There Is A New Mortal Kombat Movie Coming Out On HBO MAX In April And This Time It Will Be Rated-R With Fatalities In It
Yahoo- Iconic video game franchise Mortal Kombat is getting another movie adaptation this year, and it sounds as though it's going to be a lot more faithful than previous attempts. Ahead of the release in theaters and on HBO Max on April 16, first-time film director Simon McQuoid spoke with Entertainment Weekly and teased what fans can expect. Unlike the '90s Mortal Kombat movies, the new one will keep the notorious violence of the games.
"It's definitely not gonna get a PG-13 rating," said McQuoid. "Out of context this quote might seem incendiary, it's not: The rules around ratings aren't what a lot of people think they are. It's amount of blood, it's amount of red, it's interpretation of how you go about it. We had a lot of discussions about getting the balance right so there was gore and there was blood and there were fatalities."
I couldn't tell you the first or last thing about the first Mortal Kombat movie from 1995 outside of me being excited about see all the carnage from the game on the silver screen and then leaving the theater with the typical sense of disappointment that usually comes with watching a movie based on a video game. That was due to a myriad of factors being bad including things like the story and the acting.
But the clearest problem with the movie was the lack of gore. Sweet, beautiful, wonderful gore that put Mortal Kombat on the map of every teenage kid back in the 90s. That's what separated MK from Street Fighter II, which was a better game in terms of looks and feel and characters and everything else in my humble opinion. But for as good as Street Fighter II was, you couldn't virtually murder your friends/family in it like you could in Mortal Kombat. Every self respecting Genesis owner knew the blood code by heart (ABACABB "GET OVER HERE") while Super Nintendo owners weren't as lucky since Nintendo pussed out and didn't allow blood, which made the game about as good as the first movie.
Anyway, it's nice to see it appears that the new Mortal Kombat movie will right the wrongs of the 95 flick by putting red plasma back where it belongs since a Mortal Kombat movie without fatalities is like an NBA Jam movie without dunks. The important things is that they do it not just by adding blood and deaths at the end of fights into the movie, but by adding the original, entertaining, Mortal Kombat-style deaths at the end of fights into the movie. Sub Zero ripping off a dude's head along with his spine or Kano ripping out a still beating heart were legitimate revolutionary moments when they hit the arcade in 1992 (Sidenote: Almost 30 years ago? Please kill me via your favorite fatality ASAP). And based on what I've seen in the newer games, the level of creativity has only gotten better since we have fatalities like Johnny Cage recreating the "Heeeeere's Johnny" scene from The Shining by looking through a vanquished opponents chest cavity.
No matter how much blood and guts and fatalities are in this movie, odds are it will almost definitely be bad. But the important thing is what type of bad will it be? If it's bad, you won't be out $10+ for a ticket, $20 for concessions, and can scroll on your phone the entire time since it's on HBO MAX. But if it's a good bad, you will get some senseless and gratuitous violence along with some cool ass fatalities, which is pretty much what the entire Mortal Kombat empire was built on.
TL;DR- Fatalities fucking rule
Since it's Friday and we need something to push us into the weekend, here is a video with every fatality ever to kill the work day.
Also by mere coincidence, last night I watched the movie Insert Coin which is a documentary about the company (Midway) that made Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and a bunch of other arcade classics. Definitely check it out on iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon Prime if you were a fan of some of the best games back in the day.
Once you are done, check out The Dog Walk where Eddie had one of the programmers from Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam on. Really cool stuff.
Alright that's enough content to run out the clock on the work week you slacker. Let's call it a day and have some fun this weekend!