As a video game lover in my mid 30’s, a lot of time in college, was spent in arcades and playing Super Nintendo in my dorm room. On my way back from class, I’d stop at the university center and see a group of people huddled around one particular machine…MORTAL KOMBAT II. This game was fighting realism like we’d never seen before. The people…looked like people…there was blood…there were realistic screams and voices. The fatalities took the game to the next level. If the authentic fighting styles weren’t enough, the ability to completely annihilate your opponent after the fight was your selling point. I came to this machine almost every day…never played it, just watched along with 30 other people and waited patiently…for my chance to play it on a home gaming system. Thus, my love affair with Mortal Kombat was official.
The franchise began to sky rocket through pop culture, first with a major motion picture featuring Christopher F***ing Lambert as Raiden, the games most popular character. This movie was great, cheesy at points yes, but a good movie none the less. It was followed up by another substandard movie and two short lived television series. The video game franchise continued on and teases of another major motion picture kept surfacing – but never ever manifested.
Today – something wonderful was brought to my attention. The above teaser for Mortal Kombat: Rebirth. Now…after viewing the teaser – some people are upset that the mythical portion of MK is absent. That they are making this movie too real…Well folks…if you remember – the early 90’s also spawned a cheesy Batman movie franchise – but was later re-made as a darker grittier almost too real interpretation of one of the most famous comic book characters ever. Both movies were critically acclaimed and The Dark Knight went on to become the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. Taking this direction with Mortal Kombat is a brilliant idea, make it more real, and give us a darker version of a timeless classic. This video getting released so close to E3 makes me think it’s for real and our friends over at CHUD have pretty much confirmed it. Michael Jai White, Jeri Ryan….I mean…need I say any more??? Please…Please make this movie!
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