Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton was the main character, but the actual hero was Dennis Dun’s Wang Chi, by focusing on Cage as the POV character and Kang as the hero who saves the day in the end. This kind of homage would be extra fitting, given how characters like Raiden and Shang Tsung were lifted straight from that film.
3 Bi-Han Should Become Noob Saibot
Noob Saibot first appeared as a secret character in Mortal Kombat II, where he was just a ninja sprite painted completely black with no backstory to speak of. It was then rumored by fans, and confirmed by subsequent games, that he is in fact Bi-Han – the original Sub-Zero who was killed by Scorpion in the first Mortal Kombat tournament – returned as an undead revenant. This would fit perfectly with the arc set up for Bi-Han/Sub-Zero in the 2021 Mortal Kombat film. Shang Tsung even alludes to it as Han’s dead body is engulfed by black smoke, saying “death is just another portal”, foreshadowing Han’s undead return.
2 Meanwhile, Kuai Liang Should Become New Sub-Zero
With Bi-Han’s fate as Noob Saibot all but certain at his point, especially since actor Joe Taslim was signed for four pictures before the first movie even released, that leaves the role of Sub-Zero vacant for his younger brother Kuai Liang to take over in the sequel. This is what happens both in the games’ lore and also in the original ’90s films as well, with actor Keith Cooke playing Liang in Mortal Kombat Annihilation.
However, with Han being alive in Feudal Japan centuries earlier (a detail created for the 2021 movie), the film’s sequel has its work cut out for it trying to make the timeline of Han having a living little brother make sense.
1 Recontextualize Arcana
The idea of “Arcana” severely undermines one of the most interesting aspects of Mortal Kombat as a property. Mortal Kombat’s big appeal is the clash of styles, with ninjas fighting cyborgs fighting cyborg ninjas fighting monsters fighting monster ninjas and everything in-between. Arcana flattens all that by giving all the characters the same origin.
Obviously, it’s too late to change Arcana from the film’s lore – but it could be re-contextualized. Maybe it’s not the only way to gain powers It’s never confirmed that Bi-Han had Arcana, for instance. Characters like Nightwolf could get their powers from The Great Spirit like in the games. There’s also nothing stopping a Mortal Kombat sequel from introducing characters who are just good at fighting and technology and don’t need superpowers to compete at all.
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